Canadian Polemic

Shocking news from Israel last night - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has resigned from the leadership and the ranks of his ruling Likud Party in order to start a new, more moderate party that'll be called "National Responsibility". Oh, and he took a good 30% of the sitting Likud MKs with him, for good measure. This is totally unprecedented, as far as I can tell - can you imagine the leader of a national party in Canada, a national governing party, up and quitting, starting his own party and calling for early elections? Zowie.

Presumably, Sharon is hoping that his personal popularity will translate into plenty of seats, and therefore an easier time of finding a mandate to pursue further withdrawal efforts and peace attempts with the Palestinians. Whether or not that will happen, though, is another question. I was speaking to one of my friends today, who hails from Israel, and he was noting that what might happen is a consolidation of the hardline right-wing parties (which, if you look here, seems entirely possible), as well as a splitting of the vote on the left (National Responsibility and Labour, among others).

It's hard to say how it'll turn out, but it's certainly turned the Israeli political landscape on its head, and a new poll suggests that 37% of Israelis back Sharon as PM, followed by 22% for Labour Leader Amir Peretz and 15% for the as-of-yet-unnamed Likud leader. The ingredients for a strong, left-wing coalition dedicated to peace are there - whether they will culminate effectively into action is yet to be determined.