Peres and Sharon: Pragmatic Alliance
November 30, 2005, 4:48 pm |
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Shimon Peres, long-time Israeli Labour Party leader, announced today that he will throw his support to Ariel Sharon, long-time but now ex-Likud Party leader. Talk about seismic shifts in Israeli politics. But, pragmatically, this is not all so surprising.
The beauty of democracy is that it is self-correcting, and tends to favor the middle of the political spectrum. Sharon’s Likud Party moved too far to the right for him. And Peres’s Labour Party just elected Amir Peretz, who, according to James Reynolds,
…is, without any doubt, old Labour and old Israel. He wants his country to rediscover its roots as a socialist state.
The Jewish state has made too great of economic strides to go back to the “old Israel.”
Sharon angered his party by withdrawing from Gaza, but I would argue that his decision was pragmatic. By leaving Gaza, Sharon hoped to strengthen Israel proper, and ensure it has defensible borders under any future peace accords. Defending settlements was costly and difficult. Sharon also gave “world opinion” what it has been clamoring for, an end to “occupation.” Post-withdrawal Palestinian chaos in Gaza has shown the spotlight on how ineffective the Palestinian Authority really is.
So, all-in-all, an alliance between Sharon and Peres is to be expected, and is merely a sign that Israeli voters want both peace with Palestinians, and security from terrorism — without allowing Arabs to commit another genocide.
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