What Might Have Been?

The Daily Beast has a lengthy article about Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was left incapacitated after a stroke more than four years ago. It suggests that things might have been significantly different had he not suffered the stroke; particularly the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and relations with the Arab world.

I think it's an absolute given, but not necessarily for the reasons stated.

The article claims that Sharon had relented to the fact that there must be a 2-state solution, but it seems to ignore the possibility that Sharon might have chosen to retaliate far sooner to the Hamas terrorism in the form of thousands of kassams and mortars fired at Israel from the very territory that Sharon disengaged from; Gaza.

Early and prompt action from Israel could have short circuited the terrorism before it gained fertile ground in Gaza enabling Hamas to overwhelm Fatah and assume control over Gaza. His successor, Ehud Olmert, failed miserably to deal with the terror threat, and when he did- both in the Hizbullah War and Operation Cast Lead, allowed political constraints to dictate the terms of Israel's military campaign, and not the military objectives of destroying Hizbullah (or Hamas) and their military capabilities. Both groups remain a mortal threat to Israel's existence, and both are preparing for the next phase of their war against Israel at the time and place of their choosing.

That there is no peace process is a direct result of the fact that Israel doesn't have a partner in peace among the Palestinians. Both Hamas and Fatah seek Israel's destruction, furthering propaganda aims to indoctrinate the latest generation of Palestinians to refuse anything less than Israel's destruction by any and all means, including forcing Israel to assume a right of return that would simply overwhelm Israel by sheer force of numbers.

All the while, Israel's concessions from the time of disengagement to now have been to remove Israelis from territory where Jews have lived for centuries. That is a most odious form of ethnic cleansing and one that shows the lengths to which the peace process has become a farce. The Palestinians simply refuse to accept Jews living in their midst, and instead demand all of Israel, not merely a return to pre-1967 borders.

In fact, the Palestinians have twice been offered nearly all of the West Bank plus Gaza and other territorial concessions, but have refused to even make a counter proposal. The Palestinians instead engaged in terrorism and an intifada. That is not a sign of a peace partner, but rather a party tied to Israel's destruction.

Get Ready For New Israeli Elections?

Unless the Israeli religious party Shas cooperates with Kadima, Israel is going to need new elections because Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni isn't able to cobble together a coalition government.

Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party refused to join a coalition government Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is seeking to assemble, increasing the chance of a general election in early 2009.

``It has been decided not to join the government,'' Roi Lachmanovich, a spokesman for Shas leader Eli Yishai, said in a telephone interview today. ``The decision is final.''

The rebuff came after Livni late yesterday said she'll announce on Oct. 26 whether she expects to form a government and take over as prime minister or ask President Shimon Peres to call early elections. Shas's 12 seats in the 120-person parliament could give her the support she needs for a majority.

Shas's refusal may be an effort to squeeze better terms out of Livni, said Gideon Doron, a political-science professor at Tel Aviv University. ``This could be the beginning of serious negotiations,'' he said. The deadline is Nov. 3 before Peres calls elections or assigns another party leader to assemble a coalition.

Livni's Kadima Party has failed to meet the two main Shas demands, said Lachmanovich. These are an increase in welfare payments for children and a commitment not to negotiate with the Palestinians over Jerusalem.

Israel operates with a parliamentary system; 120 seats are divided among the political parties in an election. It takes a majority to form a government and no political party in the nation's history has been able to govern without a coalition. This means that the leading political party has to cobble together a coalition from many disparate elements. Several times the nation's two biggest parties have formed a coalition government rather than hold new elections, but this time, it looks like Kadima isn't going to pull a rabbit out of its hat although Livni may try to pull in other parties to make up the number necessary.

Kadima, founded by Ariel Sharon, was run into the ground by Ehud Olmert, who was forced to resign in disgrace because of his ongoing corruption investigations. Livni won party elections putting her at the top of the ticket (each party votes for a slate of people who will get seated in the Knesset depending on the outcome of general elections).

New elections would also mean the death knell of the current efforts to concede much of the West Bank and Jerusalem to the Palestinians with nothing in return except a promise not to attack. Palestinian flacks will claim righteous indignation over how the Israelis are undermining the peace process, even as their fellow Palestinians continue plotting and carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Israel Prepping For New Gaza Offensive?

Well, some reports are suggesting as much. I predicted as much a couple of days ago, given the murder of two Israelis in rocket attacks this past week, and that was before the rocket attack on Ashkelon that injured 15 people when an Iranian-made Grad rocket slammed into a health clinic at a shopping center.

President Bush, in his speech before the Knesset today, spoke of a Middle East free of oppression. Fine words, but unless you're willing to fight for it and stave off the likes of Hizbullah with more than rhetoric, it simply will not happen. That article, courtesy of the AP's Jennifer Loven, couldn't help but show its disgust with Israel's very existence at every turn - throwing heaping scorn on the fact that President Bush chose not to speak about the Palestinians at length and instead focused on Israel and its achievements.

Considering that the Palestinians have been hellbent on war with Israel, and have been carrying out a rocket war against Israel since 2005, that they refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, seek to carve up Jerusalem, and whose end game is to destroy Israel, President Bush was more than justified to ignore the Palestinians in his speech - especially in light of yesterday's terror attack that injured 15 Israelis at a health clinic.

Where's the outrage over the incessant rocket attacks? Where's the daily count of rockets slamming into Israel, along with the running tally of Israelis injured or killed by those kassams, mortars, and now Iranian grad missiles?

You want scorn? I'll give you scorn. When you openly shill for terrorists, you get nothing but. The Palestinians have repeatedly passed up chances for peace, and have engaged in war thereafter. Today is no different. It's time that Israel and the US respond in kind, instead of offering up still more concessions that are seen as nothing but weakness.

Even as President Bush was speaking at the Knesset, more rockets slammed into Israel. No matter how much Israeli leaders say that they strive for peace, they simply lack a partner in peace who sees the same goal - the Palestinians say they want peace, but not with Israel's existence at the end of the day. Abbas and Hamas both reaffirmed their unending desire to overwhelm Israel with the demand for a right of return.

Meanwhile, US presidential candidate Barack Obama complains that Bush suggested that Obama's policies would be nothing more than appeasement. The truth hurts, and Obama's policies are nothing more than appeasement. When you have no problem taking endorsements from Hamas, have no problem sitting down to talk with genocidal thugs who seek Armageddon and the destruction of Israel, and while offering up platitudes about bonds with Israel put staffers on the payroll who are openly hostile to Israel, I'd say that President Bush characterized your position just right.

UPDATE:
To press home the fact that concessions by Israel, including the unilateral disengagement from Gaza have real world consequences, the Grad rocket that slammed into Ashkelon was fired from the abandoned Israeli settlement of Dugit in Gaza.

The Iranian-supplied Grad-type rocket fired at an Ashkelon mall Wednesday was launched from the former Gaza Jewish fishing village of Dugit, which was evacuated and destroyed by Israel in the 2005 Disengagement for the stated purpose of strengthening Israel's security.

Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Muhammad Abdel-Al told World Net Daily Wednesday that the attack, which wounded dozens, including children, was launched from Dugit, located along the coast in northern Gaza.

Dugit’s residents, mostly secular Jews who made a living fishing in the Mediterranean, left reluctantly, but without a struggle in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his diplomatic plan to unilaterally withdraw the IDF from Gaza and destroy all the Jewish towns there. More than 9,000 residents were evicted from their homes in the operation.

Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and it has been used as a terrorist launching pad ever since. Israel has not had a day of peace since 2005's withdrawal. You cannot claim that Israel occupies Gaza - there are no Israelis living there. It is completely free of any Jews. Hamas operates in Gaza with impunity. They are the controlling faction, and nothing goes on there without Hamas approval.

It also highlights the nonsensical ravings about how settlements are the obstacle to peace. Israel withdrew from Gaza, and it wasn't enough; and the Palestinians aren't using the settlement housing for themselves, but rather as terrorist bases of operation. It will never be enough for the Palestinians until Israel is destroyed.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin suggests that Obama should calm down, but if the shoe fits... Bob Owens notes that it would be a whole lot more believable if Obama's political career wasn't launched in the homes of Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Ed Morrissey also weighs in.

Olmert Says He'll Resign If Indicted

How nice of him to consider resigning under those conditions. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who took over the Kadima party when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was stricken with an incapacitating stroke, has been a serious failure ever since. His waffling led to serious failures to deal with the Hizbullah threat in Lebanon. His refusal to deal decisively with the rocket war has meant that Southern Israel lives under the shadow of kassams and rockets fired on a near daily basis. That's the normalcy that Olmert has projected.

Through it all, Olmert has remained in power. This, despite the failure to deal with Hizbullah and the failure to deal with the Palestinian rocket war against Israel wasn't sufficient. If a criminal indictment against him personally is filed, then he'll go.

I guess we have yet more evidence that the only thing he cared about was his own skin, and no more.

Terrorists Continue Rocket War Against Israel

Why should anyone call this anything other than a war? Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist groups continue firing rockets into Israel, and do so on a daily basis. They aren't going to stop unless Israel forces them to stop or the Palestinians run out of sewer pipes to convert into rockets.

Hamas says the attacks will continue, and blames the West for the tensions between Fatah and Hamas. The West would love nothing more but to see the Palestinians stop fighting, both with themselves and with Israel, and yet Fatah and Hamas have no problem going after each other because they want to be the sole voice of the Palestinian people and do not brook dissent.

He added that armed resistance was what would bring about an end to the occupation and was what had caused former prime minister Ariel Sharon to pull out of the Gaza Strip and his predecessor Ehud Barak to leave Lebanon.

"Under occupation, people don't ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," he said. "The occupiers always have the means to hurt the people they control. The Palestinians have only modest means, so they defend themselves however they can."

It's most curious that Hamas' Meshaal says that. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and all the Palestinians have done since then is turn the place into a disaster zone. The PA has ignored basic infrastructure, causing cesspool collapses, destroyed infrastructure left by Israel such as greenhouses or used them as terror training facilities, and anarchy reigns in Gaza. Whoever has the most guns gets to decide what happens, and thus far it is Hamas that has dominated the situation there. For Hamas, the occupation includes all of Israel - regardless of where the diplomats draw the lines and borders. No map including a state of Israel is acceptable to Hamas.

And the US needs to stop supporting any efforts to train or supply the Palestinian Authority. All that does is provide equipment and training for terrorists:

A long-wanted terrorist chief captured this week by Israeli forces was trained by the US, served in a senior capacity on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' US-backed security detail, and was a ranking member of a team that received and distributed American arms shipments the past two years, the WND has learned.

Khaled Shawish, an officer in Abbas' Force 17 presidential guards, was arrested Sunday by undercover Israeli police forces following scores of shooting attacks Shawish is suspected of carrying out.

I can understand why some in the State Department might think that supporting Fatah makes sense when the alternative is Hamas, but this kind of phony realpolitik undermines US national security and strategic interests in the region. Fatah has no interest in peace with Israel, and has repeatedly refused to hold up its end of repeated deals on security with Israel.

UPDATE:
Predictably, CNN headlines that Israel strikes at Gaza, rather than focusing on the Hamas rocket fire that precipitated the latest Israeli response.

An Israeli airstrike killed two members of Hamas' military wing early Wednesday, Palestinian security sources said, as Israel kept up pressure on Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza.

Meanwhile, in an effort to defuse the latest flare-up in tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will meet next week, Olmert's office said in a statement released Tuesday. The precise date and location has yet to be determined.

The latest Israeli air raid occurred shortly after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday (6:30 p.m. Tuesday ET), east of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, the security sources said. Two people were killed and one person was wounded, hospital sources said.

The strike came a day after an attack on what an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said was a Hamas training facility in southern Gaza. No injuries were reported from that attack.

UPDATE:
Have no fear, the UN Security Council is here; they want the kassam rocket attacks to stop. What is the UN going to do, use harsh language?

I have no doubt that they're going to push for Israel to make concessions such as ending the defensive engagements with Hamas thugs in Gaza, the arrest of Hamas leaders, or the airstrikes against the rocket teams, in order to get Hamas to stop firing rockets on a daily basis. The UN will likely accept firing every other day and force Israel to do so. The logic behind my opinion is simple - there's no way that the UN will force the terrorist group Hamas to comply. It will not send in troops to stop Hamas. It will not open fire on the terrorists, despite the terrorists repeatedly firing on Israeli civilians.

Cop Out

Did Time magazine have trouble trying to figure out the person of the year and voted for everyone, which is another way of saying that they voted for no one?

Here are a couple of other people who could have been chosen as Person of the Year for their contributions and/or impact on the world:

Charles Schumer - for being the money man behind the Democrat return to power in the Senate.

Nancy Pelosi - for managing to herd cats and knock off the GOP in the House.

George Bush - embattled and still fighting the war on terror as he thinks it must be fought, despite the lagging popularity of the war and the negative view of him personally.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - the genocidal intentioned thug in charge in Iran. Run Holocaust denial conferences? Check. Call for destruction of Israel? Check. Work towards obtaining nuclear weapons? Check. Watching the UN flail about uselessly? Priceless.

Ariel Sharon - his policy of disengagement meant withdrawing Israel from Gaza and how do the Palestinians respond to this action, and Sharon's subsequent incapacitating stroke? They start a war, and are soon joined by Hizbullah who drags Lebanon into a war.

Nasrallah - the Hizbullah thug in charge who unilaterally pulled Lebanon into a devastating war with Israel and who now seeks to take over Lebanon by trying to take down the Siniora government.

The Insurgent - not a person, but a group whose successes aren't measured on the battlefield (because they haven't had any) but by the media's ability to turn their continued existence into a sign that the US has lost a war in Iraq.

Vladamir Putin - the former head of the KGB may be returning to his roots, going after political threats the old fashioned way. Assassinations and intimidations, including the very public death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.

From Red To Dead

An ambitious new project is being proposed by Sir Norman Foster to save the Dead Sea from completely evaporating. The plan would pipe water from the Red Sea to help fill the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on the planet. Evaporation of the Dead Sea is threatening tourism in both Jordan and Israel, and the plan would be a deal worked out between the two countries.

When I visited Ein Gedi in 1993, we were able to walk down to the Dead Sea and experience the waters without too much trouble. Now, you have to hike a mile just to get into the waters. The water continues to recede, and the cause is increased reliance on the Jordan River upstream. Less water coming into the Dead Sea means that the evaporation continues at an accelerating pace.

According to Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of Friends of the Earth in the Middle East, the reduction has been caused by the diversion of the River Jordan, which feeds the Dead Sea, for irrigation and drinking water — mostly by Israel, but also by Jordan and Syria. Today, less than 7% of the river’s original flow reaches the sea.

“A river holy to half of humanity has been reduced to little more than an open sewer,” said Bromberg.

Guy Battle, Foster’s environmental engineer on the project, said this weekend that the plan includes vast desalination plants along the canal to provide fresh water to make the desert bloom and supply drinking water. It is hoped that these facilities, which use the heat of the desert sun to evaporate sea water under a translucent bubble roof, could help reduce regional disputes over water.

Ariel Sharon, the ailing former Israeli prime minister, once called Israel’s diversion of the River Jordan in 1964 the spark that led to the six day war in 1967. Palestinians are still forbidden to sink new wells.

Foster’s office confirmed that he had completed preliminary studies and said the firm was awaiting further instruction from the Jordanian government.

An aide to Shimon Peres, the Israeli deputy prime minister, said: “We have had talks with the Jordanians, and they want to advance this. King Abdullah wants it the most because most of [the structure] would be built in Jordan.”

The three-way project had the potential to boost the peace process, said Peres.

At the northern end of the route, there would be a hydro-electric plant.

There are, of course, environmental concerns about this project, with the mixing of two different ecological systems, and the potential to introduce Red Sea creatures and plants into the Dead Sea.

Hamas Considers Israel's Existence Declaration of War

While the headline blares that Hamas considers Israel's consideration of declaring its own borders unilaterally to be a declaration of war, I would be remiss to remind my readers that Hamas is already at a state of war with Israel.

And it has been at war with Israel since Hamas was formed. Hamas doesn't recognize Israel's very right to exist. No Palestinian maps provide for Israel alongside a Palestinian state. No rights whatsoever. It says so in the Hamas Covenant. Indeed, the very nature of Hamas was to further the goal of eliminating Israel altogether.

At Hamas rallies, the terrorist minions don't talk about coexisting with Israel, they talk about annihilating the Zionists - destroying Israel.

The Jerusalem Post reports on this story:

Hamas leader abroad, Khaled Mashaal, said Friday that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to create Israel's permanent borders by 2010 is "a declaration of war" on the Palestinian people.

According to Mashaal, "this is not a peace plan, rather a declaration of war that would enable Israel to hold on to a large portion of the West Bank and Jerusalem, keep the wall, the settlements, and delay the right of return. Olmert is in the process of committing the same mistakes as Ariel Sharon."

Olmert told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that Israel's permanent borders will be set within the next four years, a period during which construction will also begin in the controversial E1 section between Ma'aleh Adumim.

The acting prime minister said he intended within the next four years to "get to Israel's permanent borders, whereby we will completely separate from the majority of the Palestinian population and preserve a large and stable Jewish majority in Israel."

Israel does not have a partner with which it can negotiate final borders. So, Israel has made the tactical and strategic decision to draw the borders itself. Those borders would closely hew to the pre 1967 Green Line, but Israel would retain all of Jersualem and many of the surrounding communities that sprang up after Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967 (after Israel warned Jordan not to get involved in the war in the first place, but Jordan's King Hussein was compelled to do so at the behest of the Syrians and Egyptians).

For a group that has not won a single war or engagement with Israel, who openly and routinely uses the media to advance its agenda against Israel, Hamas is talking tough though it is in no position to do so. Donor countries are in the process of limiting funds to the Palestinian Authority (though Iran may more than make up for the cessation of Western funding). The economy, a train wreck before Hamas took over, is not faring any better. There's incessant infighting between Hamas and the PLO/Fatah. The security situation in Gaza is poor at best.

So, Hamas is doing what Arab dictators have always done when things go bad. They blame Israel for making them worse. As if the fence or separation or unilateral actions would have been necessary in the first place had any of the Palestinian leaders (Arafat, Mazen, et al.) been rational and agreed to the overly generous terms offered in the past.

Meanwhile, Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorists continue their war against Israel on a daily basis. Missiles and rockets are launched into Israeli territory. Suicide bombers and car bombers try to infiltrate into Israel to commit mass murder.

UPDATE:
As per LGF, Jimmy Carter has no problem rolling over for Hamas and giving in to terrorism. Not to mention distorting history, and overlooking the simple fact that Hamas seeks Israel's destruction, the PLO Charter has never been amended to remove its own references to Israel's destruction as its ultimate goal, nor have the Palestinians actively or passively sought to change the education curriculum to eliminate the aggressive and rampant anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli content found in Palestinian texts. From the earliest age, Palestinian children are taught nothing but hatred towards Israel, and poisons yet another generation against even the prospect of peace.

Assessing Speech at Home

This is a must read editorial published in the Washington Post. Taking excerpts wont do it justice, but here's a sampling:

The press has had no problem with breaking a story using classified information on detention centers for captured terrorists and suspects -- stories that could harm our allies. And it disclosed a surveillance program so highly classified that most members of Congress were unaware of it.

In its zeal to publish stories critical of our nation's efforts -- and clearly upsetting to enemies and allies alike -- the press has printed some articles that turned out to be inaccurate. The Guantanamo Bay flushing of the Koran comes to mind.

But for the past month, the Islamist street has been on an intifada over cartoons depicting Muhammad that were first published months ago in a Danish newspaper. Protests in London -- never mind Jordan, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Iran and other countries not noted for their commitment to democratic principles -- included signs that read, "Behead those who insult Islam." The mainstream U.S. media have covered this worldwide uprising; it is, after all, a glimpse into the sentiments of our enemy and its allies. And yet it has refused, with but a few exceptions, to show the cartoons that purportedly caused all the outrage.

The Boston Globe, speaking for many other outlets, editorialized: "[N]ewspapers ought to refrain from publishing offensive caricatures of Mohammed in the name of the ultimate Enlightenment value: tolerance."

But as for caricatures depicting Jews in the most medievally horrific stereotypes, or Christians as fanatics on any given issue, the mainstream press seems to hold no such value. And in the matter of disclosing classified information in wartime, the press competes for the scoop when it believes the public interest warrants it.

What has happened? To put it simply, radical Islamists have won a war of intimidation. They have cowed the major news media from showing these cartoons. The mainstream press has capitulated to the Islamists -- their threats more than their sensibilities. One did not see Catholics claiming the right to mayhem in the wake of the republished depiction of the Virgin Mary covered in cow dung, any more than one saw a rejuvenated Jewish Defense League take to the street or blow up an office when Ariel Sharon was depicted as Hitler or when the Israeli army was depicted as murdering the baby Jesus.

So far as we can tell, a new, twin policy from the mainstream media has been promulgated: (a) If a group is strong enough in its reaction to a story or caricature, the press will refrain from printing that story or caricature, and (b) if the group is pandered to by the mainstream media, the media then will go through elaborate contortions and defenses to justify its abdication of duty. At bottom, this is an unacceptable form of not-so-benign bigotry, representing a higher expectation from Christians and Jews than from Muslims.

The authors of this piece? William Bennett and Alan Dershowitz. They may be on opposite ends of the political spectrum most of the time, but they are clearly on the same page regarding free speech, the First Amendment, and the media's duty to report the news.

UPDATE:
And abroad: Malaysia is sanctioning a paper that ran a syndicated cartoon from Non Sequitor. The Non Sequitor cartoon didn't even include any images of Mohammad, but instead castigates the rioters and those who resort to violence. Ed Morrisey has more.

The whole notion of curtailing speech actually fits the Leftist mentality as Mark Tapscott has a thorough review of what he thinks basically boils down to the fact that the liberals and leftists believe that free speech has limits, and they're the ones who want to decide where those limits are.

Technorati: Buy Danish "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muhammad cartoon" embassy torchings "muhammad image archive",

Sharon's Health Back In News

After the initial flurry of news and postings about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke and medical care, things had quieted down. Sharon has not come out of his coma, but now has had to go into surgery to deal with a serious digestive problem.

Mr. Sharon, 77, has been in a coma since suffering a massive stroke on Jan. 4 and hopes for a recovery had been fading even before the latest complications.

Doctors performed an abdominal scan on Saturday and found serious problems with blood flow to his intestines, which caused the damage to his digestive system, the hospital said.

Mr. Sharon was rushed into surgery that began before noon and was expected to last three to six hours, according to Yael Bossem-Levy, a hospital spokeswoman.

The latest reports say that the operation was successful and Sharon was out of immediate danger after a four hour operation. Television reports suggest that the doctors had to remove a bunch of necrotic tissue because of lack of blood flow to parts of his intestines.

UPDATE:
The Jerusalem Post notes that the situation was quite serious - nearly 50cm of Sharon's large intestines were removed.

Acute occlusion of a branch of the superior mesenteric artery is usually due to a local embolism (clot) that originates in the blood vessel; the branch is about three centimeters in diameter. When blood does not reach the colon, it causes tissue to die in a process called necrosis. This condition is life threatening because dead tissue poisons the body and requires urgent surgical opening of the blood vessel and removal of the necrotic tissue.

According to Hadassah, first signs of a problem occurred at 4 a.m. when Sharon's blood pressure dropped suddenly and his abdomen swelled. He was taken from a computerized tomography (CT) scan, which showed necrotic tissue, and then rushed to the operating room, where surgery was performed by Prof. Avi Rivkind, chief of surgery and head of the trauma department, and senior surgeon Prof. Alon Pikarsky. The anesthesiologists were Dr. Yitzhak Gozal and Dr. Yoram Weiss, who were involved in Sharon's brain operations.

Sharon suffered a mild stroke in December, and then suffered a major stroke in January. Strokes are caused by blood clots blocking the flow of blood in the brain. It would seem that the doctors are still having trouble keeping Sharon's clotting factors under control.

Turning to the political aspect of this crisis, Israpundit believes that the current Israeli government is in violation of Israel's Basic law. He is probably right - given that Likud controls the highest number of seats at present (the Kadima party doesn't currently hold any seats - it was a new party made up of Knesset members from several different parties), it should fall to Likud to pull together the members to form a government.

This is not an area I'm familiar with, but it is definitely worth investigating further. I would imagine that the counter argument may be that Olmert and the other members who broke from Likud are still treated as Likud members until the new elections determine the seat configurations. I don't find it particularly persuasive either, but perhaps some readers have further insight.

UPDATE:
Decision '08 and Pajamas Media has more.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east, olmert, continuity.

Sharon Opens Eyes, World Still Averts Theirs

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who's been in an induced coma since undergoing three operations to reduce the effects of a massive stroke, has apparently opened his eyes, though doctors are not sure of the significance.

This may be a positive sign, although the fact that Sharon had to undergo a tracheotomy shows just how dire Sharon's health situation is.

Coming Out

Sharon is being brought out of his induced coma slowly and is already showing signs of improvement. Reportedly, he was able to breathe on his own and was able to move his right hand. These are good signs, although it is too soon to tell the condition of his mental faculties. [A guide to Sharon's medical condition.]

This is Sharon's moment of truth according to Ynetnews.com. I think it's more like a moment of truth. Even if Sharon recovers from his massive stroke, it's a long haul before he'd even regain a portion of his faculties. And doctors are trying to manage expectations:

Reports on Sharon's condition are "too optimistic," senior sources at Hadassah who are familiar with the situation told Ynet Sunday evening.

An optimistic interview with one of Sharon's surgeons, Dr. Jose Cohen, described the prime minister's condition "in a manner that can lead to interpretations that the PM's condition is better than what it is in reality," one source said.

Another senior source at the hospital addressed the prime minister's prospects for recovery and said: "The improvement detected is an x-ray improvement, and until we find the clinical equivalent it's too early to express optimism."

"The improvement (Hadassah Director) Professor Mor Yosef spoke about referred to the image received by the CT scan and shows the brain's structure, but not its functioning," the source said. "Only once the effects of sedation are gone will we be able to perform neurological tests, and only they can attest to the extent of damage."

Sharon’s condition remains serious but stable, and the latest CT scan conducted on him has indicated improvement.

Mere Rhetoric is posting near-live updates. Meryl Yourish has some further thoughts on Sharon's condition, and an unconfirmed report that even Hamas is looking to delay the Palestinian elections until they see an outcome on Sharon's health status. She more or less dismisses the report, as Sharon's health status doesn't change the reality of the Palestinian political situation, which is to say in even worse condition than Sharon's current health status.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east, olmert, continuity.

The Sharon Sunday Update

While Sharon's condition is improving and doctors expect to begin bringin Sharon out of his induced coma on Monday, Jewish extremist groups boast they cursed Sharon and his move to disengage from Gaza.

"I take full responsibility for what happened," far-right activist Baruch Ben-Yosef, one of the participants at the July pulsa denura, told The Jerusalem Post. "Our pulsa denura kicked in. Nothing could kill Sharon and he said his ancestors lived until they over 100 years old but we got him with the pulsa denura."

On Wednesday night, Ben-Yosef and additional far-right activists gathered in the Samaria settlement of Kfar Tapuah to honor Binyamin Kahane - son of Meir Kahane - and his wife Talya who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists exactly five years ago. Upon hearing the news of Sharon's stroke, Ben-Yosef said, the group broke out in song and dance and celebrated the prime minister's fall throughout the night.

These groups believe in a Greater Israel and that anyone giving away even the slightest fraction of land to the Palestinians is a mortal sin.

In that respect, these groups are not unlike Pat Robertson, whose own religious viewpoint requires a Greater Israel to bring about the Second Coming.

Nothing like a little apocalyptic/End Time theology to bring folks together.

UPDATE:
There's more information about the team of doctors on Sharon's case. The doctors hope to begin bringing Sharon out of his coma tomorrow.

UPDATE:
Pamela of Atlas Shrugs has been at the forefront of coverage on not only Ariel Sharon's health crisis, but the existential threat posed by Iran.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east, olmert, continuity.

Sharon's Final Battle and Iran's Opening Gambit

Prime Minister Sharon's condition is stable for the moment and doctors are continuing to monitor his condition closely. The latest CT scans show additional improvement, but Sharon will remain in an induced coma.

Kadima is uniting behind Olmert, which makes it highly likely that the party will not only remain together going forward into the March elections, but that the party will maintain the support that it has garnered thus far. Olmert is looking like the frontrunner for the upcoming elections.

Environmental Republican has some interesting thoughts about the comments made earlier this week by both Pat Robertson and Iranian nutbar Ahmadinejad.

I was waiting to hear who would say the first despicable thing about Sharon's condition. Turns out it came from two likely sources; the demented Pat Robertson (a man of God who may just be turned away at the pearly gates) and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (a man who one can hope is forced to watch more righteous men getting busy with 72 virgins from the other side of the fence before decending to where he belongs).

Meanwhile, Israeli police and the Shin Bet have arrested Jaris Jaris and have accused him of spying for Iran. Jaris intended to run for the Knesset.

Jaris Jaris, 57, was arrested on December 12, after police discovered that he had been recruited by Iran and was asked to use his political contacts to infiltrate the government and the Israeli political system.

Jaris, police said, fled Israel in 1970 and moved to Lebanon after he was caught operating a Fatah terror cell. Once in Lebanon, Jaris continued working for the Fatah and was responsible for sending terrorists across the border into Israel. In 1996, Jaris returned to Israel together with additional officials from the Palestinian Authority and from May 2001 until November 2003 he served as the head of the Fasuta Local Council.

In September 2004, police said, Jaris traveled to Cyprus to meet with Hani Abdullah - a friend he made in Lebanon - to promote the establishment of a joint research center. Abdullah told Jaris that the center, if he wanted, could be funded by the Hizbullah and Iran. Jaris agreed.

Two months later, police said, Abdullah called Jaris and told him to come to Cyprus to meet an Iranian donor for the center. During his police interrogation, Jaris admitted that the man he met was from Iranian Intelligence. The agent asked Jaris to "infiltrate the Israeli political system, to create political contacts and to join an existing Israeli political party," police said.

Jaris joined Meretz towards the end of 2004 and in conversations with political activists expressed interest in becoming a member of Knesset. Three months later, Jaris visited Cyprus for a third time where he met with two Iranian agents who asked him about his past and his connections with politicians in Israel. Following the meeting, Jaris was asked to try and establish contacts with the top political echelon.

Atlas Shrugs has continuing coverage on Iran's plans and intentions.

Iran continues to crack down on free speech, shutting newspapers and outlets that might criticize the mad mullahs. And they're playing the Russians to boot.

UPDATE:
The latest news reports indicate that Sharon will very likely survive the stroke that Sharon suffered on Wednesday. Survival is one thing, quality of life is quite another.

Cohen warned, however, that the prime minister remained in serious condition, and noted: "He will not continue to be prime minister, but maybe he will be able to understand and to speak."

On Sunday morning, an interdisciplinary team of experts at Hadassah-University Medical Center will assess Sharon's condition, then decide whether to perform another computerized tomography (CT) scan of his brain and when to gradually reduce the amount of drugs that have kept him in an induced coma.

UPDATE:
Gates of Vienna has a thought provoking posting comparing Sharon to Abe Lincoln. It's definitely worth a read.

Thankfully there are still some folks worrying about Iran. I know I do. Iran's probing and prodding to exploit weaknesses, including that caused by Sharon's illness. And there are plenty of them - from the EU and IAEA inability to hold Iran to its commitments, to the UN's utter inability to act because countries like Russia and China counter any efforts to hold Iran accountable. All the while, Iran marches closer to having the nuclear weapons they crave.

Oh, and for the record, these folks worrying about the Iranian threat are being critical of the US for not doing more. That means they're criticizing Bush. I agree. More must be done, even if it means expanding the problem in Iraq - considering that the Iranians are busy assisting the terrorists with materials and personnel that are used to kill Americans in Iraq, the threat needs to be addressed, and soon.

Israel is issuing a retort to Ahmadinejad's comments - they're starting an anti-Ahmadinejad website. It's a start, but we already have an unofficial one. It's called Atlas Shrugs.


Posted to: Wizbang and Basil's Blog and Mudville Gazette.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east, olmert, continuity.

Circling the Wagons, The Iranian Threat, and Sharon

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's condition worsened overnight and was rushed back into surgery. Definitely not a good thing, especially when friends and relatives were told to make their way to the hospital.

So, what does the blogosphere think of all this and what Sharon's exit stage left from the Israeli political landscape and the larger Middle East political landscape means in a larger context?

Well, there's quite a few divergent viewpoints. You've got Lefties who think that Sharon was a butcher and good riddance to bad rubbish. That viewpoint isn't dissimilar from that of the terrorists and Iranian mullahs who seek Israel's destruction.

Charles Krauthammer thinks that this is a devastating blow to Israel. A serious blow, yes. Devastating? I'm not sure considering that the idea behind Kadima is one whose time had come - a third way to disengage and secure Israel's borders in the absence of any rational negotiating partner. The Palestinians have gotten nearly everything they've demanded in terms of land (all of Gaza and 93% of the West Bank), and that has resulted in the collapse of the Intifada and forced the Palestinians to fight amongst themselves, but Kadima needs a leader to shape and fashion a cohesive policy going forward.

Kadima represents an idea whose time has come. But not all ideas whose time has come realize themselves. They need real historical actors to carry them through. Sharon was a historical actor of enormous proportion, having served in every one of Israel's wars since its founding in 1948, having almost single-handedly saved Israel with his daring crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and now having broken Israel's left-right political duopoly that had left the country bereft of any strategic ideas to navigate the post-Oslo world. Sharon put Israel on the only rational strategic path out of that wreckage. But, alas, he had taken his country only halfway there when he himself was taken away. And he left no Joshua.

The fear is that with no successor groomed for taking over, Kadima will fail. Too many Israelis think that Sharon was on to something to give up on the idea and someone will take the mantle of leadership.

In Israel, some think that Benjamin Netenyahu will be the political winner in this difficult time. I'm not so sure; he may be charismatic, but his economic policies have alienated many Israelis as he's tried to move Israel away from a socialistic economy to one that is more market-based. No matter how you cut it, this is going to mark the end of an era for Israeli politics. My gut feeling is that it will be Olmert or someone else from within the newly formed Kadima.

Kobayashi Maru (yes, it's a Star Trek reference) notes the upcoming bumpy ride, and that the wolves will circle Israel to take advantage of even the perceived uncertainty in the political situation. Especially Iran. That's one of the reasons that Olmert's cabinet meeting yesterday was so important - to show the continuity of government and that no one person is indispensible.

Shrink Wrapped also notes the Iranian threat, which increases daily especially with the situation in Israel. The Officer's Club suggests that sanctions against Iran may actually work because the Iranian people are seeing just how loony their leadership is and may take direct action against them. Military action may work, but it might counter our efforts elsewhere in the region.

And just when you think things couldn't get any worse in the region, some bizarrely positive news has come out of the Syrian front:

The tipping point for Syrian tyranny may have come yesterday as former regime vice-president Abdul Halim Khaddam announced publicly that he wants to lead a popular revolution to oust the Bashar Assad dictatorship and to see the former opthalmologist in prison for the murder of Rafik Hariri. Meanwhile, he made clear, he remains available to the UN if it really wants to investigate Syrian crimes.

Khaddam's intentions aren't exactly clear. He could quite as easily be seeking power just for himself to replace Assad in a coup, or he could be genuinely interested in a democratic revolution in Syria. But this developing situation could quite possibly neutralize Syria as a player against Israel or Lebanon at this critical juncture.

UPDATE:
Sentiment from around the world continues to filter in and the Arab world in particular wouldn't mind if Sharon died - though they'd largely prefer he die in a more violent manner. Iran, for all intents and purposes, tells the UN to drop dead after missing a deadline. More sauce for the goose.

There have been unconfirmed reports of Sharon having died, but official reports have indicated that he is in critical condition with a slim chance at recovery.

UPDATE:
Stop the ACLU and Michelle Malkin both pick up the confusion over Sharon's health status, which is now considered to be improving, though it certainly appears that his condition is terminal (and day to day like the rest of us out there who haven't suffered a debilitating stroke). He may well be on death's door, but without official word, this is but a rumor.

I'm surprised that no one has commented that the media hasn't learned anything from the events in Tallmansville, WV, where 12 miners were killed in a mining explosion, but the media ran with the initial reports of there being 12 survivors without getting an official word or talking with the principals who made the decisions. It wouldn't hurt to check facts once in a while.

Others covering Sharon's declining medical condition, the geopolitical situation, and the US reaction: Austin Bay, Israpundit, the Counterterrorism Blog, The Jawa Report, Classical Values, Ace of Spades, Christopher Hitchens at Slate (who provides an unvarnished take on Sharon's life that was filled with violence as befitting a general in the military who may have overstepped his bounds on several occasions), Kesher Talk, Legal Fiction (who gives begrudging respect), and the Political Pit Bull.

UPDATE:
According to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Sharon is in his last hours or days following the latest surgical procedure and comes despite the fact that his latest CT scans have been positive and show significant improvement. Boker Tov (Hebrew for Good Morning) has more details.

UPDATE:
Meryl Yourish has continuing updates, but the key for those tracking the political fallout should read through this posting. It details the blueprint for Kadima and it's future.

Submitted to Basil's Blog, Jo's Cafe, and MacStansbury.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east, olmert, continuity.

Sharon's Stable But The Political Situation Isn't

While PM Sharon is in an induced coma and on a respirator after undergoing emergency surgery to relieve bleeding on his brain, the political situation in the Middle East remains murky.

The BBC calls the world reaction to Sharon's medical situation mixed. Terrorist groups are elated. Some Palestinian politicians are more cautious, knowing that things can change quite rapidly, especially if the terrorists go nuts - it hurts their public relations. And more than a few think that Sharon's departure would mean an even more hardline approach towards the Palestinians. Curious.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are up to their usual tricks, but have added a few new ones. They're now taking on the Egyptians. More than 60 have been arrested by the Egyptians for the riots started in Rafah that spilled across the border when Palestinians took bulldozers to the fenceline. This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Of course, the negotiations are all with the intent and purpose of destroying Israel in a million little steps, but that's not important right now. The Palestinians will simply play the waiting game until the March elections. The peace process will be on hold until then.

Israelis have to wonder what will happen to Kadima, the party started by Sharon after deciding that Likud wasn't sensitive enough to Israel's security needs. Who will succeed Sharon? Olmert is the temporary Prime Minister, but there are others who have higher profiles that could run the party. Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni, and Shaul Mofaz are just three of the politicians involved in the party who could take the lead considering Sharon's medical condition. Meir Sheetrit is another Kadima member who could take the reins, but my money would be on Olmert at this point. Even Mofaz is throwing his support behind Olmert. It's also unlikely that the Israeli elections in March would be delayed regardless of Sharon's medical situation.

Olmert held the first cabinet meeting since Sharon's crisis yesterday. The business of governance waits for no one, and the business of running Israel is no exception.

And this situation once again should beg the question of whether the US government is fully capable of resuming work should an attack succeed against the federal government. Continuity of government isn't a big priority these days, despite the fact that one of the four planes hijacked on 9/11 was meant for the Capitol building. While there are some plans under consideration and some steps have been taken, the chain of command is quite limited and how Congress would function under such circumstances is an unanswered question. Given that Congress is required to operate with a working quorum, there are serious questions as to what would happen should a majority be incapacitated or killed in an attack. And that uncertainty means that an attack could paralyze the ability of the nation to retaliate against its enemies, make the necessary appropriations, and conduct the business of government.

UPDATE:
Daniel Pipes thinks Israel's political situation will revert to its prior form - the end of Kadima and the reabsorption of Kadima politicians into Likud and Labor. Israpundit agrees with Pipes. I'm not so sure. Kadima was clearly a centrist party founded on a single issue, but it had widespread support. The real question is whether the support was for the cult of personality of Sharon, or for the general propositions on which he founded the new party. I think there might be more support for the party than Pipes suggests. Mere Rhetoric thinks that the politicians who joined Kadima have plenty of incentives to make it work - given all the burned bridges and lack of suitable alternatives.

Irish Pennants reminds folks that no one is indispensable.

The Palestinians continue to celebrate the impending death of Sharon. Gunfire and rocket launches. But the folks at Democratic Underground aren't any better at containing their glee at Sharon's unfortunate turn of health.

UPDATE:
It looks like Sharon will be kept in an induced coma for up to 72 hours. More details on his specific treatment:

Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director general of Hadassah Hospital, said Sharon would remain in deep sedation and on a respirator for at least two and possibly three days to allow him to "recover from severe trauma." The treatment would decrease pressure in Sharon's skull, and after the sedation period, doctors hope to gradually awaken him, Mor-Yosef said.

Sharon, who underwent seven hours of emergency surgery to stop widespread bleeding in his brain, was in serious but stable condition. The massive stroke made it unlikely that the 77-year-old prime minister would return to power.

Mor-Yosef said doctors had not received a "no resuscitation order" that would prevent them from trying to revive a patient whose heart or breathing has stopped.

"We are fighting for the life of the prime minister, with no compromise," Mor-Yosef said.

UPDATE:
What do Pat Robertson and Iranian nutcase Ahmadinejad have in common? They both wish ill on Ariel Sharon. Robertson thinks that Sharon's stroke is god's way of punishing Sharon for dividing Israel and therefore thwarting the second coming. Okily dokily. Let's not forget that without Sharon, Israel would quite possibly have ceased to exist in 1973.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad would much prefer Sharon to perish. That goes with his whole "wiping Israel off the map" meme, so that one wasn't much of a surprise.

Others noting the curious confluence of crapulent thinking: The Moderate Voice, Atlas Shrugs, The Sundries Shack, Andrew Sullivan, and Abracadabrah.

Meanwhile, Saeb Erekat has the gaul to say that he hopes that Israel lives up to its obligations regardless of who's in charge. Considering that the Palestinians have not fulfilled any of its obligations under Oslo in the decade since that document was signed, nor any of the agreements or frameworks or roadmaps decided since, I'll have to work hard to contain my laughter at Erekat.

On a more serious note, IRIS blog has a number of concerns about Sharon's treatment, including why Sharon was not taken to a hospital closer to his Negev ranch and why there wasn't an emergency plan in place. There are good questions to be raised, but I think that his family thought that he had time to get to his doctor and hospital of choice. That's a decision that they may come to regret. IRIS has additional coverage as well.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east, olmert, continuity.

The Immediate Successor?

With Ariel Sharon suffering the effects of a massive stroke, power has been transferred to Sharon's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert under Israeli law. This transfer was going to occur when Sharon was supposed to go in for surgery to repair a heart defect on Thursday, but the serious medical condition has changed everyone's plans.

So who is Olmert, and what does this mean for Israel, the Palestinian crisis, and the Middle East in general? Will the Iranians be emboldened by the crisis in Israel?

He's served in the IDF and has been Mayor of Jerusalem. He's been a long time member of the Knesset and most recently been Sharon's right hand man.

Among the more interesting points, he opposed the Camp David Accords and the notion of land for peace, but has since turned around and supported the Gaza Disengagement and that Begin was correct.

And it didn't take long for the terrorists to threaten Olmert with death either - they can't help themselves.

Apparently the answer for the Palestinians in the short term is that Sharon's illness and incapacitation has done nothing to change their behavior or position towards Israel's existence. Not that anything short of Israel's capitulation or the destruction of all Palestinian territories would change that. The terrorist groups are dedicated to Israel's destruction, not just the destruction of a single individual. Fatah, Hamas, Hizbullah all seek Israel's destruction - they only differ on the timeline. Fatah is content to take its time. Hamas and Hizbullah want that timeline compressed into as short a period as possible. Tanzim and the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are both more militant in their destructive tendencies.

In the mid-term, the Palestinians actually have more to worry about from those same terrorist groups as they could easily derail the planned elections, which the Fatah leadership is quite willing to delay because they fear they're going to lose the elections anyway. Abu Mazen and his cronies can't keep the terrorists in check, can't clamp down on the territories they control, and can't get the basic infrastructure to work, so the Palestinians are in a physically worse position than they were when Israel controlled the territories.

Olmert will likely continue Sharon's policies and may become the face of Kadima, although Sharon's presence was the glue that held Kadima together. It's unclear whether Olmert has the ability to hold the center.

UPDATE 1/5/2006:
Vodkapundit offers a pre-post mortem and wonders what will happen next.

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon In Grave Condition

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in critical condition at Hadassah Hospital in Israel after being rushed to the hospital feeling ill. Sharon had suffered a minor stroke on December 18 and was scheduled to go into an Israeli hospital on Thursday for a procedure to fix a defect in his heart. Today's medical crisis is just that - a major stroke and the prognosis is grim. He's on a respirator and general anesthetic. Ehud Olmert will take over as Prime Minister, which is provided under Israeli law.

There are lots of folks blogging this at the moment, including Mere Rhetoric, who's providing regular updates.

At the time of the first medical crisis, Palestinians took to the streets in celebration of Sharon's condition. One wonders whether they will do so once again.

In Gaza, however, dozens of armed men from the Popular Resistance Committees, a small Palestinian militant group, fired guns in the air, screamed "Sharon is dead" and handed out pastries to motorists to celebrate the news that Sharon was ill.

One can only imagine what they'll do should Sharon's condition declines even further.

UPDATE:
It didn't take long for the vultures to start circling among the Palestinians. In fact, according to the New York Times, the Palestinians barely let up in their continued mayhem up and down the Gaza Strip. While Israel prays for Sharon's health, the Palestinians by and large await anxious word of Sharon's condition, knowing that some will celebrate and others will wonder what this means for them in the long run. His full recovery isn't expected. It nearly certainly means the end of Sharon's political career.

Atlas Shrugs also notes Olmert taking over as Prime Minister. Meryl Yourish notes that this is a quite abrupt end to the Sharon era. She also notes the respective glee passed forth from Hamas and the downplaying of Sharon's military brilliance in defending Israel against its enemies.

Tigerhawk notes that while Sharon's medical condition is an intensely personal battle, the repercussions are anything but. All Things Beautiful's thoughts are with Sharon, his family, and Israel.

Kesher Talk and Abracadabrah are running live updates.

Bookworm Room wonders what will become of the Israeli polity, and thinks that folks who elevated Sharon's status to one where he was the only one who could make peace with the Palestinians was greatly misplaced. Not that Sharon was the wrong person, but that the onus was on the Palestinians to make peace, not the Israelis.

Technorati: ariel sharon, stroke, peace process, disengagement, palestinians, israel, middle east.

The Office Pool - Predictions and Prognostications

William Safire puts forth a list of predictions in multiple choice format, so here are my responses:

1) c - 90,000 troops will be in Iraq at the end of 2006. And we'll further learn about the continuing cross-border raids by terrorist proxies from Syria and Iran, which will demand continued attention.
2) e - Tom DeLay will be back in the saddle. Pelosi will continue to be a back bencher.
3) None of the above - none of these movies resonates with moviegoers, no matter how well made they may be. Walk the Line would be my pick, but it's too much like last year's Ray to win. Reese will win best actress though.
4) c - The Roberts court will rule that law schools can be denied federal funds if they do not permit military recruiters.
5) c - Like the SAT, C is the probable answer more often than not
6) c - Like the SAT, C is the probable answer more often than not
7) c - Ariel Sharon will not be as slim as he should, but Kadima does win to form coalition with Labor
8) a - The Barrett report will be quashed on behalf of the Clintons, but some details will leak. The same can't be said of the Able Danger investigations, which will show just how poorly the 9/11 Commission did its job.
9) c - The stock market will break through it's treading water phase, especially as oil prices trend down.
10) c - All the major parties will realize that governments are transitory things, and that taking up arms to suit their needs is unnecessary. The looming battles will be political, not military as accomodation and dealmaking creates a somewhat stable political situation.
11) e - none of the above. The key issues will be the continuing problems with Gulf Coast redevelopment.
12) d - That's what I've been saying all along. It would be a grand fight, but I really doubt Condi wants to go for the top slot.
13) None of the above. Rudy is my choice for the GOP, and the Democrats would likely put forth Hillary (a rematch of the abortive Senate race where Rudy had to withdraw due to being diagnosed with prostate cancer).
14) d - Reagan. He did unpopular things at the time, but is remembered for holding the line and declaring that the only choice in fighting war is victory. Anything less is a recipe for disaster.

The Anchoress also put forth her predictions, and some are quite interesting. I'll focus on a few:

1) After a few off-years, due to A-Rod’s disingenuity (I still say he broke the curse when he slapped a ball out of the first baseman’s glove and then tried to lie about it - Fie on A-Rod!) The NY Yankees will reclaim their rightful spot as World Champions. While I'm a big Yankee fan (and have been since 1977), I don't see the Yankees doing it this year. Maybe it's the Damon factor, or maybe it's that A-Rod is simply too consumed with statistics and not winning the big games. But have no fear, because the BoSox wont win either. In fact, they wont make the playoffs.

9) Somebody’s gotta get serious with Iran. W will do it. Ungrateful Europe and leftists will curse him for it, while wiping their brows in relief before driving to their next Bush-bashing engagement. Israel may be the US to the punch, though US assistance may be involved (or at least tacit approval).

10) Paris will burn, coverage will be scant. Paris has been burning for more than a decade at a low simmer. It's now background noise.

13) Rudy Giuliani and Jeb Bush will both say they’re not running for president in ‘08. One of them will be telling the truth. Both will run, but Rudy will be in a better position to attract Conservatives - and the Bush brand will be tiresome to some at GOP central. Rudy's Mayor of America schtick will lead the way, and while his stance on abortion and other social issues may grate on religious conservatives, the law and order no nonsense brand of politics will appeal to them all the same.

21) At the end of ‘06, the big hole at Ground Zero will still be a big hole - a testament to the serious void in real leadership which both encouraged Al Qaeda and dogs our nation, still. While that's been the case thus far, real progress should begin in March as the transit hub and Freedom tower will begin construction. We wont see completed structures, but it may take a year before the construction reaches street level. Gov. Pataki has to leave behind a legacy, and getting things underway at Ground Zero will be crucial.

UPDATE:
Posted to Basil's Blog. Others noting The Anchoress's predictions: Dr. Sanity, Polipundit, and All Things Beautiful.

Sharon Suffers Stroke; Palestinians Parade In Pleasure

Pamela of Atlas Shrugs has the video. Charles at Little Green Footballs has the background.

In sum, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to an Israeli hospital because he suffered a mild stroke. He's in stable condition, but the news hit the Palestinian controlled territories, and they erupted into celebratory gunfire.

That's right - the Palestinians are celebrating the illness of Sharon, who previously led Israel to withdraw from Gaza and gave the Palestinians what they wanted unilaterally. Their hatred and depravities know no bounds.