By
Donald H. Harrison
Nancy and I were out to dinner last night with a couple whose daughter lives
in Israel. Due to the time difference between Israel and here,
the parents had known about the massive stroke suffered by Israel's Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon before their daughter did. It happened late in the
evening in Israel, after their daughter had gone to sleep. It was the
daytime here in California—plenty of time for the news to be disseminated,
commented upon, analyzed and dissected.
The next morning, Israeli time, the daughter listened to a broadcast and
couldn't make immediate sense of the discussion. So, Sharon was in the
hospital, but that was expected, wasn't it? He had been scheduled to
return to the hospital for treatment in the wake of his minor stroke late last
year. Then it dawned on her; the people on the broadcast weren't talking
about Sharon's expected follow-up treatment, something else,
something bad, had happened to Israel's leader.
When she called her parents—an Israeli father and American mother—they, of
course, were able to fill in many details, gleaned not only from CNN and other
American news services, but from having closely monitored the internet edition
of Ha'aretz.
As they related the story over at our local Thai restaurant (Jade), it
struck me, again, how instantaneous communications, 24 hour news services, and
the internet have all changed our world. We not only become familiar
"as it happens" with news breaking elsewhere on the globe, but, in the
case of Israel and Palestine, we have become so intimate with the personalities
of the region, it is as if those events are transpiring next door. We have
become so familiar with names like Ariel Sharon, Mahmoud Abbas, Shimon Peres,
Amir Peretz, Ehud Olmert and Bibi Netanyahu that we can speculate about
them with almost as much familiarity—and knowledge— as San Diegans do about
Mayor Jerry Sanders and former Mayors Dick Murphy, Susan
Golding, Maureen
O'Connor and Pete Wilson.
I was not surprised, nor particularly offended, that tele-Christian Pat
Robertson suggested that Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for his decision
to give away lands in Eretz Israel. Robertson's comments fit in with those of
other religious fundamentalists on both sides of the Arab-Israeli divide.
Various Jewish settlers called the stroke the price God exacted for
Sharon's betrayal of the Jews of Gaza, and various Arabs celebrated the medical
downfall of an arch enemy. The only difference between them and Robertson
is that Robertson lives farther away—and in the age of technology, those
distances have melted into insignificance.
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show polished off Robertson and the
other religious fundamentalists by showing a photograph of the obese
Sharon before his stroke, then observing that Sharon's diet and the stress of
his job were far more likely causes than God's retribution—unless of
course, God, Himself, had been forcing Sharon all these years to stuff
himself with so much food.
We and our dinner partners agreed, that even if Sharon somehow recovers
from the stroke, his political career likely will be over; that for health
reasons, he probably will retire to the ranch. An Israeli poll indicated that if either Peres or
Olmert leads Kadima into the next round of elections, the brand new party could
win either 42 or 40 seats respectively. Our Israeli dinner companion said
Peres has been in the lead before, only to end up losing. Whatever you might
think of Peres, he doesn't seem to have the ability to win elections.
I am an admirer of Peres, both politically and personally, but it seems to me
the fact that Sharon, at 77, suffered a stroke militates against Peres who is
now about 82. The one thing Israelis may want in the aftermath of Sharon now
lying in an induced coma is some political stability. Therefore, they may
favor a younger candidate. My Israeli friend said no one should count out
Peretz, the new head of Labor. A Moroccan Jew who came of political
age in the northern Negev town of Sderot, Peretz has been politically
underestimated--to his advantage--all his life. Remember, he was the one
who defeated Peres already in the battle for the leadership of the Labor party..
We had two Israeli politicians booked for appearances here in San Diego.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak still is scheduled to address the Men's Event
of the United Jewish Federation on January 17th—his appearance as a result of
Sharon's medical situation likely to be all the more newsworthy. Education
Minister Limor Livnat had been scheduled to participate in the Agency for Jewish
Education's "Limmud"—Day of Learning—on Sunday, January 22nd, but
the critical political situation in Israel forced her cancellation. Allan
Hoffman, the deputy director of the Jewish Agency for Israel will fill in.
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