Wednesday November 23, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

Ariel "Arik" Sharon.
You love him, you hate him or you love to hate him.
As a character, he evokes strong emotions in others. Rather than it being a character flaw, it is a trait that will seal his victory in the coming Israeli election.

The far right in Israel feels betrayed by Sharon.
The far right is a small but very vocal minority and they will broadcast their resentment across Israel.

About 10 days before he declared his split from Likud there graffiti was scrawled on the Ladies Room wall in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset.
It read: "Rabin is waiting for Arik." "We liquidated Rabin, We'll liquidate Sharon." "The criminals responsible for the expulsion should be brought to justice."
Two girls, aged 12 and 14 were arrested. Irony of ironies, they had come to attend a session of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset.

These 2 girls represent an extreme dimension of Israel. Average Israelis do not view graffiti and blocked roads as self-expression. They view it as extremist. They equate extremism with the ugliest of Israeli society, with the likes of Yigal Amir, the man who murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin ten years ago.
As a result, the masses embrace Sharon even more.

Left or right, extremists cannot control themselves.
Left or right, they must spew their hatred.