So what does Sharon's impending death mean for Israeli politics?

Smiting aside, I'd appreciate it someone would educate me.

will be the first major problem.:evilgrin:

I guess my question is: who will be the next PM and how will this question be decided?

Whenever something good happens to the Palestinians, like the hated PM Sharon passing on, they pass out candy. It's a tradition in the Arab world.

But to answer your question, my understanding is the elections to decide the next PM (I think in march} will go on and if Sharon passes on, the new party he formed will probably be stronger and select someone in his mold politically.

Hope this really IS a good thing for the Palestinian kiddies - and the Israeli ones, too.

And Kadima is dead as Israeli politics knows it. Not that it was a viable entity in the first place, but you know... Now that Sharon is gone, Israel will likely reoccupy the Gaza strip, and may attempt to permanently expand its borders. Sharon was a good moderating influence, but now that he's gone, who knows?

SD

The man is a Class A war criminal. Witnesses against him at the Hague
wound up dead before they could testify.

He personally restarted the Intifada in 2000 by appearing in a Moslem
holy place (with troops?).

His wall is a big an afront to democracy as the Berlin Wall.

The man is and was a hardline thug.

arendt

It's like: "Oh, Franco is dead, what will Spain do now?"
:puke:

But it seems that you discount the importance of moderating and stabilizing extreme rightists in the Israeli political scene. Hard-Core Zionists view the whole of the region as, "Eretz" or Greater Israel. Hence, occupied territory (West Bank and Gaza) settlers' reticence toward relocation. Sharon has done a WONDERFUL job of restraining those elements in Israeli society. He's by no means a leftist, but in the context of Israeli politics, he could be worse.

SD

The site is the Dome of the Rock, or the Temple Mount, which is a holy sight for Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

And I don't think the Palestinians are so one-minded and dumb that one visit from the Leader of the Opposition, intended to embarass the Prime Minister (successfully), is enough to set them off on a five year unending cycle of violence.

But arguments like this don't solve anything or answer the man's question.

What's going to happen in Israeli politics? I have no idea, sadly. Sharon appeared to really want to be the "only Nixon could go to China" guy and buck the extreme right wing career he had spent a lifetime cultivating.

I'm not sure his deputy is popular enough to remain leader of Kadima (the new centrist coalition) all the way to the election, but if he does I think they will win. If somehow Shimon Peres (former labor minister and Prime Minister) becomes the leader (unlikely), then it's a complete three-way toss-up.

I think Likud will suffer even further. Labor is an outside chance of winning, but it's a long-shot.

I've always despised Sharon and consider him to have intentionally provoked the recent intifada, at least partly in order to create conditions under which he could become PM. However, he seemed to have grown a small conscience recently. I sincerely hope his likely passing will not set the peace process back.

....Sharon's a flower child.

Sharon saw the light and decided to make his own peace, Palestinians take it or leave it.

for similar objectives.

He was an enemy of peace, and his party remains so.

and that's without Sharon!

The centrist appeal of Kadima is too strong for moderates and leftists that want Israel to declare a unilateral peace deal, since there is no partner for peace.

It will go like this:

This side of the wall is ours, the other side is yours. So long, farewell, and thanks for all the fish!

The Israeli electorate was never under the control of Sharon, it can think for itself, and will not shift its opinions because he is gone.

Kadima will remain, and it will win the next election.

Less influence on the American govt would be very welcomed.

for the impending war with Iran?

I'm all ears.

go to war with Iran!!!