Ariel Sharon and Kadima and the future of Israel and Palestine

I hadn't been a fan of Ariel Sharon or the Likud party or Israel's government overall, but Sharon's bold move to quit the Likud and form a new centrist party (Kadima, which is Hebrew for Forward) strikes me as an interesting and potentially good move. He's even managed to get Shimon Peres to quit both the Labor party and the Knesset itself to join Sharon in pursuing peace in the region.

Contrary to the traditional Likud party platform, these guys appear to be serious about giving even more land away in exchange for peace. Part of that is simply pragmatism since Israel seeks to remain a Jewish democracy and there are simply too many Palestinians on the land that Israel currently occupies, so the theory is to trade away land that happens to be the residence of significant numbers of Palestinians.

The status of Jerusalem remains a thorn in everybody's side. Both the Palestinians and the Likud/Kadima insist it remain 100% under their control, which obviously can't happen. Some form of compromise will eventually have to be worked out.

How this will all work out remains to be seen, but at least it shows some promise.

-- Jack Krupansky