Ariel Sharon's grave condition has become a political event that
can be and will be manipulated by the succession crisis in
Jerusalem and the Sharon family troubles.
When and if the life support systems are turned off, Sharon will
fail quickly if not immediately. Therefore all preparation of the
state funeral now turns on that moment: security, transportation,
accommodation. The funeral will be the gathering of the clans that
defines the last of the 20th century order of battle: the ancien
regime marching behind Sharon the way it marched behind King
Edward's hearse in 1910 in London.
More, the funeral will be a sharp break with Sharonism, and this
does not favor the unremarkable Ehud Olmert. There is motive for
Olmert and the quarreling players of the unborn Forward Party
(including the decaying Peres), to delay the funeral as long as
possible in the 100 day run-up to the election in order to feed on
the sympathy vote for a fallen hero.
At the same time, Sharon's eldest son Omri is under threat of
jail time for corruption and is facing even more charges over other
graft deals. There is motive for the Sharon Family -- two sons of
uncertain political loyalty -- to delay the death while they work
out a deal with prosecutors over the legacy of their celebrated
patriarch See Horatio Nelson legacy and the betrayed Emma
Hamilton.
The longer the delay of the natural order of things -- Sharon is
Schiavo writ large -- the more dangerous and cynical the game.
Olmert, Netanyahu, Peres, Peretz, Shalom, Mofaz, all of them watch
for their moment to lay claim to (undefinable) Sharonism at the
graveside. They just need a grave to start their stem-winding
praises of Caesar.
And what is the U.S. risk here? Sharon was the Bush
administration Mid-East policy since the fall of Baghdad in 2003.
Without Sharon, without Arafat, without certainty, let loose the
jackals of peace.
topics:
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