Sharon to Form New Party After Call for Early Election

[Chicago Democrat]

Sharon to Form New Party After Call for Early Election

By STEVEN ERLANGER
and GREG MYRE
Published: November 21, 2005
JERUSALEM, Nov. 21 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel said today that he had decided to form a new political party because staying in the party he had helped to found, the hard-line Likud, "meant wasting time with politics instead of working for the good of the nation."

Mr. Sharon said his new party, which he described as liberal, would work toward "peace and tranquillity."

At an evening news conference to announce his decision, Mr. Sharon said that he would rule out unilateral pullbacks in the West Bank through his new party, but that he was committed to following the "road map" for Palestinian statehood backed by the United States.

"The Likud in its present configuration cannot lead the nation to its goals," he said. "I founded the Likud to give hope to Israel. Unfortunately, this is no longer there."

Mr. Sharon, 77, has a long history of taking bold risks, both as an army commander and as a politician. With his latest gamble, he faces a major electoral challenge in leading his untested National Responsibility party into parliamentary elections, which appear likely to be held in March

http://nytimes.com/2005/11/21/international/middleeast/21cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1132635600&en=eb38c9a37f9e8b89&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[sasquatch]

1. This should be interesting

[Burried News]

2. Likud is too radical for Ariel Sharon - now that is Irony beyond

what any fiction writer could create.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Not wilder than the racist fiction that the Likud party supports, sadly...

PB

[Chicago Democrat]

3. I pray for peace in all of the Middle East and all the Old Lions lay down

and dream about children instead of land.

[Burried News]

5. Lions eat cubs that are not their own. But I agree with your wish for

peace in the ME.