Omri Sharon is indicted before Tel Aviv Court for alleged illegal fund-raising for his father’s election campaign. DEBKAfile: Prime minister Sharon begins planning retirementAugust 28, 2005, 1:12 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile’s political sources report that one of the prosecution’s key witnesses will be prime minister Ariel Sharon, whose legal advisers have warned him there was no way for him to avoid lengthy and repeated questioning on the witness stand and the attendant media attention.
This is one part of the rationale that has, according to our sources, persuaded the prime minister to start planning his retirement from politics at the end of the incumbent government’s life in November 2006 - that is unless he is toppled before then - rather than running for re-election.
If he opted for an early election, he would almost certainly lose the party leadership to Binyamin Netanyahu in a Likud primary.
The prime minister has been influenced by four more considerations:
1. If he quit Likud to form a new centrist party with Labor (22 Knesset seats) and Shinui (16 seats) leaders Shimon Peres and Tommy Lapid, he could not count on more than one Likud minister, his deputy Ehud Olmert, joining him. This he discovered in a quick canvass of ministerial supporters.
2. His government lost its majority in most key Knesset committees with Netanyahu’s departure from the cabinet. Governance and legislation are thus seriously disabled.
3. All his bridges are burned with the religious and ultra-religious parties (22 seats) as he discovered when he put out feelers. Sharon lost them once when he cut them out of his cabinet and again when he went through with the Gaza and northern West Bank evacuations. (My thoughts: If, in fact, his plan for the disengagement was to only save his own hide or his son's for their illegal activities, then it was all for naught!!! We definitely serve a JUST God!~~Kay)
4. According to a new opinion poll, 51 percent of Israelis think that having completed his evacuation plan, it is time for Sharon to retire to his ranch for good.
With few options in and outside Likud, the prime minister’s best chance now appears to be to keep going. Maybe something will turn up in the next year - either to improve his situation or let him retire with honor. (Oh, I think he can count on something significant turning up next year, but since Almighty God is in control, who is the owner of the land Sharon just gave to Edom, it may not quite be what he's hoping for!~~Kay)
Kay