Awake! Oh frail man! Your people have called

Hope not extinguished

Just over 2 months ago, I did say that people are wont to writing the obituaries of great men long before their passing.

Mr. Ariel Sharon’s stroke came as a surprise in some cases along with the media feeding frenzy that almost rivalled the living wake-keeping of Pope John Paul II just around this time last year.

One obituary that was written and displayed so boldly was his political obituary, as analysts and protagonists suggested both him and his fledgling party were finished.

Well in a classic reversal of the machinations of man, what has been proposed has been disposed of.

A miraculous gestation

Mr. Sharon might still lay in coma in hospital in intensive care, but be assured, a man is not dead till he is dead indeed, Mr. Sharon is alive, maybe not well, but his ideas for Kadima embryonic as they might have been seems to have come to term a joyous delivery of Israel from the politics of the firebrand and those who feel they are more Jewish than their neighbours in Israel.

Security has always been the shelter of Jewish franchise, as they have mostly voted for those who would protect the nation of Israel from their occupied and chastised enemies.

We have come full circle; Israel has to seek ways of securing its borders as a nation with or without negotiation with the Palestinians.

The unwilling man of peace

In the process, Mr Sharon, the war general and erstwhile champion of the settlers who fought his old Likud party through a tidal wave of opposition to his decision to disengage from Gaza has single-mindedly won to himself the realisation that the security of Israel is in pragmatism and not hawkish rightwing pronouncements.

Mr Binyamin Netanyahu who once was a prime minister and the nemesis of Mr Sharon eventually took over the reins of Likud and is likely to rank fourth in the election spoils.

The earth is still moving

The political earthquake that had shaken the Middle-East from the death of Rafik Hariri; the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon; the election of Hamas to Palestinian government; the departure of Sharon from the Likud Party; the birth of Kadima and now the coming of Kadima has had aftershocks which seem to measure as earth-shaking as the first movement of the earth.

A worthy lieutenant takes the mantle

Mr Ehud Olmert has been a good under-study, a worthy man to step into the shoes of Ariel Sharon and a humble man enough to work in the shadow of a comatose leader to bring to fruition the plans that hardly a few months looked like a one-man idea suddenly gone absent without leave.

My hearty congratulations go to Kadima, Mr Sharon, Mr Olmert and the people of Israel who have come into political maturity.

The political landscape of Israel has shifted to the centre from the right, just as the policies of the Labour party attracted more towards the centre too.

How they fare

This now is the outlook for Israel in terms of their policies.

Source: The Economist - The polls as at the 24th of March 2006

In Jerusalem as time tells

As an aside, my blog provider located in the UK has rigidly banked on winter time as the clocks changed and advised me to adopt Jerusalem time to in order to adjust to the correct time in Amsterdam – time is on my side, by taking Jerusalem’s space in time (Eastern European - Athens, Helsinki, Jerusalem (or CEST)), I can however rejoice with the Israelis in this new dawn.

Call me pedantic, but the choices have deprecated Central European Summer Time for area names which are in the next time zone and so it follows for other time zones that handle daylight savings.

The Mayoress of our blog community has been accommodating of my histrionics and facetiousness. Hey! That's me, it just has to be right or it is wrong - we agreed to disagree - our compromise.

Not forgetting – Awake! Oh frail man

Not forgetting the so human situation that pervades our humanity, we wish Mr Sharon a restoration to health and well-being as we hail – Behold the man! Awake! Oh frail man! Your people have called.

Shalom Israel – The peace of Israel beckons.