Sharon on the brink

Another righter than right wingnut going down. And hopefully in the nick of time.

Billmon has the summation (there are other embedded links in his post, so go directly to it if you want expansion):

The news just keeps getting worse for Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon -- the state prosecutor has recommended his indictment (on corruption, not war crimes charges), his son has been ordered to hand over potentially incriminating documents, his coalition is on the verge of collapse, his plans to bring the opposition Labor Party into the government are being opposed by his own party, the Likud, and the Bush administration isn't cooperating with his plans for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, right?

Right.

For some background on how the PM managed to get himself into such a legal mess, here's a post on the subject I wrote last year while I was guest hosting over at Daily Kos. It's actually a fairly amusing tale, one that bears some resemblance -- as I noted in the post -- to story of the old lady who swallowed the fly.

What Sharon's growing legal and political woes will mean for Israel, the Palestinians and the shredded scraps of the "peace process" I don't know. I'm tempted to argue the old thug's passing has to be an improvement of some sort -- but I've watched enough Middle Eastern politics to know better.

More likely, the situation will remain FUBAR -- but in a different, if equally intractable way. But at least we won't have Ariel Sharon to kick around any more.

And Billmon is probably right. Just the roles will change, but the show will go on and the plot will remain the same.

Still, I like to dream.

....you do what you want....you will anyway.