The agony of…victory. Ariel Sharon’s decisive win over Binyamin Netanyahu in yesterday’s Likud party primary was overshadowed by violence at home and abroad. A suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned resort in Kenya that left 12 dead, including three Israelis. An unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli passenger plane in the skies above Kenya. And a shooting at a Likud voting station in northern Israel, the work of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, in which six Israelis died.
Israel’s 300,000 Likud party voters chose Sharon, the pundits say, because they trust him. And now, in the shadow of a possible U.S. war with Iraq and with two months to go before the Knesset chooses a new prime minister, that trust will be tested. Bloodshed, diplomacy, and Sharon’s challenges.
Guests:
Serge Schmemann, senior writer, The New York Times
David Horovitz, editor, The Jerusalem Report
Khaled Abu Toameh, reporter, The Jerusalem Post and U.S. News & World Report