Word: netanyahu
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...Gaza withdrawal strengthened or weakened former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bid to oust Ariel Sharon as leader of Likud, and as prime minister...
...hijacked the disengagement issue from the Gaza residents, who voice their dissent in acts of denial. Whether they succeed in disrupting the evacuation, the protesters are intent on turning it into a test of Israel's very identity. In this showdown, Sharon's detractors--including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who resigned from the Cabinet last week to side with the opposition--claim the higher power of divine right is on their side: the land God gave to the Jews cannot be given away by any state. The issues raised for the country are cosmic. Will a minority of settlers...
...ahead with his plans in spite of the vote. If the "disengagement" is followed by an upsurge in terror attacks-and everyone from Israeli military intelligence to leading Hamas figures agrees that it will-they might use that as an opportunity to ditch the prime minister. When that happens, Netanyahu may be well situated to capitalize, as the man who finally stood on principle and quit, rather than vote for the withdrawal...
...Ostensibly, Netanyahu stayed at the Finance Ministry so long because he believed Israel had an economic crisis that needed to be faced. Privately he tells people that the country was "six weeks away from being Argentina" when he took over. Since Sharon unveiled his disengagement plan in December 2003, Netanyahu carped about it, but resisted right-wing pressure for him to quit because there were important free market reforms to be carried through. Now he says those reforms are done and he's free to resign...
...quite. The cabinet votes Tuesday on the 2006 national budget, which contains many of Netanyahu's reforms. Now political insiders say there'll be some in the government who'll use the budget vote to push Sharon into early elections. Probably the old warrior will brazen out another desperate political situation, but if he fails there could be elections as early as this year. If so, Sharon knows who he'll be up against. Netanyahu wants Sharon's job, and he also wants his old position back. In a briefing with business journalists Monday, Netanyahu said: "If the public wants...