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There is a vacuum of leadership in the Middle East. Ariel Sharon did everything that he could to finally become Prime Minister, thinking that military might, if used aggressively and brutally enough could stop the violence and subdue the Palestinians. Boy, wasn't he wrong! He has been, as many military men are, confused about the limits of power. Sharon, now in a minority government, had to call for new elections, as he could not work out a satisfactory arrangement with Benjamin Netanyahu. But there are really no choices in this election, since there are only old candidates and old, unworkable ideas by those candidates. Both Sharon and Netanyahu have been around too long. It seems as if the Israeli government is like the US government: their politicians do not know when to go off stage, assuming their failed ideas are still workable. With Netanyahu, a former Prime Minister who was moved out of office because of some politically odorous act, poised for a come back, he is placing all the problems of Israel on Yasser Arafat. He is talking about expulsion of Arafat from Palestine as the solution. Sharon was talking about killing Arafat as the solution. It is interesting how these two failed leaders assume the position of the Omniscient concerning Palestine. They divine that Israel's problem is Arafat and the Palestinians. Why not also look at the problem within? The real problem is that Israel needs someone who can do more than talk a good game and use brutish military powers against a non-military nation. Israel needs leadership that has healing and peace as the central philosophical posture toward its neighbors. Because one nation has the power of military might over another, it isn't a given that such power is the answer to a political quandary. There must be someone in Israel with a mind to stop the Middle East madness that seems intractable.
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