In the high noon hours yesterday, as the political knot around the prime minister's disengagement plan became ever more entangled, and pressures mounted to shrink, empty and emasculate the original plan, one of Sharon's advisers protested how much more can he be humiliated? How much can he be demanded to capitulate? How much!?
Apparently there is no limit. Last night, after Sharon realized he was having a hard time getting a majority in his government even for the diluted version of his plan - three settlements and a statement the government recognizes the overall revised disengagement plan - the Prime Minister's Bureau announced that the plan would not be distributed in the meantime.
Perhaps Sharon will use the break to send Uri Shani to see what's going on in the Labor Party, to find what would be the minimal plan under which it would agree to join the government. Sharon's campaign to convince his ministers failed yesterday. Sharon asked, explained, pleaded - but the ministers said a flat no.
Last night it seemed Sharon had blundered into a dead end. The political strategist who always knew how to overpower prime ministers under whom he served, was caving in to pressures from ministers in his own party, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.
Continue...And the other view:
The end of Sharon