Ariel Sharon

Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon is now lying in a coma from a stroke he won't recover from. Sharon the tough old soldier/cattle rancher/politician surprised a lot of people by deciding to pull the Israel settlements from the West Bank. People wonder why Sharon did this, my guess is Sharon viewed this action as a strategic retreat. As a pragmatic old soldier Sharon had weighed his options and decided that the Israeli position on the West Bank was untenable so he pulled back to a more defensible position. Sharon probably did this he believed a major Arab assault on Israel was inevtiable in the near future and the Israelis need to conserve their forces to fight it off. Perhaps Sharon feared that religious fundamentalists will soon seize power in a number of major Arab countries and launch a Holy War on Israel. Sharon may also have hoped that the Palestinians would destroy each other in civil war something that seems to be happening. Sharon may also have concluded that pulling the settlers would make it easier for Israel's Defense Forces to target and kill Palestinian trouble makers in the West Bank. Something that also seems to be happening. Whether these scenarios will play out or not I don't but they seem a likely explanation of Sharon's behavior than a desire for "peace" as defined by the media.