(Some of) Israel Votes

The blogosphere is eerily quiet on the subject of today's vote in Israel. I don't quite know why that is. One would think that this would be a hot topic. Bloggers are usually pretty vocal (mirroring the obsession all American media seem to have with the Israel-Palestinian conflict) when it comes to this part of the world. I was definitely assuming that the lefty blogs would be all over this. A resounding defeat for Sharon (one of the grand villains for the American & European far left)...what great fodder!

But I suspect that no one's clucking because the outcome over there is toughto swallow when put in context. On the one hand, Sharon is seen by many on the left as a far-right hard-liner. On the other, his "Disengagement Plan" was defeated today by the right-wing in Israel. That must mean that Sharon's proposal was more centrist and moderate than people like to think. You see the bind that we're in. While Sharon's plan is hugely unpopular among the American and European left, it is even more unpopular among the Israeli right. Again, that places Sharon, strangely, in the center.

But we all know that Sharon isn't in the center and neither is his disengagement plan. But the funny thing here is that I suspect Bloggers can't bring themselves to overtly cheer a victory for the really far right. Truthfully, neither can I. I don't much like Sharon, his politics, or his Pullout Plan, and I do look forward to a day in Israel when the government is run by a center-left coalition. So it's really hard to get pumped over a vote in which the far right flexed its muscle, even if it means a potentially deadly blow to Sharon.

In any case, the silence here in the blogosphere is deafening.