Dec 19, 2005

A matter of life and death

Gil Hoffman on Ariel Sharon's stroke and the implications it has for the upcoming Israeli election.
Whenever anyone dared suggest that the Likud and Labor leadership races were irrelevant, someone always apologetically whispered that one event could change the election immediately.

Already on Monday, the results of Sharon's stroke will be felt in 700 polling stations nationwide, where the Likud's 128,347 members will be electing a new leader. Suddenly the race has renewed meaning.

Likud members who might have thought they were electing an opposition leader or a transportation minister in a Kadima-led government will realize that they could be electing the next prime minister. Turnout in the race, which was expected to hover around an embarrassingly low 50 percent, is liable to skyrocket.

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