By Donald H. Harrison 

Nancy and I were out to dinner last night with a couple whose daughter lives  in Israel.  Due to the time difference between Israel and here, the parents had known about the massive stroke suffered by Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before their daughter did.  It happened late in the evening in Israel, after their daughter had gone to sleep.  It was the daytime here in California—plenty of time for the news to be disseminated, commented upon, analyzed and dissected.  

The next morning, Israeli time, the daughter listened to a broadcast and couldn't make immediate sense of the discussion.  So, Sharon was in the hospital, but that was expected, wasn't it?  He had been scheduled to return to the hospital for treatment in the wake of his minor stroke late last year.  Then it dawned on her; the people on the broadcast weren't talking about  Sharon's  expected follow-up treatment, something else, something bad, had happened to Israel's leader.

When she called her parents—an Israeli father and American mother—they, of course, were able to fill in many details, gleaned not only from CNN and other American news services, but from having closely monitored the internet edition of Ha'aretz.  

As they related the story over at our local  Thai restaurant (Jade), it struck me, again, how instantaneous communications, 24 hour news services, and the internet have all changed our world.  We not only become familiar "as it happens" with news breaking elsewhere on the globe, but, in the case of Israel and Palestine, we have become so intimate with the personalities of the region, it is as if those events are transpiring next door.  We have become so familiar with names like Ariel Sharon, Mahmoud Abbas, Shimon Peres, Amir Peretz, Ehud Olmert and Bibi Netanyahu  that we can speculate about them with almost as much familiarity—and knowledge— as San Diegans do about Mayor Jerry Sanders and former Mayors Dick Murphy, Susan Golding, Maureen O'Connor and Pete Wilson.

I was not surprised, nor particularly offended, that tele-Christian Pat Robertson suggested that Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for his decision to give away lands in Eretz Israel. Robertson's comments fit in with those of other religious fundamentalists on both sides of the Arab-Israeli divide.  Various Jewish settlers called the stroke  the price God exacted for Sharon's betrayal of the Jews of Gaza, and various Arabs celebrated the medical downfall of an arch enemy.  The only difference between them and Robertson is that Robertson lives farther away—and in the age of technology, those distances have melted into insignificance.

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show polished off Robertson and the other religious fundamentalists by showing  a photograph of the obese Sharon before his stroke, then observing that Sharon's diet and the stress of his job were far more likely causes than God's retribution—unless of course,  God, Himself, had been forcing Sharon all these years to stuff himself with so much food.

We and our dinner partners  agreed, that even if Sharon somehow recovers from the stroke, his political career likely will be over; that for health reasons, he probably will  retire to the ranch.  An Israeli poll indicated that if either Peres or Olmert leads Kadima into the next round of elections, the brand new party could win either 42 or 40 seats respectively.  Our Israeli dinner companion said Peres has been in the lead before, only to end up losing. Whatever you might think of Peres, he doesn't seem to have the ability to win elections. 

I am an admirer of Peres, both politically and personally, but it seems to me the fact that Sharon, at 77, suffered a stroke militates against Peres who is now about 82. The one thing Israelis may want in the aftermath of Sharon now lying in an induced coma is some political stability.  Therefore, they may favor a younger candidate.  My Israeli friend said no one should count out Peretz, the new head of Labor.  A Moroccan Jew who came of political age  in the northern Negev town of Sderot, Peretz has been politically underestimated--to his advantage--all his life.  Remember, he was the one who defeated Peres already in the battle for the leadership of the Labor party..

We had two Israeli politicians booked for appearances here in San Diego.  Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak still is scheduled to address the Men's Event of the United Jewish Federation on January 17th—his appearance as a result of Sharon's medical situation likely to be all the more newsworthy.  Education Minister Limor Livnat had been scheduled to participate in the Agency for Jewish Education's "Limmud"—Day of Learning—on Sunday, January 22nd, but the critical political situation in Israel forced her cancellation. Allan Hoffman, the deputy director of the Jewish Agency for Israel will fill in.