Unconfirmed Report: Sharon to Step Down

IRIS Blog

Thursday, September 22. 2005

Unconfirmed Report: Sharon to Step Down

From Debka (Caveat: sources are mainly intelligence leaks, not corroborated news sources).

Sharon to Step Down
Ariel Sharon is on the point of stepping down. Barring a last-minute change of heart, the Israeli prime minister plans to retire to his Sycamore Ranch

DEBKAfile?s political sources report that private opinion polls conducted by his team indicated that all critical Likud votes would go against him. Monday, the central committee will decide to bring forward the leadership primary from April to December, as demanded by his rivals Netanyahu and Landau.

He is not expected to fight this decision or respond by setting up a new party alliance. Our Washington sources add that President Bush has been informed of Sharon?s plan to retire.

This news has not been confirmed and I am skeptical. It does make a certain amount of sense, however, given the poor polling data for Sharon within Likud I have been frequently bringing since August 10 (the second day of this blog). If he does retire, it will be a shock to average news readers, because they never see IRIS stories such as this one from three weeks ago:

Likud Poll: Anti-Disengagement Candidates on Top, Sharon Dismal Ranking at #12

The question seems to be whether he will form a new party if rejected by the Likud.

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Posted by Barak at 16:51 | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)

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Sharon Quits Likud to Form New Party
IRIS readers got a heads-up about this possibility on Sept. 22: The question seems to be whether he will form a new party if rejected by the Likud. Sharon Leaving Likud to Form Centrist Party Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will announce on Monday that

Weblog: IRIS Blog
Tracked: Nov 21, 04:18

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