Bibi’s back preparing for Sharon challenge

How about that. CNN (and others) is reporting that former Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has agreed to an offer by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to become his foreign minister on the condition that early elections be called.
What a great idea! (Sarcasm here, by the way.) Here’s a great way to defuse Palestinian violence by bringing in the second-most hawkish man in Israel (behind Sharon) to handle foreign affairs. Bibi was almost as bad as Sharon in attempting to strangle Palestinian aspirations for statehood and was aggressive in expanding settlements.
But Bibi’s ambitions are obvious. He’s made no secret that he would like to sit in Sharon’s chair again, and a place in Sharon’s cabinet would give him a platform from which to launch a new election campaign, especially if he gets his wish for a new timetable for elections.
With Sharon at the head, a hard-line defense minister and now Netanyahu back, the Palestinians will be wishing for Barak to come back. (Back to Barak 2.0?) And not just Palestinians, but all Arabs. In the event of future hostilities between Iraq and the United States, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yassir Arafat exiled from the West Bank and possibly even the forced removal of Palestinans from the occupied territories.
Heavy sigh. Peace is further away than ever. And no one in the West will escape the heat of a Middle East in flames.