Sharon seems to be experiencing a meltdown. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Sharon, Going on TV Over Scandal, Is Yanked Off Air

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, his once almost certain re-election thrown into the balance by corruption charges, went on the counterattack tonight, but his feisty, nationally televised news conference was abruptly yanked off the air.

As campaigning heats up for the Jan. 28 elections, Mr. Sharon and his Likud Party have been jolted first by accusations of party corruption and now by an accusation that Mr. Sharon committed bribery, fraud and breach of trust by taking a private loan to repay a political contribution.

But today, when Mr. Sharon took to the airwaves to defend himself, he was cut off after it was determined that he was using the broadcast time illegally to spread "election propaganda" in the month before the vote.
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He's gotta go

In a normal country, the first thing expected of a prime minister suspected of bribe-taking, fraud and breach of trust, who is being questioned by the police, is to step aside, right then and there. Because someone who is suspected of such crimes - after taking an outrageously oversized loan (NIS 7 million, or NIS 14 million gross) at a totally ridiculous rate of interest, repaid with tricks and shticks, through phony companies and fishy financial channels that sent the money half around the world - can't simply wash his hands of the whole affair and blame it on the media.
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Sharon's Fingerprints on Latest Suicide Bombing

It is difficult to imagine that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with his much vaunted military and strategic acumen, did not understand the consequences of his policies over the past month.

Since the last suicide bombing on November 21, escalating Israeli military assaults have killed over sixty Palestinian civilians, culminating in the December 26 wave of killing and abductions, in which Israeli occupying forces killed at least nine Palestinians, injured more than 30 and abducted several others.

On that day alone, Israeli execution squads assassinated three prominent members from three different militant Palestinian groups: Hamza Abu el-Rab of Islamic Jihad, Ibrahim Hawash, of Hamas and Gamal Abu el-Nader of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. All three groups vowed revenge.

As if on que, the horrific double suicide bombing near the old Tel Aviv bus station took place within two weeks of these assassinations and reports have now confirmed that the bombers were members of the Al- Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. Twenty two Israeli's and foreign workers were killed and a hundred more injured.
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