Sharon suffered a humiliating personal defeat in the Knesset today, when two of his cabinet promotions were rejected by a coalition of Arab parties, far Left members, and Likud rebels. We wonder if those on the right side of the blogosphere who are are crowing about this are at all uncomfortable that they’re parroting celebratory Ha’aretz editorials (not to mention advancing a political strategy that will lead to a Left-wing government). We also wonder whether the Likud rebels who spitefully choose to oppose Sharon on these relatively minor issues are at all uncomfortable with the fact that they’ve effectively ruined their political careers:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to take revenge against the eight Likud MKs whose votes blocked the appointments of his allies Roni Bar-On and Ze’ev Boim to the cabinet on Monday… Sharon brought the appointments of Ehud Olmert as finance minister, Matan Vilna’i as Science and Technology Minister, along with Bar-On and Boim’s appointments in one bloc. When the appointments failed to pass in a 60 to 54 vote, he quickly convened the cabinet, which unanimously passed a proposal to appoint only Olmert and Vilna’i, who were later approved by the Knesset by a vote of 71 to 41…
“In the past year and half, a minority in the coalition attempted to put spokes in the government’s wheels,” Sharon told the cabinet. “They succeeded here and there but the government still managed to do everything it wanted.” Sharon told the Knesset that it was unfortunate that the appointments of Bar-On and Boim that the Likud deserved according to its coalition agreements were “thwarted because of divisiveness and personal motives.” He promised that there would be “consequences” against the MKs he called “so-called coalition members.”
