Sharon Expected To Be Forced Out Within Months

January 12, 2004 (Geo-strategy-direct) 

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to quit within a few months under the heat of a police investigation. Prosecutors are expected to seek indictments over his family's alleged involvement in illegally obtaining millions of dollars from a South African businessman. 
Sharon knows that one of his sons will be indicted and feels sick over it. Sharon hasn't cooperated with investigators, saying any improprieties regard private family business rather than him. 

Sharon's children borrowed money to pay his campaign debt and to help his candidacy in the 2001 national elections. 

But Sharon won't step down from power without a fight. He has initiated a peace effort with Syria and vowed to carry out unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in what some political analysts say is an effort to relieve leftwing opposition pressure. 

Sharon's message is that only he can bring a withdrawal from these territories and any attempt to dismiss him would torpedo the process. 

Many feel this argument is not persuasive. The ruling Likud Party has been involved in a power struggle for succession. So far, former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, currently the finance minister, is the favorite. 

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