Jerusalem - Israeli newspapers stressed on Monday that Ariel Sharon would have to prove his leadership ability after the stinging defeat inflicted by his own party in a vote on his plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip.
"There is nobody but him" was the headline of the Maariv daily's analysis, in which Ben Caspit wrote: "Ariel Sharon knows it. His hour of leadership has come."
The editorialist suggested that Sharon had no other option but to press on with his plan to remove settlements from Gaza and submit it this time to the general public, which has so far supported it.
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"He is stuck half-way up the mountain with a reinforced concrete wall in front of him. If he takes his foot off the gas pedal he will roll back into the abyss," Caspit said.
| 'He is a prime minister without a party' |
"Likud Humiliates PM in Gaza Poll" was the Haaretz daily's front-page headline. The newspaper put the emphasis on the divorce between the settlers and Sharon, once their champion and the architect of Israel's decades-old settlement policy.
"For the first time in a long history of interaction, a genuine breach has developed between Ariel Sharon and the Jewish settlers in the territories," the newspaper said.
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot for its part saw the main fracture has having occurred between Sharon and his Likud party, which overwhelmingly rejected the plan he spent most of the past several months staunchly defending.
"Ariel Sharon wakes up this morning to a new reality: He is a prime minister without a party," Yediot said in an analysis entitled "Sharon's Last Battle".
"If lately it seemed that Sharon could not control his ministers, the member of his faction and the Central Committee members, from yesterday it became apparent that he has also remained without his registered party members."
But the English-language daily Jerusalem Post argued that Sharon was still the Likud boss and despite appearances still had things under control.
"The leaders of the opposition camp in the Likud last night rushed to swear allegiance to the vanquished leader," the newspaper pointed out. - Sapa-AFP
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