EverWood® X tra They look like shutters. Work like blinds. To look at them you'd.swear they're real wood shutters. Buy you can open and close the slats, or raise and lower them, just like a blind. Best of all, they're EverWood'', an alternative wood blind with the character and warmth of real wood. Which means they won't crack, peel, warp or fade. Even in humid areas like the kitchen or bathroom. • Horovitz from page 42 that very vagueness was that, as he noted just a few days ago, overflows with ex-security chiefs. But while both his desire to alleviate eco- nomic inequalities here and his posi- tions on peacemaking will bring him some support, his own inexperience in defense-related issues, indeed his lack of any ministerial-level experience, limit his appeal. The Likud, meanwhile, has resolved its internal conflict and returned to some of its traditional positions under new-old leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Many longtime supporters will have sighed with relief that Sharon's depar- ture and Netanyahu's succession had put an end to the aberration of the past two years, when a party dedicated to thwarting the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River was led by a prime minister with the opposite intent. But others, who had embraced what they saw as Sharon's pragmatism, will have been alienated. Between those Labor and Likud poles, the same electorate that was so masterfully wooed by Sharon now waits and worries. The cynics derided Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni and Shimon Peres and Haim Ramon and Tzahi Hanegbi as oppor- tunists united only by their sense that Ariel Sharon represented their best ticket to continued political poN;ver and influence. A descent into bickering over the succession, replete with the kind of personal mudslinging that Sharon had sought to nip in the bud, will vindicate those critics and destroy Kadima elec- torally. Not so, however, a consensual organization of the Knesset slate, cham- pioning the platform Kadima's mem- What Future Holds bers say has long been taking shape. Sharon's self-declared personal ambi- The electorate will tolerate far less tion to set Israel's permanent borders from other Kadima leaders of the cali- will not be realized now. Time has run brated vagueness they forgave in out on that dream. History turned too Sharon. At the same time, the party will slowly for him. necessarily lose support the more clear- And as is always the way, the spotlight ly it sets out its positions. But there is, now moves on, and the question of nonetheless, a wide swathe of central Sharon's abiding influence hinges on ground that Sharon bestrode and that what happens inside the vehicle, Kadima could still occupy if it were to Kadima, that he had assembled and tai- try to derive positive momentum from lored to his personal political contours. his demise. Just a few days before he suffered the His rivals will seek to prevent massive stroke, Sharon scolded Ehud, Tzipi and the other Kadima children for Kadima's flourishing now. Will the fact that the prime minister so dominated squabbling over who was daddy's that nascent party now doom it? Or will favorite, telling them to put their egos his colleagues demonstrate that there is aside and remember that he would be running things for many years to come. life for Ariel Sharon's party, and his vaguely defined vision, without Ariel Orphaned, they face the immense test Sharon. ❑ of political life without him. Though Kadima was all-too plainly David Horovitz is editor of the Jerusalem Sharon's party, it has a logic that poten- Post, where this column first appeared on tially survives him. Jan. 5. Amir Peretz heads a Labor party one of the secrets of his popularity. Trust me, the implicit message ran. Keep me in power, and everything will be all right. And the Israeli public was ready to do so — notwithstanding that history of zigzagging, and more. By rights, he should have alienated just about every voter by now — the left by invading Lebanon, the right by leaving Gaza, the environmentalists by throwing the bull- dozers at every housing problem, not to mention most everyone who expects standards of integrity from their leaders by allegedly playing fast and loose with campaign finance laws and embroiling himself in a series of unsavory financial and influence-trading escapades. Despite all that, more Israelis were backing him than any of his rivals — a reflection not only of the power and res- onance of Sharon's personality, but of the perceived paucity of the alternatives. Had he specified exactly what policies he intended to follow, come cleaner with the electorate, he would have been doing our democracy a service and he would, of course, have left far less of a vacuum now He would also have dented that extraordinary perception, so widely felt, of his own indispensability. But no man is indispensable. And no man can forever defy those mortal limi- tations — no matter how lightly he may shrug off the unavoidable toll of advanc- ing years or dismiss the particular strains of an unhealthy lifestyle and eat- ing habits or appear so easily to shoulder the uniquely onerous burden of leading embattled Israel. HunterDougas Willicw fashions Free In-Home Service • Free Professional Measure At No Obligation rni k e wr/u/. q uallajd s visit our website www.BlindSpotDecor.com Cali today for a free in-home presentation VISA SPOT Southfield • 248-352-8622 Canton • 734-692-5002 21728 W. 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