Take a random group of over-fed, over-slept and over-davened Israelis with no access to news for three days and mass psychosis sets in. By Friday night, A had bumped into B who had heard from C that D had left his fax machine on and received word that Arik Sharon had suffered a stroke. By the time we'd finished fueling up on single-malt and arbes at a sholem zocher, Sharon's life was hanging by a thread and we were preparing eitzos for Bibi, who was no doubt being solemnly sworn in on Air Force One. Eventually, The Voice Of Manila, HTs maid who is one of the few non-Jews in My Little Town, reported that CNN was not yet onto the story and we moved on to other speculation.

The episode did serve to sensitize me to the extent to which Israel's current course is totally dependent on Arik Sharon. Sharon has prosecuted the war on terror very skillfully (on which see this essay by Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael Oren). He is also taking us down a path of disengagement the motivation for which I understand, but which I believe is ultimately misguided. This deserves a detailed explanation, which I hope to get to tomorrow.