The long shadow of Ariel Sharon

The Gaza War was the consequence of the policy of force rooting in the revisionist Zionism of the 1920s and expanding after Ariel Sharon took power in 2001 – a policy that was backed by the Bush-doctrine securing the solid support of a superpower over eight years. It would be too early to answer the question how the apparently diverging US and Israeli politics in the region – after Barack Obama set his new priorities in the Middle-East – can be consolidated.