Ellis Shuman is israelinsider's Senior Editor. Prior to joining the israelinsider team, he served as webmaster for Yazam. Mr. Shuman was trained in the hospitality industry, and worked in many capacities at the Neve Ilan Hotel and at the Jerusalem Hilton. In addition, Mr. Shuman serves as Israeli Culture Guide for About.com. ellis@israelinsider.com
More from Ellis Shuman
	The night the settlers seized the media
	Don’t shoot the messenger
	Fig leaf or restored dignity?
	Why Barak should go home

Now, with a tenuous cease-fire in place in name only, incapable of preventing the daily acts of Palestinian violence, many of Barak's voters find themselves serving as some of Ariel Sharon's most loyal supporters. Ever since Sharon announced Israel's unilateral cease-fire and his policy of restraint, former diehard leftists have supported the Prime Minister, painfully realizing that hopes for a quick and final resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been shattered along with the collapse and silencing of the Peace Camp.

In the midst of heated demands for action, revenge and battle from the right, Sharon has taken the high road of disciplined self-control. This restraint comes as a welcome surprise to the left, and they support it wholeheartedly. Even so, this support is mostly silent, as it comes with the realization that peaceful alternatives are in short supply.

The path the government has chosen is the only sane path there is in these insane times. Yet government policy may change any day now due to the mockery of Israel's former peace partners, who give green lights to shootings, bombings and shellings, events that don't constitute cease-fire violations by their definition.

To consider an all-out war against the Palestinian Authority is to consider shooting out wildly in all directions, against not only armed militants and terrorists but also against the massive weight of world opinion and moral integrity as well. The consequences of such a move, including the steep price to be paid in the blood of our finest soldiers, would be an apocalyptic wasteland of uncontrollable violent militias backed by the unleashed armies of Israel's Arab neighbors.

Therefore, the policy of restraint is the correct one, and support must be given to the Prime Minister in these trying times.

How is this possible -- for members of the left to openly support Ariel Sharon? Is it because Ariel Sharon is the person best suited to lead the nation at this time, or is it because we Israelis are "left with Sharon," with no alternative who could possibly extract us from the dangerous and painful predicament in which we find ourselves? Israelis await a messenger announcing a platform that will bring Israelis together and at the same time offer a hope of coexistence with our Palestinian neighbors. No such messenger can be found today among the ranks of the left, center and right of the Israeli political spectrum.

Once, not so long ago, there was a sound majority in Israel that supported the peace cause. Israelis were willing to accept an independent Palestinian State alongside Israel, with territorial withdrawals and exchanges establishing the permanent borders between the two countries. The strategic choice made by the Palestinian leadership to forgo additional negotiations and elect violence as their modus operandi resulted in an alienation of Israel's peace camp and culminated in the massive public support given to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Today, whether defined as members of the left that support Sharon, or as members of those left with Sharon, Israel's left appears to have no viable alternative other than to support Sharon.

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