Well, it seems, the joke is on us.

The so-called Likud rebels in the Knesset had a chance to force Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to go to elections, but instead they capitulated and gave him the votes he needed this week to pass the state budget on its initial reading.

Full of bluster and tough talk, the rebels speak menacingly about how they will vote against the budget in the future if Sharon does not agree to a national referendum regarding his Gaza withdrawal plan. Sounding like characters from one of comedian Jackie Mason’s well-known routines, the “rebels” now threaten that next time, they are really, really, really going to let Sharon have it if he dares to cross them again.

Yeah, right.

Essentially, what the “rebels” accomplished this week was to pave the way for a broadening of the coalition government. Less than 24 hours after they gave Sharon the majority he wanted in parliament, the Prime Minister was busy meeting with Shas Party Chairman Eli Yishai in an attempt to entice him to join the government.

With the United Torah Judaism party already providing the coalition with a religious imprimatur, it probably won’t take long for Shas to enter as well, thereby cementing Sharon in power and bringing the Gaza retreat that much closer.

And should it come to that, it will be thanks, at least in part, to those very same “rebels” who when given the opportunity, couldn’t even muster up the courage to rebel.

One of the men most responsible for producing the anti-Western and anti-American extremism of the past few years passed away early today, but you would never know it from the fawning obituaries already appearing in the mainstream media.

Saudi King Fahd, an unelected autocrat ruling over a despotic desert kingdom, died today after a prolonged illness. He presided over a kingdom where public beheadings were common, all forms of dissent were ruthlessly crushed, and from which Islamist extremism was exported around the world.

It was less than four years ago that 15 Saudi men joined four other hijackers in the September 11 attacks on the United States – attacks that were carried out, of course, at the behest of a Saudi-born terrorist mastermind named Osama Bin Laden.

Nonetheless, despite Fahd’s ghastly record, the media is doing its best to paint him as a harmless moderate, a benign despot who was a friend of the West.

Take, for example, the Times of London, which said that “King Fahd will be remembered as the ruler who steered Saudi Arabia through a period of extraordinary change.”

Or how about CNN, which said that Fahd “continued to try to work for Mideast peace over the years” – completely ignoring the flow of Saudi funds to terrorist groups throughout the region.

This is nothing more than gibberish. King Fahd was an odious character whose regime sowed the seeds of terror while repressing his own people through corruption and avarice.

If there is something to mourn about his passing, it is that the legacy of hate and malfeasance that he left behind will unfortunately not end with his demise.

It was “a rally of shlemazels”, said Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, using the unflattering Yiddish word to describe Sunday night’s massive anti-withdrawal protest at the Knesset. “There was no enthusiastic spirit,” he said.

The fact that some 200,000 Israelis of all ages, backgrounds and colors had gathered peacefully to protest the government’s policy in one of the largest demonstrations in the country’s history – well, that seems to have been lost on Mr. Peres, who preferred to engage in childish name-calling.

Literally, the word “shlemazel” means a person with bad luck – it is an amalgamation of the words shlim (meaning “bad”) and mazel (meaning “luck”). But beyond its literal definition, it is used primarily to denigrate, to mock and to scorn.

It seems to me that the only “bad luck” the protesters really have is that their Government – as exemplified by Mr. Peres himself – takes no heed of the people’s will. Indeed, the primary demand voiced by the protesters was to hold a national referendum on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan, and what could possibly be more democratic than that?

But Sharon, Peres & Co. have no time for such things, preferring instead to believe that they, and only they, know what is good for the country – and who cares what anyone else might think.

And that is precisely one of the fundamental problems with Israel’s current political system – an unwillingness to listen, to hear, to contemplate and to consult. I guess it is just easier to label your opponents a bunch of “shlemazels” than to contend with the questions that they raise.

In any other country, of course, Mr. Peres would be forced to apologize, if not resign, for speaking so derisively about an entire segment of the public. That, of course, is unlikely to occur.

At the very least, though, since he seems to be fond of the Yiddish language, I hope the next time Mr. Peres considers insulting the public, he will bear in mind the old Yiddish saying: “A fool who can keep silent is counted among the wise”.

Fall is upon us, the air outside has turned brisk, and along with the new burst of cold winds come indications that elections may soon be in the offing.

At a meeting today that was described as “difficult”, Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the Shinui party he heads will not support the government’s proposed budget when and if it comes to a vote in the Knesset, because of funds promised to the religious parties.

Since Sharon’s coalition has shriveled in recent months to just 55 seats out of the 120 in parliament, and Lapid controls 15 of those, the blow to Sharon is both personal and political.

Personal – because Sharon went out of his way to make Shinui a senior partner in the government from the very beginning of his term. He gave them some of the most important ministries (such as Justice and Interior) while at the same time brushing aside the Likud’s traditional parliamentary cooperation with the ultra-Orthodox parties such as Shas and United Torah Judaism in favor of Lapid.

Political – because Sharon can no longer claim to have anything even resembling a coalition. He threw out the National Union/ Yisrael Beitenu faction a few months ago over their opposition to the Gaza withdrawal plan, and then he effectively forced out the National Religious Party over his refusal to conduct a national referendum on the retreat.

Along the way, Sharon has mistreated his opponents, such as Shas and even Labor, to such an extent, that neither even wants to enter into a unity government with him. Even the Likud has begun to split from within, as half the party’s Knesset members now proudly call themselves “the rebels”, vowing to prevent the Gaza withdrawal from occurring.

And so, at the end of the day, all that remains of Sharon’s coalition is little more than political rubble. He ran roughshod over the system, and over those who dared to get in his way, and now at last it seems that his actions have begun to boomerang on him, leaving him with few remaining options other than to head for early balloting.

So while the temperature outside may be starting to drop, prepare yourselves for a great deal of political heat in the days and weeks to come. Elections, it seems, may be just around the corner.

Anyone who thought that the demise of Yasser Arafat would pave the way towards a more moderate Palestinian leadership would do well to listen to what the Palestinians themselves are saying (rather than the overly-optimistic pundits).

Indeed, in recent days, virtually all of the candidates aiming to replace the late Palestinian leader have been outdoing each other to sound more extreme than the next. Take, for example, Mahmoud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen), who told the Palestinian Legislative Council in Ramallah yesterday:

“We will not rest until the right of our people to return is granted and the tragedy of the refugees comes to an end… We shall act to realize his [Arafat’s] dream to achieve an independent state that has already been promised by international law, with its capital in Jerusalem.”

Similarly, at the same session of the Council, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (a.k.a. Abu Ala) said:

"We will follow in the path of the late leader Yasser Arafat, and we will work toward fulfilling his dream. We promise you that our hearts will not rest until the right of return for our people is achieved and the tragedy of the refugees is ended."

Now, as just about everyone knows, Arafat’s “dream” is effectively Israel’s nightmare. When Abu Mazen and Abu Ala call for the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, this is the equivalent of calling for Israel’s destruction, because it would mean flooding the tiny Jewish state with millions of hostile Palestinians.

Then there is Farouk Kaddumi, who was recently appointed secretary-general of Arafat’s Fatah faction of the PLO. Speaking at a memorial service Tuesday in Beirut for Arafat, Kaddumi was even more explicit: "We cannot achieve goals except through continued resistance by all methods and means," he said. After nearly four years of ongoing Palestinian terror, we know precisely what it is that Mr. Kaddumi has in mind.

Even Ghassan Barham, a Palestinian Christian lawyer from the Jenin area who has also declared his candidacy to replace Arafat, has been seeking to boost his popularity among the Palestinian electorate by justifying the murder of Israelis. Asked by a reporter for his opinion of Palestinian suicide attacks, Barham refused to classify them as a form of terrorism, instead asserting that, “These attacks are carried out in revenge for Israeli aggression”.

I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that these are the kind of people that are often labeled Palestinian moderates. After all, in his remarks yesterday at the Palestinian Council, Abu Mazen declared that Arafat himself was a “moderate”, if you can believe that one.

As far as I’m concerned, what all this goes to show is that the problem in our region has not been one of a particular personality (i.e. Arafat), but of the very existence of the Palestinian Authority, which has time and again shown itself to be a terrorist entity run by a merciless collection of thugs.

The fact is that no matter who the Godfather is that’s in charge, the Mafia still remains the Mafia, with all that entails.