Likud leadership meets for first time without Sharon

Likud’s governing body met today for the first time since Ariel Sharon’s defection, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered party even as the race to succeed him dissolved into a fury of backbiting.

The meeting of the Likud Party’s central committee, traditionally sparked by scenes of shouting, grabbing microphones and even upsetting podiums, was a low-key affair attended by only by a few hundred of the 3,000 members.