Sharon's new centrist movement 'crushing' hard-line Likud

Ariel Sharon’s new party would sweep a March 28 election and crush the hard-line Likud Party he abandoned, allowing the Israeli prime minister to form a coalition with the dovish Labour Party, according to opinion polls published today.

Sharon’s dramatic decision earlier this week to quit the Likud Party he helped found three decades ago rocked Israel’s political establishment, leaving some of his main rivals – including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – gasping for breath and picking up the pieces of the fractured hard-line movement.