[Nachum]

Love Charles Krauthammer, but he is dead wrong here.

[Hypervigilant]

Sorry, Chas, Sharon is a sell-out. An appeaser. Dropping Israel down the path that leads to the sea...

[Westlander]

'stroke' is 70's terminology. It's a brain attack. Than you have to differentiate if it was hemorrhagic or not. Jeesh!

[American in Israel]

Sharon represented, indeed embodied, the emergence of a rational, farsighted national idea that seemed poised in the coming elections to create a stable governing political center for the first time in decades.

Sounds like a fair description of Hitler by a leftist.

Sharon corrupted democracy into demockery here in Israel by going against the mandate of the people that voted him into power, then firing anybody who voted against him in the cabinet till he filled the cabinet with controlable yes men from the leftist partys.

As for farsighted, the guy needed glasses, as Gaza was exploding under his feet as he was posting notices of eviction in Hebron.

Sharon was the greatist disaster in Israel history, a man democraticly elected that attempted to create a dictatorship, and surrendered the Nation to his political whim.

[darkocean]

A country which can't afford to have people die of old age when the times comes isn't a viable country.

[Flux Capacitor]

It doesn't happen often, but Krauthammer's dead wrong.

I have always liked and respected Ariel Sharon. I still do and pray the best for him. But as Israel's PM, his decision to unilaterally surrender to the Palestinians withdraw from Gaza was a horrible, horrible, horrible mistake that will do far more damage to Israel in the long term than his own passage from this Earth (to put it bluntly).

There can be no "third way" with the Palestinians. They can never be even remotely trusted as any sort of "peace partner", certainly not as long as the generations of hate that Arafat bred are at its fore (which will be for decades). They cannot be allowed to create yet another Arab terrorist state at Israel's doorstep, and Sharon was about the last person I expected to clear the way to allow them to do just that.

As it became clear after the 2000 Intifada started that Ehud Barak would be history, I felt that Israel needed Benjamin Netanyahu more than ever. Now that Sharon is passing from the political scene (one way or another), I'm sad to say that it still does.

-Dan

[WestVirginiaRebel]

He's right about one thing: Whoever gets the job after Sharon is going to have his hands full.

[Junior_G]

Sharon is now dead.