Posted on 07/15/2006 5:26:47 AM PDT by Valin
ONE man is missing from the military crisis. Far from the sound and fury of battle on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Ariel Sharon lies in a coma in a clinic in a Tel Aviv suburb. The former Israeli Prime Minister, once a general and a war hero, has been on hand for almost every decisive moment in the country’s short history, but is absent from the fray.
Instead, his sons Omri and Gilad and his wife, Inbal, take it in turns to watch over the 78-year-old in his bright room with its picture window in the Sheba Medical Centre. Close friends of the former leader occasionally gather outside the room to greet the family and reminisce.
Those who had put such faith in his leadership miss him most in the midst of the conflict. But Israelis who appeared to move on when the Prime Minister collapsed with a brain haemorrhage on January 4 are also suffering twinges that he is not around now.
“Of course the Israeli people feel different today without him,” Uri Dan, 71, a lifelong confidant, said. “They now realise it was the historic loss of a gigantic leader, a colossus.”
Mr Dan, who fought alongside Mr Sharon, said that he was not a lone voice pining for the lost leader. He pointed to the admission by Meir Shitreet, a Cabinet Minister, that he missed Mr Sharon and his war-time experience, while an article by the liberal columnist Sever Plotzker in Yedioth Ahronoth was headed simply: “Where is Sharon?” “He is a Churchillian figure,” Mr Dan said. “He has real qualities of leadership and commanded the trust of the people.”
Reuven Adler, another member of Mr Sharon’s inner circle, is equally unswerving in his belief in the former leader’s ability to make the right calls in tough situations.
“He was a master of the kind of situation Israel finds itself in today,” the advertising man, who wrote speeches for Mr Sharon, said. “He became an icon — ‘Mr Security, Mr Defence, Mr Warrior’. In circumstances like these he knew he was playing on his field.”
But Mr Adler is less certain that Israelis will be thinking of Mr Sharon. He thinks that the public has confidence in the man who donned “Arik’s” mantle, Ehud Olmert. “It’s two different disciplines,” Mr Adler said. “Mr Olmert is like a company CEO; very intelligent, very clever, a solicitor. I believe we’re in safe hands and I think Israelis feel the same way.”
So odd the way things worked out. If Sharon were still in charge, he'd be blamed for everything no matter what. (Prayers for Sharon and his family. Our thoughts have been with them all this time, and for Israel, too.)
He is there...... his legacy is to attack, attack, attack
Remember the Rules
Rule #1 No matter what Israel is always wrong.
Rule #2 In the unlikely event that Israel does something right...see Rule #1
Israel is blessed to have Olmert in charge right now.
It is far too late to bemoan the loss of Sharon. Ariel Sharon tried to destroy both Hizbollah and the PLO in Lebanon, in one dramatic stroke in 1982. But in his greatest blunder as President, Ronald Reagan forced Israel to back down. In addition, Reagan turned tail and ran when 300 of our Marines were murdered in their barracks by Hizbollah/Syria. We had a chance to defeat the then-nascent Islamoterrorism right there. Sharon and Israel had Arafat and Hizbollah trapped and ready to be destroyed. But Reagan saved them, and now we have a PLO terror state in Gaza, and a missile and drone-armed Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Everything is in God's hands. Mr. Sharon was a great warrior, but Israel has plenty more.
Is he still in a coma?
When looking back and looking for people to blame, let's not forget Jimmy Carter and Bubba Clinton.
So they say.
I have thought about Sharon a lot since the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I think the Palis/Hamas/Hizbollah would have thought twice before striking in this manner if Sharon was still in charge.
I have done that for years. Clinton emboldened Al Queda by not retaliating after the U.S.S. Cole was hit. But 19 men were killed on the Cole, compared with 241 Marines in Beirut. And Reagan turned tail and ran, giving Hizbollah, Syria and Iran and undisputed victory. Of course, Reagan was more concerned with defeating the Soviets. But those brave American lives were never avenged, and the murderers are killing Israelis today. We should learn the lesson from 1982, and openly call for a total destructionof Hizbollah by Israel. Right here. Right now. Put an end to it once and for all. Then capture the Hizbollah leader and send him to the U.S. to be tried on 241 counts of murder.
That crossed my mind too. I am sure he has.
God Bless Israel and Israel's allies!
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