Sharon recognized the best path for his country (Silvio Berlusconi Op-Ed)

Ariel Sharon is now fighting a hard battle, the most demanding of all the political and military battles that dotted his life. I wish with all my heart that Ariel will surprise us once again, and will defeat in his marvelous warrior spirit this affliction.

When I first learned about his illness I felt a great deal of pain on the human level, but also strong concern on the political level.

During a radio broadcast for Italian radio from the prime minister's office I mentioned with emotion and affection his utter conviction when he told me that his parents had wanted a free and secure state of Israel that would live in peace with the Arabs.

I am convinced that Sharon, who devoted his entire life to this goal, had moved forward toward the finish line, the line to which whole generations of Israelis had aspired.

The entire free democratic world now sees in Sharon a real leader, an authentic statesman. A leader identifies the right path for his country, one that is not necessarily the shortest or the least painful, and encourages his people to take it. Ariel Sharon did this in spite of thousands of difficulties, and his people understood it.

The decision to evacuate the settlements and the army from the Gaza Strip was a courageous and extraordinary step that resulted in protest and brought him great pain. Only a statesman of his stature could have dared take this step, which aroused admiration on the Palestinian side as well.

Sharon's illness has unfortunately left the future unclear for Israel and the Middle East. The political concern focuses on the elections scheduled for March 28. Sharon himself expressed his certainty that the party he had recently founded would be successful.

"When he allows Sicily and the northern provinces to secede, then I might listen."

Ditto, and half of Rome to armed Islam. And no, I don't want to look at anything about political or legal technicalities on that. As some political/religious efforts have shown us, technicalities can be muddled-up with lots of rhetoric, omission and changes.

As western Europe (AKA Eurabia) refuses to find solutions to its own problems (one being fascism) while pointing fingers at the USA and Israel, it is being quietly consumed anyway.

"Italy has been considered the best friend of Israel."

Maybe by Mr Berlusconi but not by Italy or its media.

"Surely they don't want to kill me again?"
(La Stampa, 2002/04/03)

"Between Rome and Jerusalem" (Francis X. Rocca, The American Prowler, 2002/04/04)
"On Easter Sunday, the Milan newspaper Corriere Della Sera ran a front-page editorial cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, rifle in hand, sitting on a sarcophagus. The lid of the coffin is partially open and the fingers of a hand can be seen emerging from inside, trying to lift it further. In the background stands an angel, complete with wings and halo, looking on in bemusement. The caption reads: "Non resurrexit." ... Surely the cartoonist who cast Sharon in this role intended to portray him as a metaphorical Christ-killer. ... Yesterday the Turin paper La Stampa, another ultra-respectable establishment organ, ran a front-page cartoon showing a tank emblazoned with the Star of David pointing its gun straight at the baby Jesus, who tells the attackers: "Surely they don't want to kill me again?" ... While anti-Semitic imagery is still rare enough in the mainstream Italian press to make it worth remarking on, the conventional wisdom is overwhelmingly and aggressively anti-Israeli. ... In fact, no group is more one-sidedly pro-Arafat than the anti-clerical Italian left, which continues to send representatives (including the Nobel prize-winning writer Dario Fo) to stand by the Palestinian leader's side. Their ultimate motivation, like that of the other European leftists who have flocked to Ramallah recently, is hatred of a global economic system dominated by Israel's ally the United States. To them, the Star of David stands for the Stars and Stripes, and dead Palestinians are more worth mourning because they die at the hands of the superpower's proxy state."

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