Exalting Sharon

[Wordie]

Exalting Sharon
Collective amnesia seems the order of the day as Ariel Sharon's health takes a serious turn for the worse, writes Ramzy Baroud*

The mainstream media's lionising of the fatally ill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could only be compared to that of great men and women of past years. The hundreds of endearing commentaries, venerating news reports and glorifying television programmes -- massively sprung in the wake of his unexpected stroke on Wednesday, 4 January -- makes it doubtless that only a legacy like that of Mother Teresa can match Sharon's "towering" stature, "larger than life" persona and selfless "sacrifices" for peace.

...Despite a history dotted with numberless massacres, never once has an Israeli leader or official seen his day in an international court. To the contrary, the vilest of Israel's war criminals have been darlings of Western governments and have been influential players in US foreign policy. Only by comparing this to how Palestinian terrorism, even legitimate resistance, is perceived can one begin to appreciate the treachery of it all.

...Sharon -- the "man of peace" according to President Bush -- seems to have decidedly earned a place in history simply for relocating several thousand illegal Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza to the occupied West Bank. Though Sharon has repeatedly asserted that his decision to disengage from Gaza has more to do with Israel's strategic and demographic needs than peace, very few took notice. Though the number of illegal settlers in the West Bank has since increased by more than four per cent, this mattered little.

...But when all is said and done, Sharon the person will also matter little. His age and faltering health were doomed to sideline him sooner or later. What will have greater bearing than his life or death is his detrimental legacy, one that he has already passed on; one that glorifies unhindered violence and extremism to achieve political ends. Those who wish to fill Sharon's shoes will likely strive to prove as violent and cruel as he was. Sharon once said, Palestinians "must be hit hard" and "must be beaten" before they should be permitted to talk peace with Israel -- peace according to Israeli terms, not international law. Most of Sharon's possible successors are also strong believers in such a philosophy, which is unlikely to fade away with the fading of individuals, Sharon or any other.

* The writer is a Palestinian-American journalist.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/777/op5.htm

[PDJane]

1. Sharon

was responsible for the massacres at Sabra and Shatila. Those were genocided, and the fact that the Israelis were complicit makes them no less genocide.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. All genocide is a tragedy ---

But the Voyage of the may have also been a teenie-weenie, itsy-bitsy prelude to genocide (and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Neville Chamberlain let it happen), and I don't see any or or other - I see a bunch of people whose hatred of Bush is so undirected or misdirected that they spatter their best supporters with their Bush Hatred.

Just remember - of all of the caucasian voter groups - Jewish voters gave Gore over Bush and Kerry over Bush their strongest support.

I am Jewish - I am a Zionist - I have voted for the Democratic Candidate in 99.75% of the votes I have cast - the exception was a mayoral candidate who vowed to kill mass transit because it was too beneficial to African Americans. I tithe to the Democratic Party. I stuff envelopes. I man phone banks. I pass out literature. I drive voters to the polls. I walk precincts. I have held elective office in the Party and in local government.

[Jim Sagle]

2. Face it, guy. Sharon RRRRRRRAWWWWKSSSS!!!!!!!!

[Tom Joad]

3. Sharon was a tragedy not only for Palestine, but for Israel and the whole

Middle East.