Sharon is fading away

Submitted by john mcginley (United States), Dec 23, 2003 at 12:41

Sharon is old and getting tired. He knows his days as Prime Minister, if not, indeed, his days absoltely, are numbered. He's guessing that Labor will be smart enough to nominate a centrist as candidate for PM. such a person might win and pretty soon Israel would backslide to the mentality it had before Sept. of 2001. Thus Sharon understands that it is now or never for some sort of final arrangement, whether negotiated or not. He is a realist. He has always acknowledged the need to make "painful" decisions concerning the settlements. He is doing such now. The balancing act he must engage in given Israel's dependency on the United States is enough to give one vertigo. But he seems to be holding a steady course with his eye on the prize: some sort of final arrangment, nogotiated or not, before he retires. If he pulls it off he will go down in history as a statesman at least the equal to Ben Gurion (who, you will recall, had a few serious warts of his own). The blindness of most Jews living today will keep the following from being acknolwedged for a about fifty years. but History will Judge sharon's walk on the Temple Mount as the dramatic catylyst which saved the Modern State of Israel. Withou that brave and calculated "stroll" Israel would have, by default, inaugurated a slow but sure slide into oblivion. The analogy is not perfect, but if Ben Gurion is Israel's Washington, Sharon is Isreal's Lincoln. Shalom!

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