by Dror Eydar
1. Ariel
Sharon left us eight years ago. Yesterday was his final step. He
disengaged from us following the last significant act of his life, which
was, ironically, the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Much like his
giant personality, bursting with charisma and always controversial --
his death, too, was unprecedented: Eight years of limbo between heaven
and earth.
2. It is a shame Sharon
was never embraced by the media -- or at least that he didn't receive
fair treatment -- prior to his last political act. One could honestly
say that Sharon was merely interested in the retreat from Gaza, but that
the media detractors who became his champions were interested in the
destruction of Jewish communities, the "settlements."
3. The Ariel Sharon who
ascended to the premiership was different from the decorated general who
crossed the Suez Canal in 1973. The tactician was still there, but the
decades of being perpetually delegitimized ensured that his pragmatism
-- which had helped him before -- would override other considerations,
no less profound and far-reaching.
4. For years, Sharon was
the punching bag for journalist Yoel Marcus, who, like the rest of his
colleagues, never missed an opportunity to take a swing at the person
perceived as the biggest threat to the Left's hegemony.
Indeed, the first time Sharon outlined his disengagement plan was to the very same Marcus who Sharon had invited to his ranch.
The enemy became
infatuated. In historical terms, Ariel Sharon "walked to Canossa" to
clear his name, and on his path toward gaining renewed acceptance from
his enemies, those who he grew up with and who educated him in his
youth, before he crossed the line to join his political rivals.
5. In the Mishnah's Ethics
of the Fathers, we are taught by Joshua ben Perachiah to "judge every
man favorably." One interpretation sees it as instruction to look at
each person as an aggregate whole, not to judge him by one specific act
or another.
In regard to the calls I
have heard from the Right: With all due respect to the pain involved,
Sharon and his lifelong contributions to Israel's security and to the
settlement enterprise cannot strictly be seen through the prism of the
disengagement. The appropriate historical distance is required in order
to distill the important from the unimportant.
Rest in peace, Ariel Sharon, even your rivals salute you.
Dror Eydar
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=6987
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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