A concept is born - the
`Sharon legacy.` Like its predecessor, the `Rabin legacy,` it too will
present a persona entirely different from the real person. Therefore, a
moment before Prime Minister Ariel Sharon becomes the `Sharon legacy,`
the hero of peace and the disengagement who, had he only continued in
his role a little longer, would have brought peace to Israel - we would
do well to sketch his non-mythical persona, without mincing words.
Perhaps
the most influential leader since David Ben-Gurion, Sharon was the
cause of many of the political and security problems now facing Israel.
This must be said honestly, even now. The new Sharon, who has earned
the respect of a large number of Israelis and of most of the countries
in the world, tried in his twilight years only to repair some of the
historical mistakes into which he led the country during his life. The
settlement project, the strengthening of Hamas and the emergence of
Hezbollah as a threatening and significant factor in Lebanon - all owe
a great debt to Sharon`s policies.
The belated enthusiasm for
Sharon is therefore enthusiasm for a clever leader, who tried toward
the end of his life to extricate himself somehow from situations that a
wise leader would never have gotten into in the first place. He is
deserving of respect for this belated change, for his recognition of
the limitations of power, for his awareness of the harmfulness of the
settlement project and the criminality of the occupation, but it is
impossible to ignore his critical role in creating all of these.
Because he remained very faithful to his basic worldview, which
maintains that there is no chance of peace with the Arabs, we cannot
also present him as a `hero of peace` now - just as it was an
exaggeration to turn the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin into such a
hero after his assassination.
The old Sharon was the one who
led the country into the most superfluous and harmful of Israel`s wars,
the Lebanon War, and would not even raise his hand in favor of the
peace agreement with Jordan - the easiest and most convenient of such
agreements, from Israel`s point of view. The new Sharon blatantly
ignored the Palestinians. In critical moves such as the disengagement
or the construction of the separation fence, he ignored their
existence, their needs and their desires. He did not attempt to achieve
peace with them, because he did not for a moment believe that it was
possible.
The Sharon legacy will recall mainly the
disengagement, not Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin in 2002, nor the
retaliation raid in Qibya in 1953, nor the other violent and
superfluous operations - just as the Rabin legacy remembers mainly the
Oslo Accord. Perhaps that is a lesson for our future leaders: Eternal
glory is achieved via peace agreements, not via glorious battlefields.
But
even those who believe that Sharon intended to evacuate more
settlements cannot ignore the fact that this was a matter of removing
some of the rotten fruits of his policy. The historian will remember
all of Sharon`s insane maps, the `settlement blocs,` the `legal` and
`illegal` outposts, for which he may have been more responsible than
any other Israeli, all of which were designed to prevent any
possibility of a just agreement with the Palestinians.
But if
on the subject of the settlements Sharon tried to repair the damage he
caused - that is not the case in other areas. Israel`s two bitterest
enemies at present, Hamas and Hezbollah, achieved their positions of
strength to no small degree thanks to him. During that same accursed
war, the Lebanon War, which is attributed to him, Sharon brought about
the removal of the Palestinians from South Lebanon, and their
replacement by Hezbollah.
He can take credit for an amazingly
similar outcome years later vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority, when
he preferred the religious fundamentalists to the moderate secular
camp. The new Sharon, who is beloved and esteemed, is responsible for
the collapse of the PA as the central entity in the occupied
territories, and to its replacement - whether by Hamas, which now
threatens to assume control of the government, or by the anarchy that
threatens to destroy everything.
During all his years as prime
minister, Sharon refrained from granting any support to the leaders of
the PA, so that they could establish their rule under the Israeli
occupation. Even when the late PA chair Yasser Arafat died, Sharon did
not allow his moderate successor to present any significant achievement
to his people: neither the release of prisoners, nor a significant
increase in freedom of movement, nor taking the Palestinian people into
consideration when planning the route of the fence, nor even
participation in the beginning of negotiations. Instead, Sharon`s
Israel did everything in its power to bring about the destruction of
the PA and to humiliate it in the eyes of its people. A violent Israeli
military effort, which reached its peak in Operation Defensive Shield,
caused the collapse of all the PA mechanisms: Police stations that were
meant to stabilize the government and to fight terror were bombed
mercilessly, and all the mechanisms of the PA and its government
offices were destroyed one after another. In the political and social
vacuum that resulted, Hamas could only flourish.
The last
chapter of his political life saw the eruption of the Iranian threat,
perhaps the most dangerous of all. How ironic it is that this threat,
which emphasizes the irrelevance of territory in maintaining the
country`s security, appeared in the waning days of the man who all his
life believed that territory is the be-all and end-all.
A
moment before Sharon enters the national pantheon, we would do well to
remember that at best, we are losing a courageous fighter and a clever
statesman rather than a wise one, who caused a great deal of damage and
is now leaving the stage enveloped by the blind love of his people.
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