Pre Obituary
Not to gloat but if Ariel Sharon dies of being an overweight mass murdering bastard I will not exactly be weeping. Possibly I might shed a tear he won’t ever face justice but that’s all.
However when he does shuffle wheezing off this mortal coil and into some afterlife where he and Arafat can glare at each other across some heavenly table it will be interesting to not how he is remembered. Bearing in mind when Arafat died there was plenty of kind words from the western press but a lot more condemnation, accusations of ineptitiude and terrorism. Now he wasn’t so good, as a president or a negotiator but he did more for the Palestinian people than anyone else.
Sharon however has dedicated his life to trying to annihilate them, from his early days in the Hagannah shelling refugee camps, to his commanding of the Israeli forces in Lebanon and allowing massacres of women and children by the Phalange Militia. That and his provocation that caused the Intifada in 2000, and his actions as PM which have been more about shafting the Palestinians while the world praises him for letting the Palestinians have access to a beach that they already own anyway.
Sharon is no man of peace, neither is he the big man for standing up to the settler movement, he practically created them. He always knew that they would have to give some territory back. Giving back Gaza was a no brainer, they never really wanted it anyway- however in return they will probably keep Jerusalem, the west bank and all those bits nicked from Syria. Not a bad swap.
So I shall be ignoring the glowing obituaries that gloss over his brutal role in the last fifty years of middle east politics and the fact that he was much, much worse than Arafat yet his name will be praised.
However when he does shuffle wheezing off this mortal coil and into some afterlife where he and Arafat can glare at each other across some heavenly table it will be interesting to not how he is remembered. Bearing in mind when Arafat died there was plenty of kind words from the western press but a lot more condemnation, accusations of ineptitiude and terrorism. Now he wasn’t so good, as a president or a negotiator but he did more for the Palestinian people than anyone else.
Sharon however has dedicated his life to trying to annihilate them, from his early days in the Hagannah shelling refugee camps, to his commanding of the Israeli forces in Lebanon and allowing massacres of women and children by the Phalange Militia. That and his provocation that caused the Intifada in 2000, and his actions as PM which have been more about shafting the Palestinians while the world praises him for letting the Palestinians have access to a beach that they already own anyway.
Sharon is no man of peace, neither is he the big man for standing up to the settler movement, he practically created them. He always knew that they would have to give some territory back. Giving back Gaza was a no brainer, they never really wanted it anyway- however in return they will probably keep Jerusalem, the west bank and all those bits nicked from Syria. Not a bad swap.
So I shall be ignoring the glowing obituaries that gloss over his brutal role in the last fifty years of middle east politics and the fact that he was much, much worse than Arafat yet his name will be praised.
posted by Marcel at 8:00 AM
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