I have to admit my initial response to this was - bloody butcher. But this is a memorial thread and, as such it deserves a more thought out response then a knee jerk reaction based on ignorance.
Having a more thought out response meant doing a little research into who Ariel Sharon was, and what he was. Like many of his generation involved in this conflict on either side - he was a man more complex than can be defined in simple black and white dimensions. In the end he seems to have been a pragmatic realist in terms of what was best for Israel's long term survival.
This is what I found...Ariel Sharon: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
From Wikipedia
The Good:
The Bad:
The Ugly:
I can't imagine anything worse than being locked-in, a consciousness unable to communicate. He was 84, that is a long life and from all accounts a full one. It would have been a kindness to have passed far sooner in my opinion.
Ariel Sharon, you are a complex man, and we will never know what you might have done had you been able to complete the agenda you set out. As prime minister, you took on tough and unpopular choices and you had the will and political ability to force them through. It appeared you also reversed course on certain actions, most likely because you saw them as in Israel's best interest - ending an occupation that was costly both politically and financially to Israel. I imagine your decisions made in your military career reflect a similar character.
Rest in peace where-ever you are. Like many of us, you can not be reduced to a simple polarity.
Having a more thought out response meant doing a little research into who Ariel Sharon was, and what he was. Like many of his generation involved in this conflict on either side - he was a man more complex than can be defined in simple black and white dimensions. In the end he seems to have been a pragmatic realist in terms of what was best for Israel's long term survival.
This is what I found...Ariel Sharon: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
From Wikipedia
The Good:
- He was considered the greatest field commander in Israel's history, and one of the country's greatest ever military strategists.
- After his assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli public nicknamed him "The King of Israel" and "The Lion of God".
- As Prime Minister, in 2004–05 Sharon orchestrated Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new Kadima party. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals.
The Bad:
- In 1983 the Kahan Commission, established by the Israeli Government, found that as Minister of Defense during the 1982 Lebanon War Sharon bore "personal responsibility" for the massacre by Lebanese militias of Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, for his having disregarded the prospect of acts of bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and not having prevented their entry.
- In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Ugly:
- After a massive stroke, he remained in a long-term care facility from 6 November 2006 until the time of his death. Medical experts indicated that his cognitive abilities had likely been destroyed by the stroke.
- Ariel Sharon Coma: Brain Activity Shown In Tests Of Former Israel Prime Minister Ben-Gurion University on Sunday said Sharon responded to external stimuli at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. He was shown pictures of his family and listened to recordings of his son's voice while undergoing a special brain imaging scan. The university said "significant brain activity was observed ... indicating appropriate processing of these stimulations."
- Former Israeli leader Ariel Sharon dead, aged 85, after eight years in coma - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) An MRI scan a year ago detected some brain activity when Mr Sharon was shown photographs of his family and also when asked to imagine his home...But neurologists who carried out the study said he was effectively in a locked in state, unable to activate any muscles
I can't imagine anything worse than being locked-in, a consciousness unable to communicate. He was 84, that is a long life and from all accounts a full one. It would have been a kindness to have passed far sooner in my opinion.
Ariel Sharon, you are a complex man, and we will never know what you might have done had you been able to complete the agenda you set out. As prime minister, you took on tough and unpopular choices and you had the will and political ability to force them through. It appeared you also reversed course on certain actions, most likely because you saw them as in Israel's best interest - ending an occupation that was costly both politically and financially to Israel. I imagine your decisions made in your military career reflect a similar character.
Rest in peace where-ever you are. Like many of us, you can not be reduced to a simple polarity.
