A Giant Crumbles

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lies in a coma, the victim of a stroke, at age 77. Whether he lives or not, his 63 year long battle for the survival of his Jewish homeland, his Zion, is over, and must now be fought by others.

The state of Israel owes its very existence in no small part to his lifelong efforts. Ariel Sharon was born in Israel in 1928, before it was a state, and he joined the Israeli Army before it was an army, back in 1942, when it was an underground militia called the Haganah, and young Ariel, who's name means Lion of God, was only fourteen years old. By the time the English abandoned the middle east in 1948, leaving a handful of Jews surrounded by five Arab states who all immediately declared war and attacked them, Ariel was all of twenty, and in command of an infantry company.

After a year of bloody fighting against overwhelming odds, Ariel and the Jews survive, and an armistice is signed, but it's only the beginning. For the next 56 years, Israel maintains its existence only by defending itself in three more major wars against neighbouring Arab states, and almost continuous guerrilla attacks by Arab extremists bent on destroying his state and his people.

And through all the wars and conflicts, Ariel Sharon was either on the front lines, or in command, or both. When he initially moved into politics, he went as a soldier, ruthless to a fault. Like the cornered beast he was, he cut and slashed his way through his enemies, those who wished to kill his people and destroy his homeland. He instigated the formation of Jewish settlements within Arab territories, which further aggravated hostilities, and in September, 2000, he used a hundred Israeli police to force his way into the Muslim sanctuary of The Dome Of The Rock, igniting one of the bloodiest Arab reprisals in the long conflict. Negotiations and diplomacy were not part of his agenda.

But all that seemed to change with the death of Sharon's nemesis, Yasser Arafat, in December, 2004. Sharon seemed to be able to taste peace in the air for the first time in his life. He immediately pledged to work with the new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to end hostilities. He dismantled many of the settlements he had built. And most recently he surprised the world by leaving the hard line right wing political party, Likud, which he had created, and forming a new, centrist party, committed to compromise with the Palestinians.

Then, just as Israel and Palestine are both experiencing an unfamiliar emotion called hope, and seeing a faint glimmer of light at the end of a long black tunnel full of blood and hate, Sharon is knocked down by a devastating stroke, and all bets are off.

Will Ariel Sharon's torch of hope be picked up by his successor, or will the occupants of The Holy Land be condemned to another era of pain and suffering? Since events in the middle east seem to reverberate all over the globe, the world will be watching closely.

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