Ariel Sharon had been in a coma after suffering a massive stroke in January 2006 during an election campaign.
For many Israelis, this man has done a lot for the nation. Starting from its birth, and during critical points of its history, Sharon had been a saviour. But for others, he was not the ideal person they wanted him to be. His was a love-hate affiliation with his countrymen.
History is visited now and then by the likes of Sharon. We have had Genghis Khan, Franco, Hitler, Pol Pot, King Leopold II, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Mussolini, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Milosevic, and Yahya Khan. These bellicose minds ruled with impulse and hatred.
Sharon was the best man to realise the dreams of Zionism, for the very nature and principle behind the creation of the State of Israel had been use of force and illegal occupation. It has been a cold-blooded murder of Palestinian statehood. The region had been plunged into bloodshed and brutality for the last 66 years.
One by one, the bordering states were dragged into conflict following the forceful occupation of the mainland Palestine, part of Lebanon, West Bank, Sinai, and Jerusalem.
Sharon was good at saying things that many couldn’t utter. He was good at killing and demolishing the enemy in front. He was adroit at bulldozing persons and structures alike. His ideas were that of elimination of the adversary. He never had faith in peace. Maybe that was his greatest qualification, which made him the hero for the hawks in Israel.
He was also despised by many among his own people. Many Israelis wanted to live moderate and peaceful lives. They did not approve of the kind of nationalistic impulses that he represented.
Sharon had a lengthy military career spanning five Israeli wars, starting with its war for independence in 1948, in which he was seriously wounded. Sharon’s military career was marked by chaos and defiance.
His infamous elite commando force, Unit 101 mounted so-called counterterrorist operations against Palestinians in the 1950s. Ever since, there has been no respite either for the Israelis or the Palestinians or other neighbouring countries. The entire region has been in war for decades.
After he realised that he did not stand a chance to be the army chief, he made his way into politics. In 1973 the Likud Party was formed, of which, he was a founding member. Likud party chief Menachem Begin became prime minister in 1977.
As a government minister, his evil designs of expansion of Jewish settlements began. They were to continue all his life, later to become the national policy of Israel.
He defied all obstacles and outcries and pursued his own scheme for building a network of settlements across the West Bank. He said: “When it comes to security, we will stay there forever.”
In 1982, as the defence minister, he led the invasion of Lebanon. The Lebanese war ended with one of the bloodiest incidents in the recent history of the Middle East. Lebanese Christian forces, allies of Israel, attacked the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut and massacred more than 3,500 Palestinians, including women and children, while Israeli officers looked on.
This massacre somewhat forced him to remain in hibernation for a while. And in the 90s he bounced back under the government of Netanyahu. Palestinian uprisings (intifada) were actually outbursts of anger by the Palestinians over his sadistic remarks.
He became the prime minister in 2001, and cracked down on the Palestinians. He kept Yasser Arafat confined to Ramallah for a long time.
In January 2006, he suffered a massive stroke and went quiet. His death is not a mourning affair, for his hands are still drenched in blood. He was never a man of peace.
