Sharon, the bloodthirsty tyrant we got rid of [Archives:2006/915/Opinion]
Atif Awad
Hebrew State founder Ben Gurion said Sharon is a hero, but a liar. He uttered these words about the 20-year-old Sharon when Israel was founded in May 1948.
At that time, young Sharon aroused the appreciation of Jewish and Zionist gang leaders who paved the way in the Arab land to end British occupation and then declare the Israeli State. Sharon was a young Jewish officer, notorious for his crimes and Arab annihilation, as well as driving out those Palestinians who remained alive.
His brutalities and sabotages earned him a reputation in the eyes of Ben Gurion, Isaac Shamir and other groups such as Haganah, Aragon and Stern. Sharon then became bloodthirsty in Israeli life, wanting to commit brutalities not only against Palestinians, but also against Arabs who, in his view, still are stubborn.
In Jewish memory, there is only Sharon exhibiting his criminal arts and barbarically retaliating against innocent inhabitants. In 1967, he buried 10,000 Egyptian war prisoners in the Sinai sand (reported in Israeli media during Sharon's term of office, ironically). The total annihilation and destruction of Dir Yasin village and other Palestinian massacres also are imprinted on Jewish memory. There was no occupation without the Sabra and Chatila massacres or the Diversion Gap in the October War of 1973, in which Sharon was the hero.
Sharon is the bloodthirsty tyrant whose illegal acts and malpractice terrorized Arabs. Because of this, Sharon remained the reserve player Zionists summon when they need to encounter Arabs.
Sharon was behind inflammation of the Second Al-Aqsa Intifada after Prime Minister Ehud Barak failed to reach an agreement with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority at Camp David, an event sponsored and organized by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Sharon came to power to give Arabs and Palestinians, particularly Yasser Arafat, one of his bloody and terrorist lessons. When Palestinian statesman Yasser Arafat was confined in his office and prevented from leaving his compound (except once), Sharon declared Arafat's last departure from the compound was to die in France.
During Arafat's three-year confinement, neither the Land for Peace Summit nor Jordanian King Abdullah's initiative in Beirut could convince Sharon to cease his bloodshed and crimes against humanity. Instead, Sharon continued occupying more land and killing more Palestinians. Such Sharonian style was opposed by Arabs who advocated that Sharon, despite ignoring the Oslo Agreement and breaching all other agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was a hero due to bring about peace with Arabs.
Since Sharon never faced any objection from Arabs or Palestinians, he constructed the Separation Wall and wanted the Palestinian State to be a big prison. When he was forced to withdraw from Gaza, he thought there was nobody left deserving with whom to negotiate.
Some Arabs and Palestinians bore in mind that Sharon was a 'man of peace,' as President George W. Bush called him. This was the Sharon who will be missed by some Arabs who accepted his oppression and criminal acts.
Atif Awad is an Egyptian journalist and a short-story writer residing in Yemen
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[archive-e:915-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-01-26-p:opinion]
