‘
Ariel Sharon did not teach me about Zionism, but he did embody a ferocity that informs my dedication to the Jewish state.
He revealed anew that truth is not found in the black and white — neither white papers nor Black September — but in the remarkable shades of gray that make up the tiny steps of history.
These are trying days in Israel. Again. For so many Jewish Israelis, these are days of hope dashed. Again.
For many left leaning Israelis and engaged Zionists, Sharon was the antithesis of a peacemaker. Known as “The Bulldozer,” he made things happen by might rather than dialogue.
But the last two years have shown us an Ariel Sharon who is not only shrewd and tough, but also willing to march through the subtle gray palette for Israel’s greater good.
This is neither an obituary nor a synopsis of his political life but an ode to one man’s journey that began with military fighting and has led him to create a political voice for the mass Israeli center.
Though he kept his plans to himself, Sharon succeeded in setting up a platform of the center. He created a political reality that spoke to a wide swath of Israelis and answered their demands for security along with their belief in compromising for peace.
In all that he has done, Sharon has been audacious, from his front line fighting at Latrun in the 1948 War of Independence to his unilateral withdrawal of some 8,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip in August 2005.
It may be odd to link “The Bulldozer” to a dancer; but last June, in accepting a Jewish Culture Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Milwaukee native Liz Lerman, a Washington, D.C., dancer, unwittingly described Sharon’s strength.
“Being a Jew is a creative act,” she said. “It’s a creative act every day. And we can’t make that act be an act in fear.
“We can’t only be Jewish because of the bad things that have happened to us, especially now, in this world. We need our full imaginations, we need the brilliance of our bodies and minds. We need the incredible audacity, and risk-taking and free-falling that artists do all the time.”
Say what you wish about Sharon, but he is audacious. He has been wounded and revived. He has done plenty of risk-taking and free-falling through the turbulent atmosphere of Israel’s history.
As a Gen-Xer, I’m stunned at the events that have unfolded in my lifetime, even in the recent past — from Israel’s inner struggles that resulted in the assassination of the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, to Ariel Sharon’s path from Lebanon to Israel’s mainstream.
In 1983, after the Kahan Commission placed “indirect responsibility” on then-defense minister Sharon for the massacres at the Sabra and Shatilla, Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Sharon resigned and returned to his ranch. Recalling that time in his autobiography, “Warrior” (Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1989), Sharon wrote presciently about his political life:
“I was experienced enough to know that political life is like a big wheel, constantly turning. At times you are up, at times down. But always the wheel keeps moving.”
Regardless of our political positions, let us pray for the health of Ariel Sharon and the future of our people in Israel.
‘
Loading ...