A tragedy for Israelis and Palestinians | The San Diego Union-Tribune

A tragedy for the Israelis and Palestinians | The San Diego Union-Tribune

January 6, 2006

Hours after the news that Ariel Sharon had suffered a devastating stroke, I received a message from Israel, quoting one of those expressions the Yiddish language has forged from centuries of despair. Mensch tracht und Gott lacht: Man plans and God laughs.

Palestinians in Gaza celebrated the news that their old nemesis, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was unconscious and unlikely to recover. They have long despised the implacable foe that stood up to them for decades, often using the harshest of means in his unapologetic quest to protect Israel, whatever the cost. And yet, conceiving of the end of the Sharon Era – at this precise moment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – is a tragedy for both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Sharon has always had a deep respect for the cruelties of history. That explains his extraordinary transformation. The general who led his armies across Israel's borders rose to the top job in Israel and discovered that military victories alone could not protect his nation from disaster. That's when the once champion of the settler movement decided it was time to uproot Israeli settlers from Gaza.

Sharon had made a dramatic move from the extreme right wing of Israeli politics to the center. In the process, he gave Palestinians sovereignty they had never in their history had. Land that had been ruled by Romans, Turkish Ottoman, British and other empires throughout history, was for the first time in the hands of Palestinian Arabs. Sharon, the man they despised, had made it happen at a time when nobody else could have pulled it off. And that bit of history came to pass just last year.

Had Sharon remained in power, there is little doubt he would have made other bold moves, without waiting for consensus on either side.

Not all Arabs are celebrating the news about Sharon. Some Arab leaders expressed the acceptable diplomatic sentiments. But more importantly, many Arabs, who understand and even share the bitter feeling against the old general, realize the cost to Palestinians. One Palestinian analyst, Ghazi al-Saadi, told al-Arabiya television that despite the suffering he inflicted on Palestinians, "A living Sharon is better for the Palestinians now." In Beirut, the managing editor of the As-Safir newspaper, Sateh Noureddine, worried that without Sharon the already unstable security situation could worsen.

With the Palestinian side in chaos, Sharon had decided Israel would take the "painful" steps required for peace. Nobody knew exactly what he meant. Eventually, we discovered he meant moving out of Gaza. But the next steps were his own personal secret.

Sharon came to dominate Israeli politics because the public trusted him. His muscular military background gave him the credibility that may prove indispensable for any future leader, as long as Israelis feel their country's very survival is still threatened.

The vast majority of Israelis believed Sharon when he said Israel could survive after narrowing its borders by giving back occupied territory.

When he pulled out of the right-wing Likud Party he helped build to put together the new Kadima (forward) Party, he immediately drew the support of major political and military figures. He also gained the backing of a plurality of Israeli voters. He never spelled out exactly what he planned to do. And, in the campaign to prove he was still in charge after his first stroke three weeks ago, he failed to name his choice for a successor.

The acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is nominally the second in command at Kadima. Olmert is well liked and respected. But he does not bring the charisma or the military credentials that made it possible for Sharon to lead a nation that feels threatened.

In Israel more than anywhere, politics is much too important to be left up to mere politicians. Israel, indeed the entire Middle East, needs real statesmen.

And yet, one of Sharon's great accomplishments, one that the younger warrior Sharon would have never believed, was moving the country to the political center.

If, after all, God is not laughing at the plans made by Sharon and his followers, somebody will step in and fill the void. Israelis will now have to find someone they trust to protect them and lead them to a safer future. Without that person, peace for Israelis and for Palestinians will have to wait.

Ghitis writes about world affairs. She is the author of "The End of Revolution: a Changing World in the Age of Live Television."