Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Ellen Ratner
Occasionally in human affairs, the loss of a single individual can end one epoch, begin another, or unsettle a world. During these times we momentarily gasp as if suddenly staring into an abyss and wonder: What does the loss mean? What will follow? What are we to do?

The world has arrived at just such a moment with the passing from public life of Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon. While I join with others of good will in praying for Sharon's recovery from a massive stroke, it seems safe to conclude that his public life is over. In times like these, analysts, pundits, opinion makers and journalists should aspire to be equal to the occasion and provide their audiences with a non-partisan analysis of the situation and some thoughts about the future.

Sharon's political journey certainly did not end as it began. Sharon began his career in the 1940s with membership in several underground Zionist organizations. With Israel's statehood (1948) these organizations were phased into Israel's regular army. Sharon followed, beginning his rise in the Israeli Defense Force. He balanced military life with outside studies, enrolling in Hebrew University to learn about Middle East history and culture.

But after his return to the army (1952-53) he became commander of the notorious Unit 101, a commando force that specialized in military retaliation against Arab countries as well as Palestinians. This unit was accused of targeting Arab civilians, and thus began the association of Arial Sharon with the dark side of Israeli politics – an architect of the Likud Party and the settlement by Israelis of lands captured in the 1967 war, a man whose tough rhetoric was often matched by tough deeds, which included the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and more recently the building of a security wall along disputed land as well as the targeted assassinations of Palestinian "militants" or "terrorists," depending on your politics.

But this is only part of Arial Sharon's story. After overwhelmingly defeating Ehud Barak in 2001, Sharon began to deal with the Second Intifada and its implications for the security interests and long-term survival of Israel. He quickly concluded that Israel had no future in maintaining wasteful settlements in the Gaza Strip. He proceeded to show rare courage in defying his own Likud Party and unilaterally evacuating Israeli settlers from Gaza.

Many on the Israeli and international left, including yours truly, had for years been calling for just this move. In 2001, no one, including yours truly, would have predicted that it would be Arial Sharon who would risk his political career and actually do it. By doing it, he administered a strong dose of humility to pundits everywhere, including yours truly. In politics, fierce partisanship often obscures the inner depths of leaders who are otherwise demonized. Some leaders, like Sharon, demonstrate the ability to overcome lifelong prejudices and grow as times change; others, like Yasser Arafat, who seemed to cling to an increasingly dysfunctional revolutionary paradigm all of his life, never demonstrated the same ability to change.

Perhaps the most significant feature about Arial Sharon's amazing growth is the legacy he leaves unfulfilled – he was literally just days away from submitting to the Israeli Knesset the first list of candidates for his Kadima Party, a new organization he founded that held the promise of phased dismantling of West Bank settlements. Polls suggest that the Israeli people overwhelming continue to favor this approach.

Where to from here? As most snapshots of objects in motion, the picture suggests both the best of times and the worst of times. The Iraq War has, at least for the short-term, exercised a destabilizing effect on the region. The Palestinian Authority now presides over chaos in Gaza, and the radical Hamas is poised to win elections there. Yet Lebanon is democratizing, with faint hints of the same from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.

At the same time, and for the first time since Adolph Hitler's Third Reich, a major nation-state – Iran – is now represented by an official Holocaust denier who has publicly pledged the destruction of Israel. Given Iran's nuclear ambitions and Israel's likely possession of the same, this is not promising.

Yet I remain optimistic. The Israeli public has not only embraced the policies of Sharon-the-hawk, but has also embraced his ideas of withdrawal from occupied lands. All serious observers (including me) agree that such a withdrawal is a necessary precondition for peace and the establishment of a real Palestinian state, a goal embraced by President Bush. It is my opinion that any Israeli politician of any stripe will have to conform to the voting public's desires – and Israel's public wants peace.

Let us hope and pray.