Waking up to a new reality

A fortnight later, and the fatigued figure of Omri Sharon emerges from his father's bedside to thank the medical team for their skill and dedication and Israelis for their outpouring of concern and good wishes.
The media frenzy camped outside Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center has reported every moving finger, hand and foot as and when it happened. While it's still too early to speculate on the damage the prime minister has sustained, what's clear is that there is now a very different reality in the Middle East.

With the noted exception of some in the Arab world, no one is keen to discuss a world without Ariel Sharon. However, after six years of dominating Middle Eastern politics, one can't but help ask how this part of the world will look like from here on.

Those who feared that the country would fall to pieces have been shushed by a democratic process that has done the State of Israel proud. While Captain Olmert does his best to keep the Good Ship Kadima afloat, the stock market is continuing to ride high. Things here rarely grind to a halt except of course for the conversations on the buses when the driver notches up the volume for the news.

So, where and to whom will Israel look to now for leadership? Maybe the past holds the key to the future; the long and rich list of talented leaders of the State of Israel should inspire hope, but it's also important to remember that so many of our past leaders were shaped by history.

In the early years of the state, it's doubtful that very many Israeli's made the career decision for a life of politics as many in the West do today; and as Ariel Sharon told the United Nations in a memorable post-disengagement speech, "I am at heart a lover of agriculture, I had always intended to be a farmer." A youth spent fighting in the Haganah and three successive wars for survival later and we can start understanding the Ben-Gurions, Rabins and Arik Sharons of this world.

It would be sad to suggest that the country needs to fight another bloody war to produce another generation of leaders, but, that being said, Israel's next prime minister - be it Ehud Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu or someone else entirely - will have the significant problem of an Iran bent on developing nuclear weapons sitting dangerously near its doorstep.

Should Hamas trump the Palestinian elections as many think they will, the good old days of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations will be over. Hamas have declared that should they achieve a convincing win next week, Israel will find that unilateralism is not so much a controversial choice, but rather, the only choice. It's easy at least to see where the challenge lies, but less easy to see who will ride Israel through the storm.

The very name 'Kadima' - Forward was indicative of a prime minister who saw his ideas as being inherently pro-active within what he saw as a stagnating political arena. With at least a third of the country resolved that they had no better ideas, and were happy to support the one man that did, many Israelis will now realize the extent to which they had absolved themselves of the need to make decisions on key issues.

Sharon's unilateralism may well endure beyond his tenure, even if that means more disengagements. As the old saying goes, "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem,' and in being so bold with his hands-on approach to governing the county's future, Israeli voters may not be willing to accept anything else.
And so, with, the Palestinians on the verge of openly electing an organization that calls for the destruction of the Jewish State in every forum save its official platform, and an Iran baying at Israel's door, it may be time for the leaders of Israel to tell the people of Israel something that they will not want to hear: that it's time to hunker down. The struggle will be long and difficult, and for the time being the idea of peace in our time may have to be shelved.

In coming days, along with what we hope is more encouraging news of our prime minister's condition, it's clear that Ariel Sharon is not the only who will be waking up to a new political, and strategic reality.

Ariel Sharon: An icon in our times

In recent years, Israeli politics has more or less, been the Ariel Sharon show. Few others if any, have really made an impact. Even former prime ministers still active on the political scene pale into insignificance in comparison.

In Israel, Sharon's cult of personality out-grew the system. In the Likud party he accused all around him of a political narrow mindedness incompatible with his unique broad vision for the future. What many say here, if not in public then certainly in private is that Israel will now be left lacking a leader that can provide the stability and direction that the country so vitally needs.

The best peace makers are those who once also knew to how make war; and Sharon was no stranger to the battlefield. His bulldozing reputation instilled the fear and trust of so many in the political arena. He was all at once, a staunch defender of the Israeli nation and also, a nemesis to the Arab world. But this one time war horse, had mellowed, and in his latter years developed something that so many others must have envied; a vision. He was the man who intended to set the final borders of the state, and impose in his own formidable way, his ideas, whether the region liked them or not.

The controversial disengagement plan saw him depicted as both hero and villain. The blue ribbons screamed their applause and admiration while the orange camp tore their clothes, cheated and dejected. Many suspected, that the withdrawal, like a bulldozer, would not be stopped by anyone or anything; many people tried many things but those pundits were right.

Sharon is not the only leader in the West to have been re elected, Blair in Britain is serving his 3rd term and George Bush is serving his 2nd in the United States, but neither of these figures or any other in the international system, have anywhere near the iconic status that gave Sharon such presence on both the national and international stage.

Many Israelis never believed that they would ever willingly vote for Ariel Sharon, nevertheless, in the shadow and ashes of the failed Oslo Accords, he secured a landslide victory. The bullish manner in which he rode the country through the intifada against a torrent of international criticism meant that the nation slowly began to relate to Ariel Sharon as more than a politician. Somewhere during those years, the nation began to rest on his shoulders and certainly before 10.30pm on Wednesday night this was still very much the case.
Sharon, didn't need a platform to convince his many supporters. His face on a poster was enough to give his party Kadima, all of the direction it needed. This will now be playing on the minds of those Kadima party members, that left their natural homes on the right or the left to join Sharon's new party.

Many will now suggest that Kadima was built so much on Sharon's cult of personality, and without him there would be little left to attract the voters. Kadima, possibly under the leadership of Ehud Olmert, or maybe someone else would no have to present a party platform that can re assure the supporters that have given the party such a lead in recent opinion polls.

Many pragmatists will quote the old saying that tells of the graveyard full of people of whom it was said were irreplaceable. But in Israel that is just the point; so many will be scratching their heads this week and asking, from where can such charisma, such direction; such a leader emanate?

AR

Iran and the Lion of Judah

As Iranian President Ahminejad continues to stoke the anti-Zionist flame, hiscomments have grown similar to those of Osama Bin Laden. He speaks, aghast, theworld reports, the world condemns and the pattern repeats. It's getting rathertiresome. But we shouldn't pass these sound bytes off as just another tyrantletting off steam; the threats, the antagonism are all driven by the samepoisonous genocidal logic.If the Holocaust and the Jewish claim to a homeland is a fabrication, then theJews are merely common thieves on a grand scale - and in Iran, thieves arepunished harshly.In the West, most level-headed people see holocaust denial as low-gradegutter-talk but it seems President Ahminejad for one is indifferent toEurope's blood-stained history. With a nuclear program quite clearlyunderway, the onus is now on the international community to act; particular theEuropean Union who at least should consider Ahminejad's holocaust denial enoughof a motive as any.In the meantime, how should Israel respond? In the days after Prime MinisterAriel Sharon's stroke, with the cameras rolling and the nation watching, ActingPrime Minster Ehud Olmert addressed his old mentor and asked, "Arik, what shallwe do?" and then he answered in his name: "Arik, we will carry on as you haveshown us." And so with this looming Iranian threat to wipe the State of Israelfrom the face of the Earth, Olmert must be wondering exactly what a healthierSharon would have done.As far as we know, Sharon didn't leave a manual for Olmert entitled 'What to doin times of crisis,' but in the last few years, Sharon's words were always wellconsidered. Olmert could do worse than remember Sharon's address to the UnitedNations in the weeks after last summer's Gaza disengagement.It was on that world stage in New York, where Sharon mapped out at least someform of direction for the future.Those watching would have seen Sharon in an intense moment. This was a speechthat Sharon desperately and deeply wanted to give. Maybe also a speech meant notonly for the leaders of the world, but for the State of Israel as well.He began the same way that the American journalist Daniel Pearl, beheaded inPakistan ended, "I am a Jew." Sharon continued: "The Jewish People have a longmemory," he chanced biblical quotations from Genesis through to the Prophets,repeating and stressing the deep connection of the Jewish People to the land ofIsrael. He recalled journeys, citing, Mt Sinai, Moses and G-d. He spoke ofmemory, tradition, of yearning and of struggle.Interestingly enough, for President Ahminejad, Sharon mentioned the Holocaustonly once: Sharon's logic for Israel's existence was not dependent on the crimesof Nazi Germany.Olmert take note: the night before the soldiers moved in to Gush Katif, theprime minister spoke frankly to the nation, and there stressed his own logic fordisengagement. With disengagement, he pledged, would come an opportunity for thePeople of Israel to look inwards rather than outwards; to engage with each otherintrospectively and, "Heal the rifts between the people."From that auspicious stage in New York, came a Prime Minister's call to hisnation to revitalize its national strength and identity. A warrior turnedstatesman telling Israel in no uncertain term to brace itself for the yearsahead. What a tragedy, that his health has robbed a people of some much neededinspiration.As the wheels of the UN Security Council slowly begin to turn, Ehud Olmert, theprime minister's protégé, would do well to remind a nervous Israel thatsometimes the best way to look forward is to look back; and for a people withthe long memory that Sharon would have us recall, there may be reason to believein ourselves yet.