Arik

Submitted by John W. McGinley (United States), Jan 5, 2006 at 10:37

I don't have a TV and, this morning, I did not, buy a newspaper. Your article was the bearer, to me, of these sad tidings. I have great sorrow in my heart and I pray for the well-being of Ariel Sharon.

As for Israel, it will be at least a year before it is appreciated what a tremendous loss to the nation has occurred. In my view he was the best Prime Minister in the history of the third commonwealth. It pains me that hysterics and small-spirited fanatics on the religious right will see the hand of God in all of this. Pure balderdash and bad faith. The evacuation of the Gaza will turn out to be Sharon's greatest legacy in as much as it was the keystone of the policy to disengage from the Palestinians and to use Israeli strength in a more effective manner.

Unless the left comes to power in Israel, this pragamtic move will come to be understood as the condition for the possibility of annexing significant portions of the West Bank into an epanded and Greater Israel with an undivided Jerusalem (in its present boundaries) as the capital of Israel and of Israel alone. A great man and an Israeli patriot has passed our way.

Let us pray for his well being and, should he die, let us mourn him with respect. John W. McGinley

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