Who was Ariel Sharon ?

Ariel Sharon 

He was know as the enemy of peace.

Israel has burred of her former prime minister Ariel Sharon at own family farm having with celebrating the military achievement regarding him as he was a war hero at home but as a war criminal by many in the Arab world. Sharon was 85 years aged when he died on Saturday 11^th January 2014, after spending the last eight years of his life motionless in a hospital bed, pitched into a coma by a stroke and far from the public Gaza.

There are few individuals in the modern history of Israel whose actions have been as consistently destructive as  those of Ariel Sharon. He was involved in Israel’ war machine as early as 1948. He was known for his cut throat attitude on the battlefield, often with wanton disregard for civilian lives. Ariel Sharon left some  of the bloodiest marks on the history of Palestine.

The US Vice President and British former prime minister have laid flowers and wreaths at his grave which is far away from the border of Gaza strip with  the army on high alert lest any rockets be fired out of the Palestinian territory.

The death of the former general reopened debate into his legacy. Opponents denounced his ruthless conduct in military operations while friends praised him as a strategic genius who as prime minister stunned the world in 2005 by pulling Israeli troops and settlers out of Gaza.

There was no direct mention of events that made Sharon a hated figure in the Arab world, such as the 1982 invasion of Lebanon that he masterminded as defence minister.

Sharon’s wanton disregard for civilian life was most pronounced in 1982 during the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon. By which Israel had invaded and occupied southern Lebanon at the time, effectively controlled the area.

Sharon escaped accountability in Qibya and despite heavy criticisms of his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres,. Sharon’s career in public life did not end.

At the end of his time of rule, Sharon’s legacy is a bloody one that did far more to destroy peace in the world than to advance it. The Gaza withdrawal was mistakenly characterized as a goodwill move that reflected a genuine shift in Sharon’s thinking but the reality was far from the Former US President GW Bush received much criticism when he once called Sharon a mane of peace. Sharon continued to find exactly what he was looking for and it was was anything but peace.