Opinion

Ariel Sharon leaves behind powerful legacy

Had Ariel Sharon died in 2006, when he suffered the massive stroke that left him comatose and ended his five-year term as Israel’s prime minister, there would have been a huge outpouring of tributes and acclaim from across the globe.

But eight long years have passed, and much of what Sharon, who died early Saturday at 85, accomplished in his historic years in office has receded from general memory. The tributes will sound, but it’s unlikely that Sharon will receive his full due, except in the pages of history.

People who once vilified him as a warmonger and jeered at “the Butcher of Beirut” came to praise his achievements. Once Israel’s most polarizing political figure, he improbably achieved a broad national consensus of support for his policies. At the time of his illness, one of Israel’s best-known leftist commentators actually said he was praying for Sharon’s recovery “so that I can ask him to forgive me.”

Not that Sharon, the military hero of four wars and architect of Israel’s West Bank settlement policy — creating “facts on the ground” — had gone soft, as his detractors on the right sneered.

But he was first and foremost a pragmatist whose priority was ensuring Israel’s long-term security and viability. And the “Bulldozer” went about that as he did everything — with little patience for political games and niceties. When earlier prime ministers had faced a seemingly unsolvable crisis, they inevitably turned to Sharon, who went ahead and solved it.

He refused to shrug off unwarranted attacks. Accused by Time magazine of encouraging the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Beirut, he sued the magazine for libel and won a moral victory when the jury ruled that Time had lied and defamed him.

Whether as a general or a politician, Sharon always favored bold, audacious and, yes, often risky moves that sometimes went wrong. Indeed, the war in Lebanon, which he led, is still emotionally debated after three decades. More often than not, though, he proved his critics wrong.

As prime minister — an office almost no one ever thought he could achieve — he refused to beg the Palestinians to negotiate, because he was convinced they weren’t interested in making peace. But if they refused, he warned, Israel would unilaterally declare its own boundaries — on terms far less generous than the Palestinians could ever hope to achieve in negotiations.

Ariel Sharon’s death removes from the scene one of the last of Israel’s founding generation. From beginning to end, he was a courageous and formidable presence, a strong leader whose impact will be felt for a long time to come. RIP.