Nadene Goldfoot
Born 17 years later than Sharon, Moshe Katsav was presidentduring this period. Moshe Katsav (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה קַצָּב; born 5 December 1945) is an Israeli former politician who was the eighth President of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and a minister in its cabinet. He was the second Mizrahi Jew to be elected to presidency, after Yitzhak Navon.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to repeat his support for a Palestinian State. Who believed him? He had received bitter criticism from his own party, Likud, on this new stance.
He came up with 3 conditions for Israel's recognition of Palestine: 1. that it be demilitarized, 2, established by agreement with Israel, and 3. have borders consistent with Israel's security.
A poll was taken and found that 47% oppose the formation of a Palestinian state regardless of them honoring a peace agreement or not. 34% supported a Palestinian state only on condition the Palestinians fulfill a peace agreement. 65% of Israelis believed that a Palestinian state of any kind would be a threat to Israel. Most Israelis seem not to trust the Palestinians to uphold agreements, and therefore would oppose a Palestinian state.
Sharon said that he is the Palestinian's best hope for a "Nixon going to China" scenario: the seeming paradox that right-wingers end up making peace agreements while left-wingers find themselves going to war. "I believe the Palestinians are missing out on an exceptional opportunity." Sharon claimed that he was "one of the few who could broker a deal."
It was on the eve of his planned US visit that Sharon sounded particularly conciliatory. The Palestinians should take this side of Sharon seriously, even if some Israelis did not.
Previously, Sharon was witness to the Sabra & Shatila Massacre in Lebanon, and was blamed for its happening, so he had then developed a reputation for being a very tough and bloody guy. What had occurred was the killing of between 460 and 3,500 civilians—mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites—by the militia of the Lebanese Forces. The group was a Maronite Christian Lebanese right-wing party under the command of Elie Hobeika. It committed the atrocity in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp, in Beirut. He evidently had been an observer of what his Lebanese friends had done but did not stop them.
"The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had the camp surrounded. The militia had been ordered by the IDF to clear Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters out of Sabra and Shatila, as part of the IDF's maneuvering into West Beirut. As the massacre unfolded, the IDF received reports of atrocities but did not take any action to prevent or stop the massacre." I believe that if they did, the IDF would wind up fightingagainst their Lebanese co-partners and they couldn't do that. Israel has prided themselves to never do such things, and probably didn't expect this from their Lebanese friends.
Sharon's initiatives in the 1982 Lebanon War and the following condemnation of his actions by a commission of inquiry led him to resign from this post in 1983, but he remained in the cabinet, without portfolio. A hardliner on relations with the Arabs, he took a leading part in settling Judea and Samaria.
Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister who died 14 years later on a Saturday at age 85, made a name for himself as a military and political leader who put Israel’s security above all else. It was a position that earned the controversial figure the nickname “the bulldozer” as a fearless leader who got things done.To many Israelis, he was a hero. To some in the Arab world, he was a killer.
Here are five things to know about Sharon:
1. Some saw him as a war hero:
Sharon, who rose through the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces, first gained hero status among Israelis during the 1967 Six Day War that saw Israel attack Egypt, Jordan and Syria to counter what they saw as an impending attack by the Arab nations.
Under Sharon’s command, Israeli troops routed Egyptian forces during a nighttime battle to capture Um Cataf, a crucial crossroads in the Sinai. That victory is considered a major factor in Egypt’s loss of the Sinai to Israel.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Sharon earned the nickname “The Lion of God” among Israelis for surrounding Egypt’s Third Army and, defying orders, leading 200 tanks and 5,000 men across the Suez Canal – roughly 100 miles from Cairo.
A cunning and unforgiving general who went on to hold nearly every top government post, including prime minister at the time he was struck ill, Mr. Sharon spent his final years in what doctors defined as a state of minimal consciousness in a sterile suite at the hospital, Sheba Medical Center. Visits were restricted for fear of infection.Prof. Shlomo Nov of the medical center said heart failure was the direct cause of death, resulting from organ deterioration. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the nation bowed its head to a man he described as “first and foremost a brave soldier and an outstanding military commander” who “had a central role in the battle for Israel’s security from the very beginning.”
President Bachir Gemayel had been assassinated two days earlier and the Phalangists sought revenge. Israel’s Maronite Christian allies, the Phalange Party, contrary to Sharon’s expectations, did not act to secure the city as they had been expected to do, and a dangerous stalemate ensued. The pro-Israel Haig was forced from office, as a bewildered and angry Reagan, reinforced by U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar…Weinberger, sought an Israeli withdrawal. Habib, working under the direction of Haig’s successor, George Shultz, managed to insert a multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon that allowed Arafat and a portion of his force to evacuate Beirut in August, following a final Israeli bombardment.
How Israel was involved was that In June 1982, the IDF had invaded Lebanon with the intention of rooting out the PLO. By 30 August 1982, under the supervision of the Multinational Force, the PLO withdrew from Lebanon following weeks of battles in West Beirut and shortly before the massacre took place. Various forces — Israeli, Lebanese Forces and possibly also the South Lebanon Army (SLA) — were in the vicinity of Sabra and Shatila at the time of the slaughter.
Ariel Sharon criticised the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 as an act of "brutal interventionism". Sharon said both Serbia and Kosovo have been victims of violence. He said prior to the current Yugoslav campaign against Kosovo Albanians, Serbians were the targets of attacks in the Kosovo province. "Israel has a clear policy. We are against aggressive actions. We are against hurting innocent people. I hope that the sides will return to the negotiating table as soon as possible."
Did Ariel Sharon realize that Israel is different from the Phalange by their code of conduct that the Arabs had never had in their culture? Did he have that feeling of understanding why they had committed such a massacre? That he would have wanted to do the same things but his code of conduct as a Jew prevented him to do such things? Perhaps that's why he changed and decided to accept a Palestine.
Resource: Book: Confronting Jihad: Israel's struggle and the World After 9/11; page 104-Sharon's New Tone (11/30/2001)
https://www.cnn.com/2014/01/11/world/meast/ariel-sharon-5-things/index.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/Israel/War-in-Lebanon#ref741847
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