A Man Who Knew When Peace Will Come

Benjamin Weinthal:

Situated on a wall in the reporter’s room of the Jerusalem Post is a framed front-page of the daily’s 1977 story of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s historic peace visit to Israel.  According to the account of Sadat’s arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, the then–prime minister Menachem Begin said, “Everyone’s here, waiting for you.” Sadat asked, “Is Sharon here too?”

Sadat shook Sharon’s hand and told him, “I tried to catch you when you were on the side of the canal.” Sharon’s reply: “Well, Mr. President, now you have a chance to catch me as a friend.”

Sadat understood Sharon’s greatness as a military leader. After Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Sharon defeated the Egyptian offensive with a brilliant tank strategy that led to Israel’s army crossing the Suez Canal and getting within striking range of Cairo.

Sadat and Sharon were, without question, larger than life figures in Middle East history. Sharon, prime minister from 2001 to 2006, passed away today at the age of 85.

Sharon – in the vein of the British intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence – excelled as a Middle East military strategist. However, Sharon’s accomplishments dwarfed Lawrence’s WWI victories against the Turks. Where Lawrence sought to unify a fragmented Arab world, Sharon played a key role in solidifying the Jewish state and provided robust security to Israelis in a terribly rough neighborhood.

He was not infallible — he made mistakes in the 1982 Lebanon war, and erred in his unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. As the Middle East expert Jeffrey Goldberg noted, Prime Minister Sharon could have used the withdrawal opportunity to “have extracted important concessions from Palestinians,” but did not.

Sharon earned the names “the Bulldozer” and “Arik, the King of the Jews” for his efforts to stop Arab terrorism and jingoism. His business was to implement plans. He famously said,”Planning is something a lot of people know how to do, but executing, as you know, far fewer, far fewer.”

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