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Sharon's record a shameful one
By Mark Hage, The Times Argus January 31, 2005
Ariel Sharon is in a coma. So are the critical faculties of many in the U.S. media, who divine in his blood-soaked resume a parable on peacemaking. There are exceptions to this stupidity and whitewashing. An honest analysis of the Israeli leader's imperial hubris appeared recently in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. It was titled, "Eating Palestine for Breakfast."Sharon's litany of savagery dates back to the early 1950s, when he led a commando squad called Unit 101, which carried out terror attacks throughout the West Bank. In 1953, in the town of Qibya, his troops blew up 45 houses and killed 69 Palestinians, about half of them women and children. Two years later, Israeli commandos from this outfit kidnapped six Palestinian shepherds and stabbed five to death. The sixth was set free to tell the tale of this atrocity.In 1971, in Gaza, his command leveled 2,000 homes and uprooted 12,000 Palestinian refugees. Hundreds of Palestinian men were deported to Jordan and Lebanon, and 600 of their relatives exiled to the Sinai. Also, 104 resistance fighters were assassinated.Sharon orchestrated Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. West Beirut was bombarded for weeks, and up to 3,000 Palestinian civilians were massacred at Sabra and Shatila by Lebanese Christian Phalangists, trained, armed and abetted on orders from Ariel Sharon.Since 1977, Sharon has played a seminal role in expanding illegal Jewish colonies. He advised Jewish zealots in 1998 to "…run and grab as many hilltops [in the West Bank] as they can to enlarge the settlements, because everything we take now will stay ours." Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last year was a means to achieve a far greater prize—the near-total theft of the West Bank. As for Gaza, it remains under Israeli lock and key.A Holocaust survivor recently described Sharon as committed to "pacification" rather than peace. Remember this as Israel intensifies its campaign to devour and ghettoize what remains of Arab Palestine. This is the true legacy of Ariel Sharon.
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