Reflections on Israeli Life: Ariel Sharon

by Esther Korson

   It has been a sad time in this nation these last few days following the news of the death of Ariel (it means ‘lion of God”) Sharon. As President Shimon Peres said on the day of his funeral, “The nation loved him and he loved Israel, both its people and its land. Arik (his nickname) was a man of the land.  He loved the smell; he cultivated the hills, he sowed and he reaped.  He defended this land like a lion…He was a military legend in his lifetime...May you rest in peace, our great leader.  You never rested when in service of your people, when defending your land and when making it flourish.  The land from which you came will embrace you in the warm arms of the history of our nation to which you added an unforgettable chapter…”

            Israel is truly a family, and when something like this happens the feeling of shared sorrow and togetherness is palpable.  For example, whenever something happens in this country that affects everybody, the bus drivers will turn the sound up on the hourly news and everyone on the bus stops talking and quietly listens.  It happened yesterday, of course, when I was taking public transportation in Jerusalem. It was the day of Arik’s funeral. And then on another bus on my way to Tel Aviv, a soldier was sitting next to me reading in an Israeli newspaper the articles about Sharon’s life and legacy.  When he finished, he simply handed the paper to me, and we both shed a few tears together.

            U.S. Vice President Joe Biden really grasped this special aspect of Israeli life and said the following at the funeral: “With a close- knit country like Israel, when a country that has been tested as much as Israel has, loses a man like Prime Minister Sharon, it doesn’t feel like a loss of a leader, it feels like a death in the family…”

The family of Israel has lost a true hero this week…

 

Reflections on Israeli Life: Ariel Sharon