Requiem for a Lion of God
For that is what, in Hebrew, the name Ariel means: Lion of God. Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, leader of a country torn by war with its implacable foes and neighbours is, if not very near death, on the brink of being what he was not if he survives his current deadly condition: an ineffectual shade of a man. But while he was the man whose activities reflected his dedication to and love of country, he was truly a Judean lion, a Lion of God to his people.In ancient Judean lore Ariel was known as earth's Great Lord; Jewish mystics used Ariel as a poetic name for Jerusalem. Ariel Sharon was busy throughout his life accomplishing his destiny. To safeguard Israel from its many foes. Ariel was also considered by Gnostics to be the angel who controls demons. And did he not devote his life to that very endeavour?
Like the archangels of mystic Jewish lore fading into the depths of time long past: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, whose function it was to aid human endeavour, so too it was with Ariel. These angels and archangels were reputed to reflect human tendencies which made human beings better beings and souls; tendencies such as repentance, righteousness, judgement, revelation, salvation.
Such beliefs are the results of human longing, to believe that God, a good and benevolent Being, looks down upon his poor children and with the help of his angelic choir lead men into the paths of righteousness and salvation, not judging them, but teaching them reptentance and forgiveness. Quaint beyond belief. But soothing to the senses, and admirable in their
creation.
Ariel Sharon was no angel, he was not angelic, he was, however, an avenger. As a young boy he experienced what it was to be surrounded by the hostile elements among his farming family's near neighbours. He was a witness to massacres, to the very bitterest of experiences brought upon his people by marauding bands of Arabs bent then, as they are now, in destroying all evidence of Jewish life in the ancient precincts of Israel.
General Ariel Sharon fought the demons who sought to destroy, whose bitter function in life was total destruction of the dream of a Jewish State with its promise for succour for Jews hounded through aeons, from one unwelcoming country after another. He did his job well, as a high ranking general who took action against his country's many enemies. He brought those armies against which he marched his own to their knees and enabled his country to begin a long and tedious, sometimes-successful detente, however tenuous, however temporary, enabling Israel to catch its collective breath and begin again to make its place among its neighbours.
Ariel Sharon the General became Ariel Sharon the Prime Minister, and thus was it that the hawk became transformed into the tentative but forceful dove. He took bold steps which completely subverted his own original intent to claim for Israel all of its biblical territories in an effort to safeguard what could be effectively defended for the State, and at the same time influencing outside opinion with the sacrifice he forced upon his country in the removal of the very same settlers he had encouraged to make their homes in the Gaza strip.
His indomitable spirit, his undeviating commitment to his beloved country brought him acclaim at home and abroad and set the stage for a continuation of his withdrawal plans for the complete security of Israel, and the cautious engagement of the Palestinian Authority as a neighbour. His fateful withdrawal from the scene of his triumph and future plans may be beyond anyone's imagining at this time, but the stage he has set will be populated by others willing to take up his cudgel in defence of country and the continuation of a workable solution to side-by-side states with the Palestinians.
Much will depend upon the willingness of the Palestinian population to curb their tendency toward neighbourly violence and rejection of the presence of their neighbour. Palestinians themselves must take it upon themselves to reject the militants whose ongoing and seemingly only concern is to cut off their noses to spite their faces. Oust the militants and take personal responsibility for their own well being as a workable state living in peace with its neighbour.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 06, 2006
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