"Good" Rabin v. "Bad" Sharon??
The world awakes to two "Bully" stories in our global Media: one about a person dead after a long coma, the other about a person entering into what appears to be a lingering "political" death.
My first recollections, upon hearing the Sharon news, was of "W", our 43rd President, who, before Enron collapsed, and Lay was still a "buddy" at the White House, loaned his reins to Cheney, while he rode off into the Israeli sunset to ride shotgun for Sharon. It was an appalling image, to me, to see a President of the United States lower himself to the level of toady to a bully. Do we know what Cheney did with his Enron dealings? (not really). This was before those images were blanked out of the public's mind by "W" 's later "decision" to invade Iraq (2003).
You can be excused if you remain confused about all of this. If you look closely, Sharon's stock on the Right rose again in Israel, and in the eyes of the Conservative world, in 2000, following Clinton's failed attempt to seal a deal between Arafat and Israel's PM, Barak (Camp David (2000). "W" took full advantage of that in the early days of his first year in office. After Bush invested so much political capital in him, Sharon went comatose in January of 2006, following a stroke -- he lingered for eight years in that coma.
Hopefully, the other person won't linger in a "political coma" for eight years! Judging from the early reactions of his political "friends" in the Republican Party, it just might be like that!!; -- stay tuned!
Sharon dies with a tarnished world image; not unlike that of Margaret Thatcher. The Brits decided not to give Maggie a State Funeral. We can all wonder if the Israelis will take this opportunity to plow a new political path? Don't hold your breath!!
By contrast with Sharon, the murdered Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel in 1995, was beloved by the world and provided us all with hope that some sanity could be found in the tragedies of that region. Almost 20 years later, we can see the full impact; the dimensions of his murder, and the later effects of Bush's policies vis-a'-vis Sharon.
Rabin (1922-1995), and Sharon (1928-2014); are two Israelis who will loom large in world history. They lived lives that overlapped for sixty-seven years. That represents a time period longer than the lifetime of Modern Israel. Perhaps some bright Israeli PhD candidate will provide us with and unbiased comparison of their lives and an in-depth investigation of any and all interactions between these two men.
As for the other "bully story"; we can't hold out a lot of hope, now can we??
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