Conflicting views highlighted by Sharon funeral
Print Edition
Israel buried former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his family farm yesterday, celebrating the military achievements of a man seen as a war hero at home but as a war criminal by many in the Arab world.
Eulogized first in a ceremony in Jerusalem, and later in the green fields of his southern estate, a stream of speakers hailed a life entwined with that of his country, while gently alluding to controversies that also defined his career.
US Vice President Joe Biden and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair laid wreaths at his grave, 10 kilometers from the border of the Gaza Strip, with the army on high alert lest any rockets be fired out of the Palestinian territory.
The army said two missiles were shot into southern Israel after the funeral, causing no damage or injury.
“We are accompanying to his final resting place today a soldier, an exceptional soldier, a commander who knew how to win,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said in Jerusalem, Sharon’s hefty coffin draped in Israel’s flag.
Sharon, 85, died on Saturday after spending the last eight years of his life motionless in a hospital bed, pitched into a coma by a stroke and far from the public gaze.
The death of the ex-general reopened debate into his legacy. Foes denounced his ruthless conduct in military operations while friends praised him as a strategic genius who as prime minister stunned the world in 2005 by pulling Israeli troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip.
“The security of his people was always Arik’s unwavering mission — a non-breakable commitment to the future of Jews, whether 30 years or 300 years from now,” Biden said, using Sharon’s nickname.
There was no direct mention of events that made Sharon a hated figure in the Arab world, such as the 1982 invasion of Lebanon that he masterminded as defense minister.
But in his eulogy, Blair said a man known at home as “the bulldozer” had left “considerable debris in his wake.”
Biden referred simply to his “mistakes.”
Two years after Israel quit Gaza, the Islamist group Hamas seized control. Israel had beefed up security for Sharon’s burial and warned Hamas not to allow rocket fire during the ceremony.
Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad denounced “our worst enemy, the cursed Sharon” at a Gaza rally to mark the 2008/9 war with Israel.
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