Historical justice has been done to the Jewish state, and to Ariel Sharon himself, when he was elected prime minister last Tuesday.
It is fitting that the state, whose security and prospects for peace diminished the more Ehud Barak pursued it, should finally be headed by a leader whose experience and great achievements extend over a continuous period of 50 years — more than anyone else on the Israeli political scene.
The Jews, at this very dangerous moment in the history of their state, felt that they must elect a leader capable of saving them from destruction. They were sick and tired of hearing the vocal trio of Barak, Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami singing “We’ve brought you peace,” while almost every day Jews were being killed or injured by Palestinian terrorists. The Jews were fed up with this false peace, and wanted the restoration of real security and of their honor, which had been trampled underfoot.
The Jews were disgusted by the campaign of character assassination carried out by most of the media against Sharon over the years. The Ha’ir and Ha’aretz newspapers took a major part in this unprecedented incitement against the prime minister-elect.
The Jews voted for Sharon because they are familiar with his real history, as opposed to that written by the falsifiers of history. By electing Sharon, the Jews indicated that they want Zionism and reject the “post-Zionists.” They want unity and have had enough of schisms.
In fact, Sharon defeated the post-Zionists when he challenged them by going up to the Temple Mount on Sept. 28. By doing so, he not only tore off the mask from the Palestinian terrorist gang who used his visit as a pretext for commencing a war of attrition and a campaign of violence that had been planned many months in advance. He also revealed the real intentions of Barak and his colleagues who deceitfully traded with foreigners, including in their deal even the Temple Mount, the most sacred, historical-religious heart of the Jewish people.
Sharon’s ascent to the Temple Mount will go down in history as the turning point in the salvation of the Jewish state — more so than any of the other historical crossroads he stood centered in again and again, related to Israel’s security, building and settlement issues.
There, on the mount, a duel took place between him and Barak, who was ready to leave just the Western Wall in our possession. There the countdown started, with 130 days of dramatic events that brought Sharon to the position he deserved — that of prime minister.
In this struggle between Lt.-Gen. Barak and Maj.-Gen. Sharon for the Zionist-Jewish soul of Israel, the commander of the small operations was defeated by the man of the great campaigns.
It is possible that Sharon made several errors in the election campaign, but there was no major mistake. Likewise, there were no glaring problems with his settlement campaigns in Judea, Samaria and Galilee; when he built more than a 100,000 homes for the new immigrants at record speed; when he crossed the Suez Canal in 1973; or during the magnificent battle at Um Katef in the Six-Day War in 1967.
The electors felt that he was telling them the truth; that if there was a chance for gradual peace, Sharon would bring it, but he would not negotiate under fire.
At the same time Barak continued to sing them songs of peace, while all sane citizens could see that a war of attrition was going on around them. To this lie Barak added one mistake after another, when he attempted to make political capital out of the heavy sacrifices of the wars — while at the same time making slanderous accusations at Sharon, the man who, when minister of defense promoted Barak to the rank of major-general. Barak, himself, fought under Sharon in the Lebanon War, without criticizing it in any way.
I am sorry for Barak, whom I have known since he was a captain in the Israel Defense Force. But I am even more sorry for the Jews who were exposed to his cynical campaign of intimidation, in which he egoistically and unfairly portrayed Sharon as a warmonger, posing regional and international harm caused to Israel. Barak deserved to be forced to resign and to leave the political scene in disgrace.
The mills of historical justice have been seen to grind slowly. It is a great pity that several years had to pass until Sharon became prime minister. If this had happened earlier, he could have avoided the terrible damage caused by Barak and those like him.
But it is never too late to correct the national injustice caused to the security of Israel since Sharon was forced to resign from the Ministry of Defense, exactly 18 years ago, in February 1983. After 18 years justice has come to light, and shall always be remembered.