Those who won't forgive Sharon are the ones he exiled from Gaza
Former residents of Gush Katif and towns in northern Samaria that were evacuated in the summer of 2005 met the passing of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with mixed emotions. The man who was once considered the father of the settlement enterprise, but who orchestrated the disengagement in 2005, will forever remain in their minds wholly responsible for expelling them from their homes.When you do something as horrific as he did, it has the effect of destroying much of the positive perceptions that came before. If I haven't been easy on him as a result of his evil deed, I'm not sorry for that, and some of the exiles aren't either.
"Against all of his virtues, that's the measure he took -- which was unclear, illogically conceived, which brought us to the reality where rockets are falling on Rishon Lezion and Gedera and more than a million Israelis are living under a constant threat -- which I will always remember, not the other things he's done," said Lior Calpa, who lived in the Gaza Strip settlement of Neve Dekalim and was elected chairman of the Gush Katif Residents Committee after the Disengagement.
"Every day that I go to work and come home in the evening, I see the families in Nitzan. I know so many stories from every caravan and every family that has yet to see the horizon," he said. "This is my last memory of Sharon. I don't respect people whose opinion before the election is one way and then changes 180 degrees."
Dror Vanunu, a former Gush Katif spokesman, said he felt grief over the passing of a man whose life had been intertwined with Israeli history.
"Sharon led Israel to great achievements on the battlefield and other important areas, and brought about great development in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip; that's something that cannot be taken from him. Still, it's hard to ignore the fact that, alongside all of his great achievements throughout his time, his last act was actually unsuccessful. On the contrary, it was a failure from all angles. Today, because of the evacuation, the fate of Tel Aviv is the fate of Netzarim. What he did in the disengagement redefined his character," said Vanunu.
Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, Moonbattery, political corruption