Israelis yesterday paid their last respects to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, whose controversial life inspired admiration and provoked revulsion, and whose death drew emotional reactions even after eight years in a coma.
Celebrated as a military hero at home, recognized as a pragmatic politician abroad and despised as a bloodthirsty criminal by many Palestinians and the Arab world, the former prime minister was nothing if not a polarizing figure.
However, Israelis of all stripes acknowledged the burly 85-year-old as a key figure in their nation’s history, his death on Saturday leaving Israeli President Shimon Peres as the Jewish state’s last surviving founding father.
The white-haired former general had been in coma since Jan. 4, 2006, following a massive stroke that felled him at the height of his political career.
Ahead of his funeral this afternoon, Sharon’s coffin was laid in the plaza outside the Knesset for the public to pay their last respects. Flanked by a parliamentary honor guard, the flag-draped coffin was placed on a black marble plinth with half-a-dozen wreaths laid at the base.
In the first half-hour, a steady trickle of people filed past the coffin in respectful silence, most of them middle-aged or elderly. There were no open displays of grief.
Earlier yesterday, ministers held a minute’s silence in memory of Israel’s 11th prime minister as they met for the weekly Cabinet meeting, an official statement said.
“He will be remembered in the heart of the Jewish people forever as one of our most outstanding leaders and most daring commanders,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a tribute, according to the statement.
Sharon will be buried this afternoon at Sycamore Ranch, his home in the southern Negev Desert after a military funeral.
World leaders sent condolences over his death, remembering the controversial figure in cautious diplomatic language. US Vice President Joe Biden is expected to represent Washington at a special memorial at the Knesset in Jerusalem this morning. Others expected to attend are German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier, outgoing Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair, as well as diplomats from Spain, Russia and Canada.
Sharon’s dramatic story was the subject of blanket coverage in the Israeli press yesterday, with the papers dedicating multiple pages to pictures and commentary on his life and legacy.
Once known chiefly as a ruthless military leader who fought in all of Israel’s major wars, Sharon switched to politics in 1973, championing the development of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
He was long considered a pariah for his personal, but “indirect” responsibility in the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Israel’s Lebanese Phalangist allies in Beirut’s refugee camps.
His early career as a warrior earned him the moniker “The Bulldozer,” but most world leaders chose to remember him as the politician who surprised many by masterminding Israel’s pullout from Gaza in 2005.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
RSS