Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006 | 7:41 a.m.
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun. His column appears on Sunday and on occasion during the week.
He's the last of the warrior class.
As I write this, Israelis and the rest of the world worry for good reason about the fate of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. A massive stroke has all but eliminated the prime minister from the world's political stage. (As I write this Friday he is being watched guardedly by his doctors who have indicated that by today they should know what his future will be.)
Naturally, the news of his illness has caused great concern, not only in the Middle East where his leadership has been essential for any movement along the peace track between Israel and the Palestinians, but also around the world where knowledgeable leaders understand his singular impact on matters of global importance.
Sharon has been an Israeli fixture -- at first on the numerous battlefields that Israel has had to endure for its very survival and later as a determined and steadfast leader on the political front -- since long before it became the Jewish state in 1948.
He has earned the respect of his fellow countrymen and the rest of the world because he has been there for every one of Israel's battles -- with arms and with his own brand of statesmanship -- and there are no others left in Israel like him.
The warriors -- the men and women who fought for the state against the longest odds and fought with the people of Israel when the odds were even worse -- have left the scene. The last man standing of Israel's greatest generation is Shimon Peres, who, arguably, is the most visionary and most intelligent of all of Israel's political leaders. But for whatever reasons, he has never been able to capture the imagination and overwhelming respect of his people the way Sharon or Yitzhak Rabin had been able to do.
That means that with Sharon slipping away from the leadership role that has been vital to Israel's chances for a responsible and reliable peace, the ability of that tiny democratic state to reach down into the next generation of leaders and choose the right person for the job will be, at best, challenging.
And that means that the road toward peace could very well be marked by unavoidable detours as the democratic process searches for the person who can lead Israel to the brink of peace -- and over to a brand new world in which warriors like Sharon will be needed less and, hopefully, not at all.
What that means for the Palestinians is unclear. Under former leader Yasser Arafat it was said that they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to make peace with Israel. It appears that they have missed, once again, what could have been their best opportunity to make peace.
Assuming even the best intentions by the Palestinian leadership, the fact that they have been unable to get back to the negotiating table, because of internal problems, has allowed life to get in the way.
Governments are always assessing their situations, choosing one course of action over another based, largely, on what they expect the other fellow to do or say. We almost never act based on what we know is inevitable. (Except, as we all know in Cuba, where those with their heads in the sand have ignored our neighbor just 90 miles away in the hopes that Fidel Castro will die soon. That government policy has been in effect since Fidel was an old man, at least for the last 25 years!)
I don't think anyone really factored into the peace process Sharon's mortality because, if they had, they would have come to one of two conclusions.
Either, because he is 77 and a bit overweight, now is the time to make peace no matter how difficult that task might be because Sharon is the only leader from whom the Israeli public will accept a peace agreement. Since the Palestinians haven't done everything they could do to achieve peace during Sharon's tenure, we can assume they didn't consider his health an issue.
Or, because he is older and subject to life's vagaries, those who want chaos and uncertainty in Israel or those who believe the next crop of new leadership will be easier to deal with, need only wait for the inevitable. That would have been a foolish course because no Israeli leader -- battlefield-tested or otherwise -- could ever give more than the Israeli public will allow and, more likely, would give less because they wouldn't have Sharon's bona fides.
That tells me that no one really considered that Sharon wouldn't be around for the peace process. Just one more mistake on the road toward that elusive peace in the Middle East. And one more lesson to the rest of us that timing is everything.
Our thoughts are for this old warrior and his family. Our prayers are for the rest of us, that we finally might learn a valuable lesson. Don't waste time, don't play games and don't wish away time that we may not have.
Small things like peace in the Middle East are often victims of such foolishness.
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