Lisa Goldman was watching a popular TV drama in Tel Aviv last night; on screen a single woman was about to discover the father of her child when the program was interrupted. Annoyed, Lisa assumed that it was news of another terror attack. It was not, of course, and the phone calls began immediately after the announcement.
A guy from Gaza calls me, he lives in a good neighborhood, but there’s an Apache helicopter overhead; we hear an explosion, then gunfire exchanges, then he’s yelling in Arabic out the window to get details and the whole time he’s asking ‘So what’s up with Sharon?’
Lisa Goldman, blogger, On the Face, from a phone interview on 1/5/06
Lisa was not planning to vote for Ariel Sharon, but wouldn’t have been disappointed to see him win. Israel, she said, will be rudderless without him; no other politician carries his weight or credibility. Regardless of how you felt about him, said Lisa, now was a bad time to lose him.
Israeli bloogers are glued to their keyboards and television screens today as, they say, are all Israelis.
I’m sleepless. Cannot sleep. Lots of work and lots of sadness. …We are all working under a stress that we can’t describe, however I guess that by now we can say that the country’s stopped. Everyone’s watching or listening to the news. EVERYONE.
I don’t want to talk politics right now. Doesn’t matter if I agreed or not with Sharon’s ideas, views and moves. …We’re talking about a man who took part in all the of the cration and development of this country. He was there, in loco. For good and for bad. He was there, doing, witnessing, planning, criticizing, defending, attacking. I do admire him.
renatinha, BALAGAN, Hard to say good-bye
I was never a big supporter, actually opponent would probably be right. But I got used to him. Too many balls in the air for him to just take time out like this.
EB, OneJerusalem.com blogging life in Israel, Still Here – A day after Sharon’s Stroke
I’m very worried, but not because I feel any soft feelings for the corrupt old bastard personally. I’m very worried because recent years have proved he’s by far the best for the job. He gave us back our security. He gave us back our sense of control over our life here, over our future. He gave us back hope that there is actually a possibility that things could get reasonably normal round here.
Imshin, Not a Fish, Well then
Whether he lives or dies, we are all already in mourning. All of us — those who always like Sharon, those who never liked him, and the vast number of Israelis who once vilified him, but over the past several years have looked in wonderment as he embodied the definition of the word ‘leader.’…If you want to get Freudian about it, we’re losing our father figure.
Allison Kaplan Sommer, An Unsealed Room, Losing a Leader
I think we have to get rid of the “father figure??? mentality. Let’s get used to the thought that PM is a flesh and blood mortal and is not vested by deity with some supernatural abilities.
On the other hand, let’s wish the corrupt old bastard well. With all his faults he was, at least, a mensch. [Which is a] status that clown Bibi will never obtain.
SnoopyTheGoon, from a comment to “Well then” Not a Fish
I think that the BBC’s “News Hour” described Sharon very interestingly. Many Jews are mad at him for ending Jewish occupation of some Palestinian territory, and many Palestinians view him as an oppressor. It’ll be interesting to see how both sides react to this. Hopefully, some Israelis and Palestinians will view him for trying to make some progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.