WHO IS ARIEL SHARON?

In recent weeks, the world has witnessed the genocidal war that is being conducted by Israel against the Palestinian people. Since the current Intifadeh began, the recorded number of Palestinians killed is 500. While the actual toll is unknown, the number of casualties will continue to mount as Ariel Sharon persists with military attacks and massacres.

While headlines are giving us a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, and minute-to-minute view of the devastation, few people understand or are being told about Ariel Sharon and his background. A brief historical overview of the man who is leading this war of extermination against the people of Palestine is revealing.

On May 14, 2002, it will be 54 years since the establishment of the state of Israel, as a result of a United Nations resolution. Since May 14, 1948, more than 3 million Palestinians have been displaced from their lands. In one year, 1948, Israel occupied more than 57 % of the Palestinian homeland that was not part of a United Nations resolution. In the 7 years following 1948, the Jewish terrorist groups, Stern and Haganah, waged a campaign of terror that resulted in the Israelis destroying 418 towns, and taking possession of 78% of the territory. Israel pushed the Palestinians into the Gaza and border areas of Jordan. In Jerusalem, the 30 Palestinian neighborhoods in the area were reduced to 4.

One of the military architects, leaders, and executioners of this Israeli expansionist plan is the present Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon. One of the first commanders of the group Haganah, Sharon was in charge of the 101 Fighting Unit. Before the entire world, in 1953, Sharon led the massacre on the Palestinian refugee camps in El-Bureig, south of Gaza, where more than 50 Palestinian civilians were killed, mostly women and children. That same year, Sharon led the attack on the Jordanian town of Qibya and it was reported that, under his leadership, the 101 Fighting Unit had massacred 69 civilians, including 46 women and children. In that incursion, the Israelis also destroyed 45 Palestinian homes.

In 1971, Ariel Sharon, led an attack which resulted in the complete destruction of more than 2,000 Palestinian homes and gave the order to "not arrest suspicious looking Palestinians, but to shoot to kill." In September of 1982, under the direct orders of then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, right-wing Lebanese militias of the "Falange" were escorted into the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps to massacre Palestinians. 1,962 Palestinians were decapitated, mostly women and children, and many were completely dismembered.

The two men, who pointed the finger at Ariel Sharon and were supposed to be witnesses on war crimes at the International Court at The Hague, were recently assassinated by Israeli security forces.

Under the Reagan administration, Ariel Sharon worked with the Mosad (the Israeli counterpart to the C.I.A.) to provide arms and money to the Nicaraguan Contras who were trying to bring down the Sandinista Government. In 1979, after a long revolutionary struggle, the Sandinistas established a democratic republic in Nicaragua that aimed to lift the country from impoverishment caused by the rule of giant U.S. corporations and the repressiveness of Samoza’s puppet regime.

Ariel Sharon, the Mosad, and the C.I.A., worked closely with Oliver North to widen the war against the liberation and progressive movements in Central and Latin America as well as the Caribbean. At the end of the Contra War against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the traffic in arms was combined with drug trafficking operations which involved the Chicago-Tokyo Bank, Chemical Bank of New York, Bank One, the Ohio Valley Bank, and the National Bank where Ariel Sharon would launder money.

Ariel Sharon was the main facilitator and promoter for Israel to acquire nuclear bombs and established an alliance with the Apartheid government of South Africa which included providing Israeli scientists and nuclear materials to the racist South African government. In 1981, Israel exploded its first hydrogen bomb. Today, Israel possesses at least 300 nuclear bombs.

Recently, as world public opinion continued to show increasing denunciation of the Israeli invasion and massacres as well as the occupation of nearly 91% of Palestinian territory, Sharon threatened Syria with deployment of its tactical nuclear arsenal which it developed jointly with South Africa.

The most recent Sharon policy of military threats and aggressive attacks has not gone unopposed. By the beginning of April 2002, it was well known that more than 390 military officers and commanders of the Israeli armed forces have refused to serve and fight in Sharon’s latest massacres. Many are being court-martialed. Approximately 800 captains of the Israeli Reserves of the Defense Forces of Israel and former members of the Mosad and other counter-intelligence units, formed the Council for Peace and Security, with the objective of bringing an end to the current war. Sharon has been quoted as saying, "Two jeeps and a tank must accompany each Israeli settler that goes to the territories taken from the Palestinians."

Ariel Sharon's agenda is clearly targeting Iraq. Sharon recently stated that "if the United States attacks Iraq, we will be with you and we guarantee that we will win in a short period of time and with minimum efforts!" Furthermore, Sharon indicated that nuclear armaments would be utilized. Both the U.S. government and Sharon have their sights on Iraqi oil and Israel’s control of water that is vital for survival in the climate in the Middle East. It is no coincidence that lately, the name of Saddam Hussein is being projected and demonized more often, by the Bush administration, as an even "greater terrorist" than Osama Bin Laden.

As Sharon continues his genocidal war against the Palestinian people, their resistance continues to grow. Just days ago, a Palestinian teacher, in one of the towns leveled by Israel, stated that "what Israel is doing is not destroying our resolve or the Intifadeh but guaranteeing generations of freedom fighters to continue the fight against the Zionists."

Viewed from the perspective of history, it should be no surprise that Ariel Sharon is traveling to Washington, D.C., on April 22, to be honored at a banquet - conquerors, racists and murderers have always been rewarded for their horrific acts.

Take for example, the 1971 award presented to then New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, shortly after he ordered the massacre of rebellious inmates at the Attica State Penitentiary. Honors were given to numerous U.S. military generals who were awarded for their role in the conquest and murder of Indigenous peoples in this country as well as for carrying out the invasion and colonization of Third World countries. A primary example is U.S. General Nelson A. Miles, who led the massacre of indigenous people at Wounded Knee and invaded Puerto Rico in 1898.

It is also not surprising that the most decorated and awarded officers in police departments and other law enforcement agencies in the U.S., are usually the ones most brutal and racist who terrorize communities where people of color live.

Ariel Sharon’s visit to Washington, D.C. on April 22 is significant because it is consistent with the traditions of those who oppress each and every one of us. But, even more so, taking into consideration the events taking place in the Middle East, Sharon’s visit to the U.S. rulers is intended to add insult to injury in relation to the Palestinian peoples’ struggle and all who struggle daily against the consequences of the present world system of imperialism.

Despite the disapproval, the U.S. government is falsely publicizing Sharon’s criminal actions against the Palestinian people; the truth of the matter is that his deeds are identical to what the U.S. has done to oppressed peoples historically throughout the globe.

But no matter how vicious the U.S.-backed Israeli military may appear or how invincible U.S. rulers may falsely project themselves at this time, there will come a day when every criminal will have to answer for their crimes. Sharon like many other oppressors, will face the judgment of the people.

The Palestinian people are not alone. Their struggle is reviving a militant consciousness among all oppressed people, from Puerto Rico to Argentina, from Mexico to the Philippines, who instinctively identify with the Palestinian cause for liberation.

No one can dispute how the valor and determination of the Palestinian people has interrupted U.S. war plans disguised as "fighting terrorism" nor how the Intifadeh has shattered whatever little and misled support the racist U.S.-Israeli relationship was receiving. The plight of the Palestinian masses has been quite vivid and now, with the most recent upsurge in Palestine, the peoples of the world are being inspired to carry out their own struggles for liberation.

Que Viva Palestina Libre!

Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!