Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Interview with Sharon

Richard Cohen of the Washington Post treks to Arik's farm:

Opening:

Thirty minutes south of here by helicopter is Ariel Sharon's farm. This is where the prime minister becomes the farmer he was in his youth and where he sits down on any available Friday for a marathon lunch with his fellow farmers and others. His son helps serve, his daughter-in-law clears the table, and the farmers talk of the damage the wolves have done to the ostrich flocks. This would seem like any other farm lunch were it not for the young men with immense weapons who keep an eye on everything. The farm produces meat, fruits and vegetables -- not to mention the surprising dream of a man who some would say never dreams at all....

Closing:

Still, for the moment no one in Israel can realistically challenge him. He sees himself as a latter-day Cincinnatus, the storied Roman farmer who dropped the plow to become dictator and returned to the farm once the crisis had passed. Others might trim their principles to remain in office, Sharon said, but not him. He lives by certain truisms and neither career nor ambition nor popularity can make him compromise. The way he tells it, he is just a farmer passing through politics and war, war and politics -- always yearning, he says, for the sweet smell of fresh hay and a peace he has never known.
posted by Yeshiva Orthodoxy
at 9:51 PM

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