34 Days by HaAretz journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff and Warrior: The Autobiography of Ariel Sharon are inseparably linked as both chronicle different approaches to leadership. The former is an account of the Lebanon War of 2006, as told by two journalists, showing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as passive and indecisive, while the latter proved to be aggressive and decisive, and is the real-life heroic story of one of the Jewish people’s most lionhearted generals.
Sharon's 556 page account in Warrior is about his personal and military travails. Losing his wife and son early in his adult life, his military leadership skills were constantly put to the test by arduous Arab-Israeli wars. I was struck by Sharon's understanding of the geography of Israel, the birthplace of Judaism, and his almost mythical role to help lead them. It is staggering to digest his expertise, detailing every minutiae of land within Israel proper, and also in the disputed territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Sharon is one of the most controversial figures of Israel's history. His virulent detractors still contend he is a war criminal, particularly for his complicity in the Sabra and Shatilla killings at the end of the war in Lebanon in 1982. It must be underscored that it was the Christian Phalingists, not the IDF, who went ahead and massacred Muslim civilians in these refugee camps. The Palestinian Liberation Organization had used these various camps throughout Lebanon as their launching sites to kill Israelis living in northern Israel. Hezbollah also would use these very same tactics 20 years later. Sharon was implicitly blamed for the Phalingists' operations of “revenge“ towards these Muslim civilians. As a result, Sharon resigned as Defense Minister.
Despite this episode, it is hard to find anyone within Israeli society who has ever denied Sharon's brilliance as a military general, and to his commitment to protect Israel. Still, many events as Israel's prime minister find great fault for his bold moves. While not chronicled in his 1989 book, as Warrior was written well before he became prime minister, the evacuation of Gush Katif created Jewish enemies for Sharon. Feeling betrayed, these evacuees have never forgiven him and yet, this was a monumental step towards peace. Some of these radicals even suggest his comatose state today is G-D's punishment for the act. Others criticize his decision to fortify a fence between Jerusalem and the West Bank. “The Wall” was meant to prevent terrorists from carrying out raids entering Israeli towns and cities. His transformation from Likud into Kadima, the centrist-moderate party he formed also took political courage. These actions are illustrative of a proud and gutsy leader who devoted his life to peace and security for the Jews.
After reading 34 Days, it is clear the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 would have gone much differently had Ariel Sharon been prime minister. The book illustrates a division in command between the Israeli Defense Force’s Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and Olmert, creating a palpable sense of uncertainty internally as to how to navigate the direction of the war. Olmert insisted on strictly an air-campaign as the best means to eliminate Hezbollah’s operatives throughout the sprawling targets in Lebanon. Much like the war in 1982, Halutz thought it necessary to take it to the enemy head-on, even when confronting an enemy of fighters willing to blow themselves up, as long as Israeli soldiers were also killed. With positive world opinion, even the United Nations supporting Israel’s right to self-defense in the first week of the war, Olmert felt somewhat omnipotent, and that time was also on his side. Ironically, it was even then that he began to show indecisiveness with his military strategy-- opting to not use ground forces until three days before the UN ceasefire was signed.
After the 2006 War in Lebanon ended, Hezbollah’s spiritual leader Hasan Nasrallah admitted he would not have ordered the abduction --and subsequent killing-- of Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev had he known the Israelis' response would prove so severe. This was Israel’s rationale for engaging in the war. Israel's reasoned self defense of a sovereign country was not only criticized by the world's leaders as the operation dragged on throughout the summer, but its approach was also met with anger and hostility by its own military's top brass, directed toward Olmert. This would not have happened under Sharon's watch, and it was Olmert's inexperience that led to this blatant mistrust of the army toward him and to his command, particularly from Halutz.
It is hard to determine if Israel could ever receive credit for "winning" the war against a guerrilla terrorist group like Hezbollah, as "victory" seems obtuse. Hezbollah’s very survival is seen as a “victory” against Israel's organized and disciplined army. Nonetheless, nobody disputes that Ariel Sharon would ever be mistaken as anything other than the indisputable leader. Olmert, to his credit, tried to assure his chief ally, America, that Israel was winning its war against terrorism. While outcries from the UN and the Europeans were inevitable, a somewhat chilly US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice implored the Israelis to wrap up the war quickly, even criticizing Israel‘s aerial assaults on neighboring villages. Israel also had lost the media war in its own country; Olmert seemed sensitive to opinion-polls even as Israeli planes pounded Hezbollah targets throughout Lebanon. Sharon likely would not have cared about this public relations war; he certainly would not have shown any kind of hesitation--- to his enemies, he is known as "the bulldozer."
It is one of history’s cruel ironies that Ariel Sharon, the symbol of Jewish heroism, has spent his late years on a respirator in a coma. Even those who are not military theorists like Carl von Clausewitz, or Sun Tzu, when analyzing the role of military strategists and their motivation, it is easy to understand that indecisiveness can cripple world leaders and their legacies. Today, Israel yearns for an undaunted hero again-- like Ariel Sharon-- a true leader who is both universally feared and admired.
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