After Sharon

Israel has a historic opportunity to return to the rule of law and the will of the people now that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been incapacitated by a brain hemorrhage.

Sharon was elected prime minister because Israelis were tired of making concessions to their enemies without any concessions in return. They took Sharon at his word – that he would abandon such reckless policies and protect Jews and their property.

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For whatever reason, Sharon reversed course and returned to the policies of appeasement.

He capitulated to the haters in the Palestinian Authority who insist no Jews be permitted to live in their semi-autonomous state. He went so far as to dismantle Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and forcibly expel peaceful Jews from their property after he had personally advocated the settling of those areas.

Racist, anti-Semitic policies like these have no place in the civilized world. Civilized people need to resist them forcibly – not enforce them.

I say this as an American of Arabic heritage and a journalist who has covered this part of the world for 25 years: Israel represents a bulwark in the fight to spread freedom and justice in the Middle East – not a threat to freedom and justice. Is Israel perfect? No, no nation of human beings is. But it is most certainly a civil society – one that respects the rights of all people.

There has been a lot of talk about spreading "democracy" in the Middle East and around the world.

"Democracy" is not the answer. "Democracy" should not be the goal. But free republics that respect the rule of just laws and the will of the people are the answer. Israel can be counted among those – perhaps the only one in the Middle East.

Sharon was not fostering policies of respect for the rule of law and the will of the people, he was abrogating such policies.

Now that he has left power, Israel needs to follow a course of protecting its own national security. It needs to adopt sane policies of protecting the lives of civilians. Jews and Christians have only one place in the Middle East where their lives and rights are respected. It is the nation of Israel. To ignore this fact is to place the lives and rights of Jews and Christians in greater jeopardy.

There's an old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That is exactly what Israel has been doing in the Middle East for too long. Sharon fell victim to this pattern after being elected by expressly rejecting it.

It's time for some new thinking in Israel – and in Washington where Israel's policies are often shaped.

No more concessions. No more appeasement. No more giveaways. No more invitations to further violence. No more incentives to terrorism. No more encouraging vile hatreds. No more self-flagellation.

Is there leadership of real courage and conviction left in Israel?

Is there someone who will stand up boldly to call a spade a spade?

Is there anyone willing to learn from past mistakes?

Let's remember why Israel became a nation: Jews were persecuted in every corner of the world – not just throughout Europe during the Holocaust, but throughout the Arab world as well. Nearly half of Israel's population is, in fact, refugees from the Arab world, not displaced European survivors of the Holocaust.

The persecution continues today. Anti-Semitism is again on the rise.

Israel must not invite another holocaust by rewarding those who promote it.

A strong Israel, a resolute Israel – one that stands confidently upon the moral high ground of freedom and justice – is in the best interests of Jews worldwide, Christians worldwide and Arabs worldwide.

The Jewish state represents the world's last, best chance for real reform, real freedom, real security and real peace in the Middle East.