While police and other security forces were prepared for thousands of participants in the levaya of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, only a few hundred attended. Some reports state that authorities instructed some of those assigned to maintain order to remove their vests and mingle with the visitors to give the appearance more people were participating because the turnout was so small.
Some feel the reason is that the non-frum community does not comprehend the concept of paying last respect by attending a levaya. Others posit that it is because many are angry at Sharon for his 2005 Disengagement Plan while some simply feel that because the former prime minister was in a coma for eight years, he died in the minds of most people back in January 2006. However, it is pointed out that the levaya for former Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir was also small, but then again, he was ill during the last years of his life and totally out of the public arena.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
How about that the Arabs and Jews on the left hate him for his role in the massacre at Sabra and Shatila (his defense was that he was incompetent not to realize the “minhag ha-makom” in Lebanon involved ethnic cleansing), and the “right” hate him for surrendering Gaza to Hamas (his defense was that Israelis weren’t willing to occupy it and it was better to withdraw to better boundaries with the hostiles on the other side of the border). His political movement managed only six seats in the last election, and his great rival is the current prime minister. Had he retired from public life when his military career ended (a la Cincinnatus), he would have had a much greater funeral.
History may be kind to him, but it will be a revision of how he is currently regarded.
This is a great Kiddush haShem that people like Rav Ovadiah Yoseph ZT’L & Rav Elyashiv Zt’L had such huge funerals, whereas these political leaders are having tiny funerls.
The public knows who are the true leaders of B’nai Yisroel.
Chilonim and tziyonim don’t have much respect for anything other than the here and now. They’re out with the old and in with the new.