אריאל

Ariel
[2004]
Testo e musica / מילים ולחן
Lyrics and music / Paroles et musique
Sanat ja sävel: Eran Reiss / ערן רייס





The story of this song, and of this page, may be a quite good example of what I call the “timelessness” of this website focused on history through songs and music. I contributed these Hebrew lyrics in late 2004, i.e. at a time when the site technology didn't even allow to enter a date for contributions; this may well be the first song in Hebrew included in this site. At that time, Mr Ariel Scheinermann, better known as Ariel Sharon, was not only still alive, but also in full charge as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel, a charge he would keep until April 2006, when this page was already a couple of years old. After suffering a stroke on January 4, 2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death on April 14, 2014.

Ariel Sharon has been called (by Yitzhak Rabin!) “The greatest field commander in our history”; he served as Minister of Everything in an endless series of Israeli governments (Minister of Agriculture, of Defense, of Industry, Trade and Labour, of Housing and Construction, of Energy and Water Resources, of Foreign Affairs) and, finally, as Prime Minister. Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948. As a soldier and then an officer, he participated prominently in the1948 Palestine war, becoming a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in many battles, including Operation Bin Nun Alef. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101 and the reprisal operations, as well as in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973.

Upon retirement from the military, Sharon entered politics, joining the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–92 and 1996–99. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre and recommended that he be removed as Defense Minister. His role in the massacre led to him being known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs.

From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 2000, and served as Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006. However, as Prime Minister, in 2004–05 Sharon orchestrated Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima (“Forwards”). He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals.

Ariel Sharon is a most controversial figure, even among Israelis. I found this song in an oznik.com page: well, the page still exists, and this is remarkable if one considers that 14 years are like a couple of centuries in Internet time. In 2004, oznik.com, a renowned Israeli left wing site, organized a “Sharon Short Story contest” and invited writers to contribute stories focusing on, inspired by or related to Ariel Sharon. The engaged folksinger Eran Reiss from Jerusalem (the correct transcription of his name would be “Eran Reis”, but he himself spells his name this way in Latin characters) contributed a song. This is the way I found his song in Hebrew at a time my Hebrew wasn't so good yet. This is why I put a very short introduction to this song, “in attesa della traduzione” (waiting for translation). Well, waiting may be quite long in this site, you know, and may even take fourteen years.

There's a renowned website called Hebrew Songs, but a song like this isn't supposed to be found there. Though showing “pity” and sympathy for Ariel Sharon, the song is highly ironic and even venomous in some points. In 1982, the same year of Sabra and Shatila massacre, he made a well known statement: “I love life. I love all of it, and in fact I love food”. Sharon suffered from obesity from the 1980s and also had suspected chronic high blood pressure and high cholesterol. At 5 ft 7 in tall, he was reputed to weigh 254 lb. Stories of Sharon's appetite and obesity were legendary in Israel. His staff car would reportedly be stocked with snacks, vodka and caviar. He was a daily consumer of cigars and luxury foods; numerous attempts by doctors, friends and staff to impose a balanced diet on Sharon were unsuccessful. This is Eran Reiss' song leitmotiv: How can he control his people and government, if he can't even control himself? He lives on bullets, he swallows territories just like he swallows foodstuffs, he's the occupier of himself. Repent and conquer your own will!

So in 2004, when I built this “cold case” page. Sharon was hospitalized on December 18, 2005, after suffering a minor ischemic stroke. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered a heart defect requiring surgery and ordered bed resting pending a cardiac catheterization scheduled for January 5, 2006. Instead, Sharon immediately returned to work and suffered a hemorrhagic stroke on January 4, the day before surgery. After two surgeries lasting 7 and 14 hours, doctors stopped the bleeding in Sharon's brain, but were unable to prevent him from entering into a coma. Subsequent media reports indicated that Sharon had been diagnosed with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) during his December hospitalization. Ehud Olmert became Acting Prime Minister the night of Sharon's second stroke, while Sharon was only officially in office. Knesset elections followed in March, with Olmert and Sharon's Kadima party winning a plurality. The next month, the Israeli Cabinet declared Sharon permanently incapacitated. [RV]