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01/14/2006:

"1953 Sharon Raid Burns in Psyche"

QIBYA, West Bank - It was the night that put Ariel Sharon on the map and the night the fledgling Jewish state, then just a few years old, signalled in the deadliest terms it would stop at nothing to defend itself.

And for the survivors of the West Bank village of Qibya, a night that lives on in infamy. Today, as the elders of this Palestinian town crane over their radios for updates on the fate of the stricken Israeli prime minister, the searing memory of Oct. 14, 1953, burns still.

Muslim propriety prevents Ibrahim Mohammed Hamad, 63, from rejoicing in Sharon's demise. But one week after a devastating stroke, as Sharon battles back from the brink of death, Hamad finds it difficult to hear world leaders such as George W. Bush praise the ailing "man of peace" without choking on his hummus.

"As human beings, we do not make fun of the death of others," said Hamad, who was 9 years old the night Sharon's crack paratroop unit brought down his town, detonating 42 homes and a schoolhouse with 500 kilos of explosives.

"But do not think we will shed tears for Sharon. I don't know if he acted alone or on orders from above. But he did not come here to get a suntan."
commondreams.org