Ariel Sharon was blamed for the massacre of as many as 2,000 Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps outside of Beirut, Lebanon, at the hands of militiamen allied with Israel. Yes, you read right: 2,000 civilians. An official Israeli inquiry found Sharon indirectly responsible for the killings. Sharon was forced to resign in 1982.This is Mr. Sharon, the man elected as Israel’s new prime minister. If it were Iraq, Serbia or any other place in the world, Sharon would be indicted as a war criminal. “He became a negative icon in the Arab world, in the eyes of the Palestinians, in the eyes of the entire international community — I think that in a way Sharon demonized himself. He has earned it by his deeds,” said Akiva Eldar of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. During Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister, Sharon became foreign minister. At the Wye River talks in Maryland in 1998, Sharon refused to talk to or even shake hands with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Is this the attitude of someone who can bring peace to the region? I seriously doubt it.Aref Al Farra

Graduate Student

Business administration