A new book by Gilad Sharon, a biography of his father who has been lying still at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer since 2006, serves as a stepping stone for Gilad's climb into the political arena. Sharon's son has his eyes on a senior position in Kadima, the party his father created. An interview with The New York Times on the occasion of the book's publication included a revelation whose credibility does not need to be doubted: that Gilad was the one who persuaded Ariel Sharon to uproot 8,000 Jews from their homes and businesses in Gush Katif. The explanation that convinced him about the move was disturbing: According to Gilad Sharon, the Israeli public refused to bear the burden of continuing to protect the settlement bloc, which was subjected to incessant Palestinian terror attacks. The elder Sharon took the bait, and the rest is history. This explanation requires thorough analysis. Sharon did not suddenly come to the realization that the demographics in the Gaza Strip were impossible, and that it would be unrealistic to settle 8,000 Israelis within a hostile population of more than one million. The very establishment of the settlements there was, and remains, a strategic mistake. Nor did Sharon need a quasi political framework to keep the U.S. and the Palestinians preoccupied. He did not want to negotiate with Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas after him - so he used a dramatic step in the Gaza Strip, away from Judea and Samaria, to distract them. Not even the suspected financial and political corruption of the owners of Sycamore Ranch (the Sharon family farm) served as the catalyst for Sharon's decision to expel Jews from their homes in Gaza. The criminal investigation was scathing and it has yet to be completed. Ariel Sharon fell ill; his son Gilad remained silent during the police probe; and his other son Omri finished his term as an MK in prison. The corruption scandal played a part in the decision to pull out of Gush Katif, but was not the main cause. What Gilad Sharon is claiming - perhaps inadvertently - is that contrary to the image of his father as a leader who charged ahead and determinedly forged a new path, at later stages in life Ariel Sharon was a populist with a loose grip on power. He did not decide what the people needed, but rather focused on their short-term comfort. This stands in stark contrast to the approach of David Ben-Gurion, whom Arik Sharon so wanted to emulate. Deep in his heart Sharon understood that he was acting out of weakness, not machismo, so he decided to punish the Palestinians who benefitted from his diluted power. That is why he decided to give them the Gaza Strip in exchange for nothing, in a unilateral move that prevented the orderly transition of power to the Palestinian Authority. He left the Gaza Strip in chaos and paved the way for a Hamas takeover of Gaza within two years, which brought with it Qassam and Katyusha rockets and the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. Gilad Sharon's revelation about his father raises some further questions. On the one hand, how many daring but frivolous decisions have Israeli governments made in the past and are making even today? On the other, how many times has the government not acted with daring due to the public's reluctance to bear the burden, and instead surrender rather than initiate? Leaders who fail to fulfill their duty because the public is fainthearted are likely to make it into the history books as the ones who brought disaster upon the nation. In historical terms, the problem of disengagement from Gush Katif was a relatively easy one. It never should have been built in the first place. I supported the disengagement, but have changed my mind since witnessing the results. The government should not have uprooted even one tree without a peace agreement, or at least an interim agreement with the Palestinian Authority. The motivation that Gilad Sharon presents in his book - a weak public that didn't want to defend its brothers in Gaza, as opposed to security, policy or demographic concerns - is a stain on Ariel Sharon's biography. Almost a mark of Cain. There is no assurance that the discovery will be welcomed even within Kadima - the party born out of the disengagement mess and a leader's lack of integrity.
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