Former US envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, paid tribute to Ariel Sharon, saying that that Israel has 'lost one of it's giants' which is true although a bit insensitive to make fun of the 27 stone former leaders girth at this time.
When such a controversial figure dies, and Sharon did not have many friends outside of Israel and the White House, it is always the immediate family i feel for.
The much reviled Sharon is more than worthy of all the barbs and hostility that he is going to get but it can't be easy for the family to hear that the death of their husband, brother, father and grandfather is being celebrated.
He has gone, history will decide which side of the fence his reputation falls on and he can do no more harm where he is now but i am uncomfortable to hear of people celebrating a persons death, i never agreed with the Thatchers dead parties held in Britain when Maggie died.
Sharon has died but the Palestinians are still forcibly suppressed, Israel continues to steal their land and kill their citizens indiscriminately and continues to keep any peace deal at arms length so nothing has changed today with this news, nothing worth celebrating anyway.
I'm sure the UK and USA will issue tributes that will hail him as a great man while history, one hopes, will remember him as instigating wars, targeting civilians and a worthy recipient of a call from the court for war criminals.
Alas that's all gone now, he has died so lets not waste time on him and hope that somewhere in Israel there is a future leader who is the opposite of Sharon who is worthy of real platitudes, not the rewriting of history that is bound to be going on today to make out that Sharon was anything other than a war-mongering disaster.
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