Gilad Atzmon writes:

In a uniquely dishonest piece, the Guardian newspaper’s Jonathan Freedland paid a tribute today to Israel’s veteran prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

According to Freedland, Sharon, “as one of Israel’s founders… had the credibility to give up occupied territory – and even to face the demons of 1948”. Freedland speculates also that “Sharon’s final mission might well have been peace”. This is indeed a big statement, but how does Freedland support his creative historical account?

Jonathan Freedland, Guardian and Jewish Chronicle columnist and BBC presenter

“Sharon’s final act,” says Freedland, “was to dismantle some of the very settlements he had sponsored. In 2005 he ordered Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, seized in the 1967 war in which Sharon had been a crucial, if maverick, commander.”

Aside from the fact that Freedland falls short of reminding his readers about Sharon’s colossal war crimes, he actually completely distorts the political narrative that led Sharon to the 2005 unilateral disengagement from Gaza.

Did Sharon have a plan to reconcile with the Palestinians and to address their plight or their right to return to their land? Not at all. We do not have any evidence of Sharon’s remorse. The logic behind Sharon’s disengagement is simple and on the verge of banal. Sharon knew very well that if Israel insisted on maintaining itself as the “Jewish state”, it would have to rid itself immediately of Arabs. Sharon was becoming aware of the possible implications of the Palestinian “demographic bomb”. The Palestinians were becoming a majority in areas controlled by Israel.

Ridding Israel of the highly populated Gaza Strip was a perfect start. In a single political and territorial move, Sharon freed Israel of 1.5 million Palestinians and liberated Israel of increasingly complex security issues. Sharon was a pragmatic politician, he’s always been one and his disengagement wasn’t at all an attempt to “face the demons of 1948”, as Freedland suggests. It was a Judaeo-centric attempt to maintain the Jewishness of the Jewish state.

Freedland’s biased inclinations continue till the end of today’s piece: “an intriguing habit of Sharon’s was to refer to places in Israel by their original, Arabic names – thereby acknowledging the truth that usually lies buried beneath the soil”. Is this right? Did Sharon really pay tribute to the eradicated Palestinian civilization by uttering some words in Arabic? Not at all. Sharon was born in the British Mandate of Palestine. He was raised in a country scattered with Palestinian villages and cities. Sharon and Israelis of his generation tended to pepper their Hebrew with a few Arabic words because such an act filled their existence with an authentic sense of belonging and a bond to an imaginary soil. I hope in that context the laughable Freedland doesn’t also think when Israelis eat falafel they try to express empathy towards six million Palestinian refugees. After all, falafel also belongs to Palestine.

Freedland probably waited for Ariel Sharon to die in order to spread his preposterous reading of history, just to make sure that the “immortal Sharon” would not bounce back and dismiss this gross interpretation as complete nonsense.

The only remaining question is why the Guardian, once a respected paper, is publishing such low quality hasbara drivel? Is it really the Guardian of the truth or has it become the Guardian of Zion?