5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
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Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
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FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
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Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
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Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
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twiGs Branches Out
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5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
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The world waits -- and should pray -- for Ariel Sharon's recovery
1.5.06
The news early this morning does not look good -- reports from Jerusalem indicate that after a long night of brain surgery, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains in critical condition. Even if he survives with his life, it looks very doubtful that he will be in any mental or physical condition to continue as prime minister, much less to wage a campaign for re-election.
Undoubtedly many in the world will breathe a sigh of relief that Ariel Sharon is gone from the scene, ignoring the reality that Sharon is the Middle East's best hope for a long-term solution to the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian dispute. As dogged in pushing through a settlement through unilateral moves including territorial withdrawal enhanced by high-tech security fences as he was on the battlefield when he was a general, Sharon has achieved the level of statesman, and today -- or until yesterday -- he reigned as the only world leader who could rightfully be so described.
Name one other world leader currently in power who has or would so totally risk everything -- his political support, his party, the safety of his nation, his place in history, his health, and, most significantly, failure -- for the greater goal of peace.
Only Ariel Sharon was in a position to do this singlehandedly in Israel, and it is a tragedy that he could not take the country forward, or, kadima, as he named his new party (having left his old one, his policies having pushed it beyond the ideological limits). And there is no man or woman leading any other nation right now who shows the combination of strength and moral fiber and will to peace (which one could say grows out of a will to power) that Ariel Sharon has displayed these last two years.
Only time will tell what follows. One would like to optimistic that someone like acting PM Ehud Olmert, the stalking horse for Sharon's innovations, could carry on in his footsteps. But Sharon was truly a giant, and the very same reasons that so many people in and out of Israel hated him are the very things that enabled him to take the measures he has taken to bring a resolution to the conflict. It's hard to imagine that the succession of anyone -- Olmert, Amir Peretz, Binyamin Netanyahu -- could mean anything more than business as usual.
It's not an overstatement to say that the loss of Ariel Sharon is a tragedy of immense proportions, the greatest since the loss of Yitzhak Rabin -- and not only for Israel, but for the whole world.
And now, let us pray.....
TO quote Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary:
"He has surprised, I think, everyone with the courage and statesmanship he has shown in recent years to work towards a long term peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
This is a shock. It is a shock for us, for the people in Israel and the people across the region.
This man is a man of not only great political courage, but of astonishing physical courage and resilience as well."
1/5/2006
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