Founding Director, Baker Institute for Public Policy | Baker Institute Board of Advisors, Life Member
Edward Djerejian, founding director of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel, issued the following statement on the passing of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Ariel Sharon was one of Israel's elder warrior and political leaders. Only Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, remains from that historic generation.
"Sharon's military acumen was demonstrated in all of Israel's major wars -- the 1948 war of independence, the 1956 Suez crisis and the 1967 and 1973 Yom Kippur wars, where his military skills were exemplified in the Sinai Peninsula. As minister of defense in 1982, he gained much notoriety for his role in the invasion of southern Lebanon and the tragic massacre of Palestinian civilians under Israeli military purview by Lebanese militia at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
"He was the major architect of Israel's settlement policy in the occupied territories and a leader of the right-wing Likud Party. When Sharon became prime minister of Israel, his strategic thinking shifted. He realized there was no sustainable military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that Israelis and the Palestinians had to separate, preferably though negotiated agreements, but failing that by selective unilateral Israeli withdrawals from the occupied territories. He made the bold decision to unilaterally withdraw Israeli troops and settlements from Gaza and small parts of the West Bank. That decision sparked serious opposition within the Likud Party, and Sharon created a center-right political party Kadima. Stricken by strokes and a coma, he was unable to pursue these policies further, and in this respect, his legacy will remain incomplete."
Djerejian is a leading expert on the complex political, security, economic, religious and ethnic issues of the Middle East and South Asia. He served in the U.S. Foreign Service under eight presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton. Prior to his nomination by Clinton as U.S. ambassador to Israel, he was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. He also led the Baker Institute’s U.S.-Syria academic and policy dialogue from 2002 to 2005.
