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Uri Avnery - Sharon the extreme megalomaniac (192/315)

172 views · Published 25 July 2017 · 4:51 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · News & Politics

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To listen to more of Uri Avnery’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFw4EQRLZvAoreWVLWLJDNaI

Uri Avnery (1923-2018) was an Israeli writer, journalist and peace activist. He was editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine "HaOlam HaZeh" and founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. [Listener: Anat Saragusti; date recorded: 2017]

TRANSCRIPT: So Likud was established by Arik Sharon, but he was not able to live with anyone. Sharon was an extreme megalomaniac. He didn't just believe that he was better than everyone, that is, he didn't just think so, he simply knew it to be true! For him it was a premise that was so obvious like the sun rising every day. And he never could comprehend how someone would be unable to understand that Arik is the only person who can save the country and lead it. Then he left Likud, of course, and began his quest. I already had a very good relationship with him from the meetings after the war. Amos Kenan was attracted to him. It was very easy to be drawn to Arik Sharon. He exuded an air of total supremacy. You could not be with Arik without likening him to a Knesset member, it was impossible. Arik has always had world-encompassing ideas, certainly space-encompassing. He had theories that amazed you when you heard his vision and concepts for the first time. Other people were talking about who would be mayor of Petach Tikva or whatever, whether it would be possible during the elections to get two mandates. He was thinking about the world, about the blocs. And he trusted me. We were quite friendly despite the fact that Rachel was always protesting against me using that term. Every visit to Arik, firstly in Rehovot, then on his farm, ended an argument with Rachel in our car on the way home about Arik Sharon. I said: 'You don't understand Arik. It is true that he doesn't have our logic and our way of thinking, but he has his own logic and his own way of thinking'. And Rachel would say: 'You're just being a romantic. He is simply stupid'. I trusted Rachel's understanding of people. The truth is that both assumptions were correct. All of the grandiose things about Arik had an element of stupidity. Arik was a man who I think had not read a book in his life, even more than Moshe Dayan. Moshe Dayan at least had a large library in his house, I think I mentioned that. And Arik – books and Arik were two separate worlds. But he had a charismatic personality that is hard to explain. The quality of true leadership. And he had a talent for constructing theories about nothing. Once someone – I think that it was Prof Kreitler – explained to me what mental illness was; I think it was paranoia , or paranoia vera, or something like that. I mean a symptom is when a person makes a completely crazy assumption, for instance 'the world is a cube', and then on this premise he constructs an incredibly logical theory. The more logical it is, the more symptomatic the illness. Arik was just such a man.

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