blogovitz: While I was never a fan of the man's politics, he does seem to me to embody a rare and fleeting quality that, once gone, will change the face of Israeli society forever.

Arik was Israel, for better or worse; now, a different country will emerge, a country that will never again feel so at home in history, so comfortable with its unbearable mission, so natural and certain and true, so much like Ariel Sharon himself.