Israel today needs a powerful and high-performing personality like Ariel Sharon, to deal with the absorption in the country of tens of thousands of new immigrants from Ukraine, along with tens of thousands of refugees who knock on our door and want to stay in the country until the end of the war.
I remember how only shortly after Sharon was appointed Minister of Construction and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers for Immigrant Absorption in June 1990, a frenetic spirit prevailed in all aliyah and absorption systems. Sleeves and start working.
People who attended the discussions said that Sharon had turned the cabinet into an aliyah and absorption into a kind of Knesset of the General Staff.
He laid out on the wall the map of the country, and on it were marked the number of housing units, caravans and prefabricated houses to be erected in each locality.
Sharon did not hesitate to initiate emergency regulations to circumvent the bureaucracy, in order to approve the construction of thousands of housing units.
He demanded the approval of 50,000 caravans and 40,000 prefabricated houses to provide shelter for the immigrants who arrived.
Sharon also attacked the Ministry of Finance, which stuck sticks in the wheels and delayed contracts with contractors.
At the same time, he initiated a find and mapping of the 55 sites on which the caravans were built.
Following Sharon's vigorous activity, there was an astonishing increase in construction starts in 1991 - from 20,000 to 85,000.
Until Sharon was appointed to the position, and even before the wave of immigration from the Soviet Union began, there was a severe problem of homelessness in Israel.
Thousands of Israeli families, and especially couples and discharged soldiers, were unable to purchase an apartment - a reality similar to the one that still prevails in Israel today.
In early 1989 all the experts warned that we were expecting a big wave of immigration from the Soviet Union.
The Ministry of Absorption prepared master plans for the absorption of immigrants, but in practice nothing was done.
"Jewish wars" took place between the head of the Jewish Agency and the Ministries of Housing and Absorption, and only when Sharon took office did a new wind begin to blow, and they began to seriously consider proposals for prefabricated houses abroad and to bring them to Israel, to overcome the delay in building apartments.
Even today we are in a reality similar to that which prevailed in 1990.
No one knows for sure how many immigrants will come from Ukraine.
Some estimate that their number may reach 50,000, and perhaps even 100,000 people.
In addition, tens of thousands more non-Jewish refugees are expected to arrive, but we cannot, as refugees ourselves after World War II, show inhumanity and ban them from entering the country for a limited period.
In light of all this, there is no escape from locating a personality with abilities and energy who can lead this important national project.
One of the worthy candidates in my eyes is the former chief of staff, Gadi Izenkot, and it is to be hoped that he will restore the spirit and ability that Sharon brought with him.
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