The Life And Times Of Ariel Sharon

By John Tosin Ajiboye

Benjamin Netanyahu’s tribute to the late former Israeli leader, Ariel Sharon said it all. He said the late Sharon played a central role in the struggle for the security of the state of Israel over all its years. Born on a farm outside Tel Aviv on 26 February, 1928, the son of Russian immigrants, Sharon took the lessons from working the land to the highest office in Israel.

He served bravely during Israel’s war of Independence and the dashing paratrooper quickly rose through the ranks, well liked by Israel’s founding fathers. “He was tall, he was handsome, he was blonde, and he was thin at the time,” said historian Michael Oren “and they looked at him: ‘This is what we have produced in this land, this new Jew.’”

But controversy was never far away. In 1953, after a wave of terrorist attacks from Jordan, he established and commanded the infamous Unit 101, assigned to carry out reprisals. One of those missions was a raid on the border town of Kibya, in which 45 houses were blown up and 69 Arab villagers killed. Sharon said he thought the houses were empty.

In 1956 he was rebuked after engaging his troops in what commanders regarded as unnecessary and unplanned battle with Egyptian forces at Mitla Pass in Sinai Peninsula. After that he proceeded to Britain in 1957 to Study at Staff College.

By June 1967, he was back at war, now a general, leading his tank battalion to a crushing victory over the Egyptians in the Sinai during the Six Day War. But what he considered his greatest military achievement came during the 1973 Yom Kippur War when a surprise attack by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria prompted Sharon to defy his command by surrounding Egypt’s Third Army and leading his troops over the Suez Canal. It was a turning point in the war.

Retiring from the army, he turned to politics. As a member of the conservative Likud party, he served in several Israeli administrations. He was the father of the settlements — Jewish communities built on occupied Palestinian land — condemned internationally, and seen as an obstacle to peace by many within Israel.

“That is the land of Israel and we are going to stay there forever,” Sharon declared defiantly.

As defence minister he was the architect of Israel’s disastrous 1982 war in Lebanon, ordering the invasion to stop the Palestine Liberation Organization from using Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel.

“This was a misadventure, an ill-fated invasion,” commented political analyst David Horovitz. “Sharon was trying to play superpower here and re-arrange the region in a way that would help Israel.”

And in 1983, an Israeli tribunal found him indirectly responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

It was carried out by the Christian Phalangist militia group, Israel’s allies, and Sharon was found to have done nothing to stop it.

He was forced to resign and was banned from ever being defence minister, a punishment that rankled even with the thick-skinned Sharon.

“He felt betrayed by government,” said Gissin.

The Palestinians and the Arab world saw him as a criminal who had merely escaped international justice for war crimes. They also named him the Butcher of Beirut.

“He was resented, hated, he had not only blood on his hands he had a trail of blood everywhere he went,” said Ashrawi. “Sharon was the bloodiest of Israeli leaders.”

The 1990s would see his political rehabilitation, eventually becoming leader of his party in 1999. In September of that year came his notorious visit to the Temple Mount — the holiest site for Jews, also claimed by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, the “Noble Sanctuary.”

But historian Michael Oren said there was more to the move than met the eye. “Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount had been co-ordinated with the Palestinian Authority at the time. They knew about it, there was no surprise about it; they were simply waiting for him to go up to initiate their terrorist war.”

In the midst of political crisis, Sharon secured a landslide victory over Premier Ehud Barak in the election for Prime Minister on 6 February, 2001.

As a wave of suicide bombings rocked Israel, Sharon unleashed the Israeli military, sending tanks and troops into Palestinian towns, ordering assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders. “And believe me, we show restraint. I am under heavy pressure to act differently.”

Palestinians of course, had a different view. “I think Sharon will be seen in history as the one who has perpetrated the most cruelty on the Palestinians,” said Ashrawi.

Sharon ordered the construction of the barrier through the West Bank and confined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to his compound in Ramallah — accusing him of encouraging attacks on Israel.

In 2001, he told CNN, “no doubt Arafat is a terrorist.” Previously he had said he always regretted not killing his old foe when he had the chance.

But Horovitz said Sharon’s decision was made out of fear of what might have happened. “I think Sharon only refrained from killing Arafat reluctantly only because of a promise he made to the American government that he wouldn’t kill him and because of an assessment by some in the Israeli intelligence community that more Jews would die if Arafat was killed.”

As the violence continued, Israelis overwhelmingly re-elected him for a second term in January 2003. Not long after Sharon made a historic announcement: Israel would give up Jewish settlements in Gaza and part of the West Bank.

Sharon sent in the police and army to drag settlers from their homes, a move that earned him plaudits overseas, but derision and death threats from the settlers who once saw him as their champion.

Like former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, early opinion polls showed Sharon was seeking for a third term in office, but the man who many had thought was unstoppable, unexpectedly suffered a mild stroke in 18 December, 2005. Characteristically, he tried to brush over his illness.

“He felt he had to come as quickly as he could smile on his own two feet,” commented analyst Horovitz, “otherwise he would be a political lame duck.” But unfortunately by 14, August, 2006 doctors announce that his condition had greatly deteriorated.

Two weeks later, he was back in the same intensive care unit at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, after suffering a second stroke — but this time it was more serious.

He underwent three emergency operations in 24 hours when doctors later tried to wake him from the medically induced coma.

There were some signs of life — slight movement of his hands and legs, according to one his sons who said his father could move his eyes and fingers when spoken to as at 25 October, 2011 but he remained in a coma from that time.

By 27 January, 2013 medical experts said new tests showed significant brain activity by Sharon, but confirmed he remained in a deep coma.  The former great Israeli leader eventually died on 11 January, 2014 at age 85.

May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace

•Ajiboye,  a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos. E-mail: [email protected].