Sharon, Ariel (1928–)

Ariel (“Arik”) Sharon is a former prime minister of Israel and a high-ranked general in the IDF (Israeli army). Although he is one of the most controversial public figures in Israel, his long-term, wide-range influence on the formation and history of the state is beyond doubt.

Sharon was born in Israel as Ariel Scheinermann. In 1942, at the age of 14, he joined the Hagana (a paramilitary Zionist organization). During the 1948 War of Independence, Sharon was already an active commander, and in 1953, he founded and led the “101” special antiterror unit. During the Six Day War Sharon commanded an armored division, and as major general he commanded another armored division during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Holding this position, Sharon led the crossing of the Suez Canal, considered to be a critical turning point in the course of the war.

In December 1973, Sharon began his political career by becoming a Knesset member of the right-wing Likud party. He resigned a year later to serve as security adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Sharon was reelected to the Knesset in 1977 and was appointed minister of agriculture in Menachem Begin's first government. In this office Sharon initiated and carried out an extensive settlement program in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza strip, creating one of his most famous public images as “Father of the Settlements Movement.” Despite his critical role in evacuating settlements (as part of the peace agreement with Egypt) in 1982, Sharon remained extremely close to that movement.

In 1981 Sharon was appointed defense minister, serving in this post during the Lebanon War. Following the Sabra and Shatilla Massacre in 1982, and the establishment of an Israeli inquiry commission, Sharon was [Page 744]found indirectly responsible for the massacre, was dismissed from his office, and banned from any future similar position. Sharon remained in the government as a minister without portfolio and then served as minister of industry and trade from 1984 to 1990. During the years 1990 to 1992, he served as minister of construction and housing and chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Immigration and Absorption. In 1996, Sharon was appointed minister of national infrastructure and, in 1998, became foreign minister and headed the permanent status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

In 1999 Sharon was elected chair of the Likud Party, following the resignation of its former chair, Benjamin Netanyahu, as a result of the party's defeat in the general elections of that year. In 2000 Sharon paid a historic visit to Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, a visit that was, and still is, considered by many to be the trigger for the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising).

Sharon was elected prime minister in 2001 and then reelected in the elections of 2003. His disengagement plan and its initial implementation during the summer of 2004 caused a split in the Likud Party, and altered Sharon's long-lasting public image as a hawkish statesman. This state of affairs led Sharon to form a new, left-center party called Kadima (“Forward” in Hebrew) after leaving the Likud.

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