Ariel Sharon (1928-)
Prime Minister

Ariel Sharon was born at Kfar Malal in 1928. His earliest military experience was when he joined the Haganah at the age of 14. He was only 20 in 1948, when he commanded an infantry company in the Alexandroni Brigade, during Israel's War of Independence.

Sharon's reputation as a military hero began in 1953, when he founded and led the "101" special commando unit which carried out retaliatory operations, following terrorist attacks in Israel. However, the unit remained independent for only five months and was disbanded after it raided the West Bank village of Kibya, killing nearly 70 innocent civilians.

His military prowess was demonstrated in 1967, during Israel's Six Day War, when he commanded an armored division. Two years later, during the War of Attrition with Egypt, Sharon was promoted to Head of Southern Command. Considering his chances of being appointed Chief of Staff to be slim, Sharon resigned from the IDF (Israeli Army) in June 1972, but was recalled to military service in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, to command an armored division on the southern front, turning the fortunes of the war by advancing across the Suez Canal to repel the Egyptian forces. .

Ariel Sharon entered political life after the Yom Kippur War. He was elected to the Knesset in December 1973, with the Likud party, but resigned a year later. Two years later, Sharon acted as a Security Adviser in Yitzhak Rabin's first government.

As a result of the Yom Kippur War, and following the Rabin resignation in 1976, Sharon shared the prevailing disillusionment against the Labor establishment and decided to form a new party, which he called Shlomzion. His party gained two seats in the subsequent 1977 elections. In the same elections, the Likud Party came to power in Israel for the first time: Sharon disbanded the Shlomzion Party and joined the Likud.

Sharon was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for settlements, by Prime Minister Menahem Begin, and served until 1981. With the rise of the political right in Israel and the growth of messianic Zionism, Sharon began to identify increasingly with the Gush Emunim movement and used his position to encourage the building of settlements. Despite the fact that he was involved in the return of Yamit in the Peace Agreement with Egypt in 1982, the settler movement considered him its champion.

Sharon served as Minister of Defense from1981-83, but his reputation was tainted during the Lebanon War. In September 1982, the IDF allowed a Phalange Militia to enter the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, in Beirut, to search for "militants". However, the Phalange massacred hundreds of civilians and public outrage in Israel forced the government to establish a commission of inquiry. Known as the Kahan Commission, its conclusion implicated Ariel Sharon as among those indirectly responsible. Ariel Sharon was forced to resign as Minister of Defense, although he remained in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio.

From 1984-90, Sharon served as Minister for Industry and Trade, and from 1990-92 as the Minister of Housing and Construction. When Yitzhak Shamir resigned as Likud leader following the party's electoral defeat in 1992, Sharon – still marked by the shadow of Sabra and Shatilla - was unsuccessfil in his bid to replace him.

The Labor government of Yitzhak Rabin was marked by a new peace process and the Oslo Accords, but it did not last long after the Rabin Assassination in November 1995. Benjamin Netanyahu led the Likud to electoral victory in 1996. In July 1996, Ariel Sharon was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure in a compromise with Prime Minister Netanyahu. After the resignation of David Levy, Sharon was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Sharon's inherited the Likud leadership after the defeat of Netanyahu and the Likud in the 1999 elections, and was influential in rehabilitating the party during its two years in opposition. Sharon was also able to recreate his image and shake off the stigma associated with the Lebanon War.

As the Barak government crumbled in late 2000 – after the start of the "Second Intifada" - Ariel Sharon ran a successful campaign for Israel's first Special Election for the premiership, in February 2001, emphasizing the need for national unity. He won by a margin of 25% on an all-time low poll of 59% of the Israeli electorate. 15-20% of expected voters, including the vast majority of Arab voters, did not go to the polls. He fulfilled his campaign promise and established a broad-based National Unity government, including the Labor Party, as well as the right-wing National Union Party. He appointed Labor Party leader Binyamin Ben-Eliezer as his Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

During his first several months in office, Prime Minister Sharon demonstrated restraint in dealing with Palestinian terror. He waited for the fact-finding committee, set up following the Sharm el-Sheikh talks between former Prime Minister Barak and Arafat, to deliver its findings - known as the Mitchell report - in May, resisting calls to strike at the PA immediately. He spent the summer in negotiations with the Americans, developing the Tenet Plan, which called for an immediate cease-fire by both sides. Sharon demanded "seven days of quiet" before implementing the plan, which Israel never received.

In the fall of 2001, Ariel Sharon authorized small, temporary incursions into Palestinian controlled areas and increased the pace of assassinations of terrorist leaders. However, he still showed too much restraint for the far-right party Yisrael Beitenu-National Union, which withdrew from the government in October 2001, and for the beleaguered settler movement. Palestinian terror spiraled to an all-time high in March 2002, when over 120 Israelis were killed, peaking with the Seder "suicide bombing" of a hotel in Netanya, killing 29 guests. Sharon immediately launched Operation Defensive Wall, aiming to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian Authority. From April 2002 through November 2002, Israel engaged in a cycle of deep incursions into Palestinian Authority areas to wipe out individual terrorist networks, following attacks emanating from the PA.

He had intended to see the National Unity government to its full term in October 2003. However, Ben-Eliezer, who had felt pressure from inside his party for months, withdrew the Labor party from the coalition. Sharon tried to establish a stable coalition without Labor, but could not do so, refusing to change his government guidelines for the sake of readmitting the far right into the government. He therefore dissolved the Knesset and called for early elections, on January 28, 2003.

An issue overlapping the pre-election period and the next government was the international indictment brought against Ariel Sharon in the Belgian Supreme Court in connection with Sabra and Shatilla, which did not proceed.

Ariel Sharon's Likud Party won 38 seats in the 2003 Elections and initially created a coalition government with right-wing parties and centrist Shinui. Israel had been adversely affected by economic recession, unemployment, and security problems.

In international terms, Israel was committed to President Bush's "Road Map", but negotiations with the Palestininians were stalemated by continued terror, which was more encouraged than reined in by PA Chairman Yasir Arafat. Israel's image, which had been damaged by the construction of the defensive Security Fence, was improved by Sharon's decision to go forward with the Disengagement Plan, which was not popular with the rank and file in his own Likud Party. However, there was considerable opposition to this unilateral Plan from the right-wing members of the coalition,. The government became unstable and Prime Minister Sharon played numerous brinksmanship tactics. Shinui left the government in January 2005; by this time a single-purpose National Unity government was steering towards Disengagement, but the Likud itself was divided on this issue.

Following the implementation of the Disengagement Plan, the government was again challenged. Although Ariel Sharon maintained the Likud Party leadership in the face of opposition from former Finance Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his government fell over its harsh economic and social policy, when Amir Peretz won the Labor Party leadership in autumn 2005 and pulled Labor out of the government. Prime Minister Sharon's 16th Knesset term was also complicated by investigations into corruption allegations, although charges were brought only against his sons.

Ariel Sharon decided not to run for Elections to the 17th Knesset as Likud Leader and in November 2005 founded a new party, Kadima, which attracted several MKs from the Likud Party – including Finance Minister, Ehud Olmert, - and those of Labor Party – including Shimon Peres - who were disaffected with its new leadership, thus creating a traditional center party which looked set to return the largest number of seats in the Election.

In mid-December, the Prime Minister suffered a minor cerebral stroke, which raised questions about the viability of his one-man party and his medical fitness, but its impact on his electoral chances was considered minor. He was scheduled for angioplasty in January 2006, but suffered life-threatening cerebral hemorrhages and was hospitalised in serious condition.

Ehud Olmert replaced him as acting Prime Minister.

Contributors: Neil Lazarus, Steven Klein, Gila Ansell Brauner.
(updated: November 2002, January 2006)

Biography Links:

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/2/Ariel%20Sharon

Knesset:
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=125
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/heb/mk.asp?mk_individual_id_t=125
http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections01/eindex.html
http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections16/eng/index.htm

PMO:
http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/PM/Resume/

Wikipedia:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Sharon
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%90%D7%9C_%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9F

Ynet:
http://www.ynet.co.il/Ext/App/Thumbnails/CdaAlbumPic/0,9790,L-12,00.html
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-398308,00.html

[Top] [People] [ Zionist Century] [Homepage]