Ariel (Arik) Sharon (Scheinermann)

Lexicon of Terms

Political Biography

Defense Minister Ariel Sharon addresses the Knesset Plenum during Operation Peace of the Galilee, June 29, 1982.

Lexicon of Terms

Ariel (Arik) Sharon (Scheinermann)

Military man and politician, Member of the Knesset, Minister, and Prime Minister of Israel during the years 2001–2006.

Sharon was born in Kfar Malal in 1928. He completed his high school studies in Tel Aviv and enlisted in the Hagana underground military movement in 1945. In 1947, he served as a guard in the police force of the Jewish settlement. During the War of Independence, he fought as a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade and was wounded in the battle over Latrun. While studying History and Oriental Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in 1952-1953, he was appointed commander of the 101 Commando unit – set up to carry out retaliatory operations against attacks by Palestinian infiltrators. The unit merged with a paratroop regiment, of which Sharon became the commanding officer, and continued to carry out unconventional operations across enemy lines.

The operations he commanded were executed in a highly professional manner, but some were disputed, as the operation in Qibya, in which women and children were killed. In 1956 Sharon was appointed commander of the Paratroop Brigade and fought in the Sinai Campaign. Fierce criticism was cast at his command over the battle at the Mitla Pass, in which many soldiers were hurt. Differences of opinion intensified between him and Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan. In 1957 he left for the Camberley Staff College in Great Britain. His promotion was postponed by Chiefs of Staff Haim Laskov and Zvi Tsur.

In 1964, Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin appointed Sharon as the head of the Northern Command, and two years later, he became the head of the Training Division. In these capacities he was promoted to Major General. In the Six Day War, he served as an armored division commander, and was acclaimed for his tactical successes in the battles of Um Katef and Abu Ageila. In 1969 Sharon was appointed Commander of the Southern Command, and in this role, he fortified the Bar Lev Line and played an active part in the War of Attrition, while criticizing the tactics promoted by Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev. After the ceasefire along the Suez Canal went into effect in August 1970 and throughout all 1971, Sharon concentrated on repressing Palestinian terrorism in the Gaza Strip and vacating Bedouins from northern Sinai, an action for which he was rebuked by the Chief of Staff.

Sharon retired from the military in June 1973 in order to run for the Knesset as a member of the Liberal Party. During the short period until the Yom Kippur War, Sharon worked at establishing the Likud Party, but as the war broke out, Sharon returned to active military service to command an armored division with which he crossed the Suez Canal. He was criticized, as in the past, for refusing to execute orders, but also praised for his commanding and tactical qualities.

In December 1973 Sharon was elected to the Eighth Knesset, but he resigned in December 1974 to accept an emergency appointment in the IDF. From June 1975 to March 1976, Sharon served as special advisor to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and began to plan his own return to the political arena. With the approach of the elections for the ninth Knesset (1977), he established his own political party by the name of Shlomzion, which secured two Knesset seats and shortly thereafter merged with the Herut Movement.

In the government that was formed by Menahem Begin in June 1977, Sharon was appointed Minister of Agriculture and chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Settlement. In these posts he advocated the establishment of a dense network of Jewish urban and rural settlements in the West Bank, as a guarantee for the territories to remain in Israeli control. During this period he was considered as a patron of the Gush Emunim movement.

Following the elections for the Tenth Knesset (1981), Sharon was appointed Minister of Defense. In January 1982, the General Staff of the IDF completed a plan, at his request, for a military operation in Lebanon which was implemented as "Operation Peace of the Galilee." The main declared goals of this operation were to free Israel's northern settlements from terrorist attacks, to remove the PLO from Beirut, to bring about the establishment of a friendly government in Lebanon which would sign a peace treaty with Israel, and to force the Syrians out of Beirut. In April 1982, despite the objection of Gush Emunim settlers, Sharon carried out the last phase of the Israeli evacuation from Northern Sinai.

Sharon was personally involved in all stages of the of the war in Lebanon, which began on June 6th, and – as per his criticizers, including the Prime Minister's son Ze'ev Binyamin Begin claimed – concealed information from the Prime Minister or reported on his actions after their execution. On September 16th, several days following the murder of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Jemayel, Christian Phalange forces entered the Sabar and Shatilla refugee camps in search for terrorists. They carried out a massacre within the camps, killing several hundreds of Palestinian refugees. These events led to the formation of the Kahan Commission to investigate the massacre. Its report concluded that Sharon must resign from his post and not be appointed as defense minister again. He resigned from his post, remaining in the the government as a minister without portfolio.

Following the elections to the Eleventh Knesset (1984), Sharon was appointed as Minister of Industry and Trade in the National Unity Government. His appointment was presented despite the objection of members of the Alignment, and in this role he continued to develop his plan for dense Jewish settlement in the West Bank, surrounding 11 autonomous Palestinian territories. Sharon led the Likud group protesting the government's approval of holding elections in the occupied territories. In a party committee on February 12th 1990 he announced his resignation.

After the collapse of the National Unity Government in a no-confidence motion on March 15, 1990, Sharon was appointed Minister of Construction and Housing in the new government formed by Yitzhak Shamir. Within this framework, he once again intensified Jewish settlement activities in the territories, assisting private organizations to purchase houses in East Jerusalem and the Old City. He was also responsible for the purchase of tens of thousands of caravans and vast construction, though unplanned, for the mass immigration that arrived in Israel from the Soviet Union in 1989.

In February 1993, Sharon decided not to run for Likud leadership against Benjamin Netanyahu. When Netanyahu became Prime Minister, following the elections to the 14th Knesset (1996), he did not appoint Sharon to the government, but pressure by David Levy and other ministers brought about the establishment of a new powerful ministry – the Ministry of National Infrastructures. In this capacity Sharon prepared a plan for the condensation of the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Upon David Levy's resignation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in October 1998, Sharon was appointed to the post. In September 1999 Netanyahu resigned from the Likud leadership and Sharon was elected to the position with a majority. On September 28th 2000, during a well-covered visit to the Temple Mount, Sharon announced that "Every Jew has the right to visit the Temple Mount."

Sharon was elected in the direct elections for the prime minister in February 2001, over the incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Following Barak's resignation from the Knesset, Sharon managed to form a wide government, comprised of the Labor-Meimad, Am Ehad and all religious and right-wing parties. At its peak, the Government had 29 ministers. Due to the lack of success with the direct prime ministerial elections, resulting with a downfall in support of the two prominent parties, Sharon acted to annul it. In cooperation with Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer he fought to suppress the Second Intifada, which broke out following his visit to Temple Mount in 2000. The IDF issued Operation Defensive Shield in March 2002, in which Yasser Arafat was confined to the Mukataa Compound in Ramallah.

Deterioration in the national economy and the resignation of the Labor Party from the coalition in November 2002, led to early elections for the 16th Knesset, held in January 2003. The Likud, under his leadership, won 38 seats – twice the number of seats won by the Labor Party headed by Amram Mitzna. Following the elections, Sharon established a government consisting of Shinui, the right-wing parties, and the religious parties, except for Shas. In an attempt to keep internal harmony within the Likud faction, Ehud Olmert was appointed as acting prime minister and minister of industry, trade and labor, Benjamin Netanyahu was appointed as finance minister and Silvan Shalom as foreign minister. Sharon had fully backed Netanyahu's actions for economic stabilization at the time when the economy was on the verge of a downfall. He had also approved Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to commence the building of the barrier with the West Bank, as a means of defending Israel from Palestinian terrorist attacks.

At the end of 2003, after concluding that the Palestinian leadership is incapable of committing to negotiations, Sharon had decided to perform a one-sided policy of disengagement from the Gaza Strip, including the dismantling of Jewish settlements within it and of several other settlements in Northern Samaria. A quarter of the Likud MKs had voted against this policy, and Netanyahu resigned from the Government prior to its execution. Shinui resigned from the Government at the end of 2004 because of an increase in budget allocations to the religious parties in the 2005 budget. Elections were averted by the entry of the Labor Party into the coalition in January 2005. The Disengagement Plan was executed in August 2005 and caused great tension within the Israeli public.

The continued attempts by the Likud rebels to disrupt Sharon's work and replace him as party leader, as well as the election of Amir Peretz as leader of the Labor Party and his decision to remove the party from the coalition in November 2005, led Sharon to announce on November 21st his split from the Likud and the establishment of a new faction and party – Kadima. The new party was formed together with 13 other Likud MKs, three Labor-Meimad MKs, including Shimon Peres, and members of other factions. The elections to the Seventeenth Knesset were set for March 2006.

Sharon's second term as prime minister was overcast by allegations of corruption and financial irregularities, involving his sons Omri and Gilad. Though the allegations concerned Sharon himself, he had not been charged. In December 2005 he experienced a mild stroke, returning to work several days later with the authorization of his doctors. He then suffered a massive stroke in January 2006, placing him into a persistent vegetative state.

In his final active years, Sharon had become highly popular in Israel, especially due to the implementation of the Disengagement Plan from the Gaza Strip. He was also popular and beloved around the world, after many years of him seen as an extremist leader provoking war, since the First Lebanon War. His deteriorating health had also brought some of his political foes to commend his warmth, dedication to his family and his surprising comments on political issues and proposed solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.