Product Description

Warrior, statesman, peacemaker–few world leaders have had as dramatic and pivotal a life story as Ariel Sharon. And as this riveting new biography shows, perhaps no modern leader’s life has been as tightly woven into the history of his nation.

Born in 1928 and raised in spartan circumstances on a kibbutz, Ariel Sharon was taught by his parents to take principled stands and then to plow ahead, to “always go see what lies over the next hill.” And for decades to come, Sharon would do just that, forging a life of strength, resilience, and sometimes, according to his detractors, reckless and embittered action, indifferent to the violence it unleashed on his enemies.

Based on unprecedented access to many of the key players in Sharon’s life, hundreds of interviews, and thousands of pages of documents, Ariel Sharon presents a leader who was first and foremost a military man. Sharon fought in Israel’s War of Independence (in which he was left for dead on the battlefield); assembled Israel’s first special forces brigade, the wild Unit 101; and led the Lebanon War, the most controversial campaign in Israel’s history. As a general, he directed military campaigns that are still studied in military academies across the world.

Yet Sharon was also a political animal. This book explores his fraught relationships with prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as with legendary minister of defense Moshe Dayan; Sharon’s removal as defense minister after the massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila; his thirty-year championing of the settlement movement in Gaza and the West Bank; his visit to the Temple Mount in 2000, which lit the fuse for the second Intifada; and his startling decision as prime minister to initiate “disengagement,” uprooting settlers, destroying settlements, and dividing his country.

Sharon’s personal life has been equally tumultuous and dramatic, as this book grippingly recounts–his first wife, Margalit, was killed in a car accident; his eldest son, Gur, wounded by an accidental rifle discharge, died in his arms. His second wife, Lily (Margalit’s younger sister), died of cancer, concluding one of the great love stories of Israeli public life. And ultimately came the stroke that felled Sharon, removing him from power at a time when the Israeli people needed his leadership most.

Often mired in controversy and scandal, Sharon was a man of inscrutable character, and his epochal life and elusive personality are both vividly portrayed in this book. Sharon was fueled by a rare combination of qualities: courage, love of power, unbridled tenacity, pragmatism, and, above all, a creed that never changed–complete and uncondtional security for Jews.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #835632 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-03
• Released on: 2006-10-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

From Booklist
As of this writing, Ariel Sharon remains comatose; his physical condition has recently deteriorated, and there is no possibility of his resuming his public career. So, as Israel struggles to cope with threats from Hamas on its west, Hezbollah on its north, and Iran on its east, it is pertinent to examine the career of the charismatic Israeli warrior and politician who struggled mightily to ensure the security of the state of Israel and its citizens. Hefez is a newspaper editor and serves as a captain in the Israel Defense Forces reserves; Bloom is also a newspaper editor and an investigative journalist. They view Sharon, justifiably, as a giant figure on the political and military scene who has had an enormous effect on events for decades. But this is far from a hagiography. Sharon is shown here as possessing immense physical courage and willingness to act boldly (or recklessly) as both a military and political leader. As a soldier, he showed great devotion to his men, and that devotion was usually reciprocated. But Sharon often acted like a bull in a china shop, taking dangerous gambles that often proved disastrous, and he routinely ignored the instructions of his superiors. He displayed a lust for power and a willingness to bend the truth in that pursuit. It is too early for the verdict of history to be rendered upon Sharon, but this revealing and engrossing biography adds a great deal to our understanding of the man. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Nir Hefez, a graduate of Tel Aviv University, is editor in chief of Yediot Tikshoret, a nationwide string of weekly newspapers, and a senior editor of the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot. He has filled a wide range of posts in journalism, including editor in chief of the weekly Tel Aviv. He serves as a captain in the Israel Defense Forces reserves.

Gadi Bloom, a graduate of the Beit Zvi School of Stage and Cinematic Art, is the managing editor of Yediot Tikshoret. He has written a regular column for the weeklies Tel Aviv and Ha’ir, as well as numerous investigative features.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER 1

The Battle of Latrun

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a numbingly dull orator. His tone was nasal and monotonous, he fumbled with his glasses as he spoke, and he always read from the page, his voice bobbing up and down like a distant boat in a soft sea. The hand gestures meant to inflect his words with emotion were frequently a beat late. History, from the lips of Sharon, needed to be listened to carefully, lest it slip by undetected.

On September 23, 2001, Sharon, seventy-three, obese yet agile, climbed onto the podium in the Latrun amphitheater and addressed a group of teachers. They grasped the historical significance of his speech. Sharon had just announced his agreement, in principle, to the founding of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, making him the first prime minister from the right-wing Likud Party to publicly concede the West Bank to the Palestinians. “Israel,” Sharon said as the sun set behind him, “wants to give the Palestinians what no else ever has: the opportunity to establish a state of their own. No one— not the Turks, nor the English, nor the Egyptians, nor the Jordanians— has ever given them this chance before.”

It was no coincidence that Ariel Sharon made this declaration at the tank corps’ monument to the fallen, in Latrun. Sharon chose Latrun as the burial ground for an ideology that he had upheld for thirty years, agreeing, against the wishes of the Likud Central Committee and virtually his entire electoral base, to initiate the founding of a Palestinian state just a few hundred yards from the spot where he had nearly lost his life.

As he spoke, his mind wandered fifty-three years back in time, to one of the Israel Defense Forces’ worst embarrassments—the Battle of Latrun. He recalled how he had lain flat on his back, half a mile from where he now stood in a starched shirt and tie, blood pouring out of his stomach, his will to live ebbing. Pictures from his past flashed through his mind: the bullet slicing his stomach; the armed Palestinian villagers pillaging and murdering his downed soldiers; the oppressive heat; the flies; the clouds of gnats that descended on his open wounds; the evacuation he barely survived.

That battle played a major role in shaping the ideology of a man who would become one of the world’s most influential leaders. In the Battle of Latrun, Sharon emerged as an unflappable and fearless warrior. Over a lifetime of crises—military, political, and personal— he would often recall the moment he was allowed to “rise from the dead” at Latrun. In his darkest moments he could always return there to draw the strength necessary to rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes.

The Battle of Latrun began on the night of May 24, 1948, ten days after Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of the State of Israel, drawing an all-out attack by seven neighboring nations. During the first days of war, the Jordanian Legion surrounded Jerusalem, cutting the city’s hundred thousand Jewish residents off without food, water, medicine, or weapons. The Jordanian Arab Legion’s 4th Battalion, bolstered by armed Palestinian fighting gangs, had taken control of the Arab city of Latrun, the nearby Trappist monastery, the Crusader fort Le Toron des Chevaliers, and the square stone building that had served the British as police headquarters during their mandate in Palestine. As in the Middle Ages, the Crusader fort dominated the western route to Jerusalem, completing the siege. On May 23, the Jordanians strengthened their forces, adding the 2nd Battalion to the troops already in place. The overpowering force kept Jerusalem beyond Jewish reach. Numerous convoys were destroyed as they rumbled up the first ridge on the way to the capital, nine miles west.

Ben-Gurion was determined to break the blockade. The military maneuver aimed at opening a corridor to Jerusalem was named “Operation Bin-Nun,” after the biblical Joshua, the son of Nun, who led the Jews into Canaan and prevailed in a battle over the Amorites in the same region. The hastily assembled 7th Brigade—a unit that had been put together only a week before and consisted of untrained Holocaust survivors marched straight from the boats to the battlefield —was given the mission. Since many of them had rarely fired a weapon before, their brigade was reinforced by the 32nd

Infantry Battalion, a battle-hardened unit from the Alexandroni Brigade. The commander of Platoon 1, Company B, of the 32nd Battalion was Arik Scheinerman (later and better known to the world as Ariel Sharon), just twenty years old.

Scheinerman’s arm was in a cast. He had broken it in a car accident a short time before, but had decided nonetheless to lead Platoon 1. His decision to participate in the battle may have been influenced by rumors floating through the ranks that the battle for Latrun would be won with ease. Men under the command of Chaim Weizmann, later the president of Israel, issued intelligence reports stating that Latrun was being held by several hundred armed but unorganized Palestinian villagers. But beyond the view of the Israeli troops, one thousand Bedouin soldiers from the Arab Legion, armed with mortars, artillery, armored vehicles, hundreds of heavy machine guns, and thousands of rifles, lay in wait. The intelligence failure would lead to one of the bloodiest battles of the War of Independence.

Toward evening on May 24, four companies, two from the 7th Brigade and two from the 32nd Battalion, organized their gear in the Hulda “Forest,” a small patch of eucalyptus trees next to Kibbutz Hulda. Ya’akov Bugin, a young soldier from Kfar Pinnes who had been transferred to Arik’s platoon a few days before the battle, remembers their morale-boosting trip to Hulda from their permanent base in Pardaisiya via the newly conquered Arab city of Jaffa. “Arik sat down on the bus and I remember looking at him admiringly,” recalls Bugin, who had not yet even been introduced to his new commanding officer. “I was seventeen years old at the time, an age when I was looking for heroes and role models, and Arik definitely had a heroic look to him. His body was sturdy and healthy, his face was childlike; I remember sitting behind him on the bus and thinking, ‘He reminds me of a Roman emperor.’ ”

The Israeli force’s communications officer, Ted Arison, later the owner of Carnival Cruise Lines and the wealthiest Jew in the world, scurried through the troops looking for spare transceiver batteries. He was not alone in his search for vital gear. Many soldiers lacked canteens, uniforms, and boots. There were not enough rifles and ammunition to go around. The engineering and artillery corps were nowhere to be found. At the last minute, the operations chief of the IDF general staff, Yigal Allon, tried to persuade Ben-Gurion to delay the battle, telling him that the 7th Brigade was ill suited to the task of liberating Jerusalem. Ben-Gurion, fearing for the lives of the capital’s Jewish citizens and dreading the possibility of the holy city’s falling in its entirety, refused to delay for more than twenty-four hours.

Arik Scheinerman spent the hours leading up to the battle lying on his stomach in an olive grove, storing energy for what was sure to be a sleepless night. He was already an accomplished military leader, brave, conscientious, and sincere beyond his years, with a habit of collecting himself in solitude. He watched as the 7th Brigade’s new recruits hopped off the backs of a convoy of trucks. Ram Oren, in his book Latrun, published a letter Arik Scheinerman wrote to his parents:

My platoon and I are lazing in an olive grove, passing the heat of the day, thinking pre-battle thoughts, blending with the water- smoothed stones and the earth, feeling part and parcel of the land: a rooted feeling, a feeling of a homeland, of belonging, of ownership. Suddenly a convoy of trucks stopped next to us and unloaded new, foreign-looking recruits. They looked slightly pale, and were wearing sleeveless sweaters, gray pants, and striped shirts. A stream of languages filled the air, names like Herschel and Yazek, Jan and Maitek were thrown around. They stuck out against the backdrop of olives, rocks, and yellowing grains. They’d come to us through blocked borders, from Europe’s death camps. I watched them. Watched them strip, watched their white bodies. They tried to find fitting uniforms, and fought the straps on their battle jackets as their new commanders helped them get suited up. They did this in silence, as though they had made their peace with fate. Not one of them cried out: “Let us at least breathe the free air after the years of terrible suffering.” It is as if they’d come to the conclusion that this is one final battle for the future of the Jewish people.

As Arik Scheinerman and his men filled canteens and magazines, the commanders of Operation Bin-Nun huddled together in a nearby cabin and reviewed their battle plans. The 32nd Battalion’s two companies were to take the Trappist monastery, the Crusader fort, the British police building, the Arab village of Latrun, and the nearby Hill 315. The 72nd Battalion of the 7th Brigade was to take the fortified ridge to the east of the village. The two-pronged attack would ensure total control of the route to Jerusalem.

It was a simple plan in theory, but on the ground, problems began to multiply: The bus scheduled to take the soldiers to the drop-off point was late; a backup platoon of infantrymen and an artillery unit of 155mm guns were no-shows; the 32nd’s battalion commander, hobbled by a chronic lack of sleep and food and general war-weariness, fainted on the spot. He was replaced by future chief of the general staff Chaim Laskov.

Ya’akov Bugin recalls:

As evening came they brought our company, Company B, together and told us that the goal of the m...

Customer Reviews

A Top-Notch Biography

Before purchasing this book, I was hoping to find a biography on Ariel Sharon that gave a fair and objective presentation, as opposed to one that systematically glorified or vilified the former Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel. After all, Ariel Sharon is one of those figures that can easily be depicted as either hero or villain. Nonetheless, I decided to go with this book and got exactly what I was looking for: an unbiased account on the life of Ariel Sharon. No spin, no contortions. Just a fascinating story of a man who stirred so much controversy both inside and outside of Israel: both as a military and political leader.

In my opinion, this is the sort of book that both admirers and critics of Ariel Sharon can appreciate. This book recounts all of Sharon's major successes and failures, including the many controversies that surrounded him; the Jewish settlements, the Six-Day War, the invasion of Lebanon, the Sabra and Shatila massacre by Lebanon's Phalange group, the two Intifadas, the Greek Island Affair, and the disengagement of Jewish settlements, just to name a few. Besides Sharon's professional career, the authors also touch base on his personal life, which gives us a much clearer picture of Ariel Sharon outside the military and political spectrum.

Although despised by the Arab world, where Sharon was commonly referred to as "The Bulldozer" or "The Butcher," in a 2003 speech, Sharon made an interesting statement worthy of mentioning: "Israel wants to give the Palestinians what no else ever has: the opportunity to establish a state of their own. No one - not the Turks, nor the English, nor the Egyptians, nor the Jordanians - has ever given them this chance before." This sounds rather strange coming from a man who was once one of Israel's foremost supporters for the establishment of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

If you're looking for an informative, impartial, and well-written biography on Ariel Sharon - whether you love him or hate him - you can't go wrong with this book. I highly recommend it.

RICK SHAQ GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ARIEL SHARON"
With an unequivocal love and pride in my heritage, and an unwavering love and concern for the State Of Israel, I am always trying to improve my knowledge, of what "has been", "what is", and "what will be", relating to Israel. Not only for myself, but also for the responsibility, I was born with, to educate my son. We have watched DVD's on the history of Israel, and read many books, and one of the historical leaders, warriors, and character's, who shines through, among the most important, is Ariel Sharon. When I found this book, with no prior fanfare, or buildup, I briefly leafed through it. And one paragraph, caught my eye, that basically said: "An Israeli government vehicle with civilian plates, boarded an Egyptian ferry... the workers on board, easily recognized the rotund man, with the flowing white hair, in the back of the sedan. They knew him, as the most notorious, of all Israeli generals, Ariel Sharon... the man who six years earlier had crossed the same canal, at the head of a column of tanks, winning the pivotal battle in the Sinai campaign of the Yom Kippur War. He was now in Egypt on official, if covert, business, as Israel's minister of agriculture." With that passage, I purchased the 500-page book. Let me advise you, this is not an exciting, entertaining read. You're reading, not only the history of a remarkable man, but also the history of a country. Another reason, I believe the wording, isn't, continually jumping off the page, is the fact that it was translated. But, it was information, I was looking for on Sharon, and this book (Which is more like an encyclopedia!) delivered. This tome does not pull punches. Sharon, has made mistakes, and upset many people. I was raised to believe, that if you're not making somebody mad, you're doing something wrong. I learned, that there is way more infighting in Israeli politics then meets the eye. (At least mine.) But I'm sure someone from another country, seeking to learn more about America, like I want to learn more about Israel, would have the same impression. Until Sharon's recent stroke, there was not one war, in Israel's entire history, that he wasn't involved in. As a military leader, his troops loved to fight for him. He possessed "unusual, almost inhuman, courage." "Soldiers and officers who served with him in battle, all testify, that enemy fire, left Sharon unaffected." "He walked upright, impervious, his calm spreading through the ranks." Regardless of what rank he held, what command he lead, no matter what position he held, "his guiding light was always security. His creed, in its barest form" MAXIMUM SECURITY FOR JEWS." It is hard for me, to give the kind of singular rating, in 1 thru 5 stars, as listed above. But I had to. So I put 4 for the following reasons: As far as "encyclopedic" information, which is what I was searching for, this is a 5. But if you're looking for a smooth flowing, a "day at the beach" reading, this would be a 3. I hope I have provided both types of potential readers, the information you need. And I hope you will rate my review as such.

Chronicles of a Typical Israeli War Hero
His brilliance as a commander of warriors is well documented and it's obvious he'll join the other great Israeli commanders in the mythology of Israel's saviors.

The incidents that caused some serious historians to level charges of war crimes against him (such as the massacres of civilians in Beirut when he was Defense Minister) is given little notice. The dismissive 'Some mistakes may have been made' and 'Stuff happens in war' excuses gloss over this tragedy and others early in his army career involving civilian deaths. Israel did investigate this massacre thoroughly and were very critical of his role in this so there is much information available.

There is very little analysis of the wisdom of Israel invading Lebanon when he was Defense Minister and if the government really gave him the orders to do so.

The fascinating story of how he acquired a large fortune including the largest private farm in Israel is largely ignored.

If your already a fan of Ariel Sharon, you'll find this book a good read and lots of new reasons to admire him.