Ariel Sharon

{{Audio|He-Ariel Sharon.ogg|Ariel Sharon}} (Hebrew: אריאל שרון, born February 27, 1928) is a long-serving Israeli political and military leader, and has been Prime Minister of Israel since March 2001, the eleventh holder of that office. He is also leader of Likud, the largest party in the governing coalition of political parties in the Israeli Knesset (parliament). He was born Ariel Scheinermann and is also often known by his nickname Arik.

Early life

Sharon was born Ariel Scheinermann in 1928 to a German-Polish father and Russian mother in Kfar Malal village in the British Mandate of Palestine. Sharon's parents were Second Aliyah veterans, that is, socialists with a secular worldview, but with a willingness to both compromise and fight.

Related Topics:
1928 - German - Polish - Russia - Kfar Malal - British Mandate of Palestine - Second Aliyah

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In 1942 at the age of 14, he joined the Gadna, a paramilitary youth battalion, and later Haganah, the underground paramilitary force and the Jewish military precursor to the Israel Defense Forces.

Related Topics:
1942 - Haganah - Israel Defense Forces

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At the creation of Israel (and Haganah's transformation into the Israel Defense Forces), Sharon was a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. Sharon was severely wounded in the groin by the British-led Arab Legion in the Second Battle of Latrun, an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the besieged Jewish community of Jerusalem. His injuries healed.

Related Topics:
Haganah - Latrun

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In 1949, he was promoted to company commander and in 1951 to intelligence officer. He then took leave to begin studies of history and Middle Eastern culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A year and a half later, he was asked to return to active service in the rank of major and as the leader of the new Unit 101, Israel's first special forces unit.

Related Topics:
1949 - 1951 - Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Unit 101 - Special forces

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Unit 101 undertook a series of retaliatory raids against Palestinians and neighboring Arab states that helped bolster Israeli morale and fortify its deterrent image. However, the unit was also criticized for targeting civilians as well as Arab soldiers, resulting in the widely condemned Qibya massacre in the fall of 1953, in which more than sixty Palestinian civilians were killed in an attack on their West Bank village. In the documentary "Israel and the Arabs: 50 Year War" Ariel Sharon recalls what happened after the raid, which was heavily condemned by many countries in the West, including the U.S.: I was summoned to see Ben-Gurion. It was the first time I met him. and right from the start Ben-Gurion said to me: "Let me first tell you one thing: it doesn't matter what the world says about Israel, it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive."

Related Topics:
Arab - Deterrent - Qibya massacre - 1953 - West Bank - Ben-Gurion

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Shortly afterwards, just a few months after its founding, Unit 101 was merged into the 202nd Paratroopers Brigade (Sharon eventually becoming the latter's commander), which continued to attack military targets, culminating with the attack on Qalqilyah police station in autumn 1956.

Related Topics:
Paratroopers Brigade - Qalqilyah - 1956

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Sharon has been widowed twice. Shortly after becoming a military instructor, he married his first wife, Margalith, with whom he had a son, Gur. Margalith died in an auto accident in 1962, and Gur died in October 1967 after being shot while playing with his father's rifle. After Margalith's death, Sharon married her younger sister, Lily. They had two sons, Omri and Gil'ad. Lily Sharon died in 2000.

Related Topics:
Margalith - 1962 - 1967 - Lily - Omri - Gil'ad - 2000

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