Sharon, Ariel

I

Introduction

Sharon, Ariel (1928- ), Israeli soldier and right-wing politician, Prime Minister of Israel (2001-2006). Sharon was born Ariel Sheinerman in Kfar Malal, in what was then the British mandate of Palestine. He had a long military career, fighting in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949 that established the independence of Israel and serving in several positions in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Sharon headed the commando group known as Unit 101, which was set up in 1953 to conduct reprisal operations against Arab marauders, and was Head of Southern Command from 1970 to 1973. Sharon played a central role in the breakthrough to the west bank of the Suez Canal, as a reserve commander, during the Yom Kippur War. In 1973 he resigned from the IDF and was elected to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. He served as defence adviser to the government of Yitzhak Rabin from 1975 to 1976. In 1977 Sharon headed the Shlomzion Party, which won two seats in the elections held that year that brought Likud to power after 29 years of Israeli Labour Party rule. His Shlomzion Party merged with Likud, and the new prime minister Menachem Begin appointed Sharon minister of agriculture with additional responsibility for Jewish settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria) and Gaza. Following Likud's victory in the 1981 elections, Sharon was appointed defence minister.

Sharon was the main architect of the military operation, begun in June 1982, against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon (see also Lebanese Civil War). Some historians have claimed that Sharon presented a plan to the Israeli Cabinet for a strictly limited incursion into southern Lebanon, and then used events early in that incursion as the pretext for a comprehensive invasion. However, Sharon has denied this. The Kahan Commission of Enquiry, set up in the wake of the massacre of Palestinian refugees by Lebanese Christian forces in the camps of Sabra and Shatila, found Sharon indirectly responsible for not preventing the killings. Sharon resigned from his post as defence minister but remained in the government, though without a ministry.

In the national unity government formed jointly by Likud and Labour in 1984, Sharon served as trade and industry minister. He became housing minister in the Likud-led government of 1990, which again gave him responsibility for Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and left office when the government fell in 1992. In July 1996, in response to intensive lobbying by his party allies, Sharon was made responsible for a new infrastructure portfolio in the Likud-led government of Binyamin Netanyahu. In September 1999 he became the party's leader, replacing the former prime minister, Netanyahu, who had resigned after his electoral defeat by Ehud Barak in May.

II

Palestinian Intifada

The following September he made a highly controversial tour of the al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, a disputed site that is holy to both Jews and Muslims, that was the spark for a Palestinian intifada. The violence, in which several hundred Palestinians died, spread throughout the West Bank and destabilized the Oslo peace process. Barak invited Sharon to negotiations in an attempt to set up a coalition government, and when these talks failed was forced to call an election. In a landslide victory in February 2001, Sharon won nearly 60 per cent of the vote.

He formed a broad coalition government, which included the Labour Party’s Shimon Peres as deputy prime minister. Violence continued after his election, although pressure from the United States in June brought about a temporary ceasefire. The terrorist incidents of September 11 made peace in the Middle East a high priority given an anti-terrorist coalition involving Muslim states, and American pressure again grew for an end to the violence. These efforts were derailed by the assassination of an Israeli minister, Rehavam Zeevi, in October and the Israeli military response. Two Palestinian suicide attacks in December killed 25 Israelis. Sharon responded by declaring the Palestinian National Authority of Yasir Arafat a supporter of terrorism and launching a series of attacks on his power base.

III

Re-Election

In November 2002 Sharon successfully defended his leadership of Likud against a challenge from Netanyahu, who was critical of Sharon’s handling of relations with the Palestinian leadership. Sharon went on to lead Likud to victory in the January 2003 general election, increasing his party’s representation in the Knesset (parliament) despite accusations of corruption levelled against him during the campaign. A new government was formed by Likud with the support of three other parties, but not the Labour Party, in February. Sharon indicated that restoring the economy of Israel, weakened by continuing conflict with the Palestinians, would be a priority for the new Cabinet.

Under diplomatic pressure in the lead up to the War on Iraq, Sharon agreed to the “road map” peace agreement with the newly appointed Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas in April. A ceasefire between some of the Palestinian groups, including Hamas, and Israel was agreed in June. The ceasefire broke down in August and Israel returned to its controversial policy of targeted killing—the attack that killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, in March 2004 brought international condemnation.

In February, Sharon had announced an intention to remove all Jewish settlers from Gaza. At the same time he continued with the construction of a “security fence” around Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, an attempt to create a unilateral solution to the continuing violence. In order to retain support for his Gaza policy in the face of right-wing opposition, Sharon concluded a coalition deal in December with the Labour Party and its leader Shimon Peres, who became a vice prime minister. Sharon met Abbas, who had succeeded Arafat as president of the PNA following the latter’s death, at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in February 2005. Further hopes for the stagnant peace process were raised when the two sides agreed a ceasefire. The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was completed in September with little resistance from the settlers, and the territory came under control of the PNA.

In November 2005 the Labour Party elected Amir Peretz to replace Peres as leader. Peretz withdrew the party’s support for the coalition. Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve the Knesset, agreed to early elections for March 2006, and announced that he was leaving Likud with several other members to form a new centrist political party, named Kadima (meaning “Forward”), to fight the election. However, before he could lead the new party into the polls, he suffered a severe stroke in January 2006 and was hospitalized. His deputy Ehud Olmert was made acting prime minister and leader of Kadima while Sharon remained in a coma. Kadima became the single largest party in the Knesset at the subsequent election and Olmert became prime minister.