Ariel Sharon, former Israeli Prime
Minister, dead at 85
Ariel Sharon, former Israeli
Prime Minister died on 11th January 2014. He served half century as a
military and political leader in Israel was marked with victories and
controversies, died Saturday after eight years in a coma. Sharon was 85.
Sharon died at Sheba Medical Center in the Tel Aviv
suburb of Tel Hashomer.
The Israeli statesman was a national war hero to many
Israelis for his leadership, both in uniform or as a civilian, during every
Israeli war.
Many in the Arab world called Sharon "the Butcher of
Beirut" after he oversaw Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon while serving
as defense minister.
Sharon, who lived on a ranch in the Negev Desert, became
prime minister on March 7, 2001.
He was the man who encouraged
Israelis to establish settlements on occupied Palestinian land, but he also was
the leader who pushed for Israel's historic 2005 withdrawal from 25 settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza, which was turned over to Palestinian rule for the
first time in 38 years.
Sharon
broke away from his right-wing Likud Party in November 2005 to form the
political party Kadima, Hebrew for "Forward."
In
1953, after a wave of terrorist attacks from Jordan, Sharon the military leader
led the infamous Unit 101 on a raid into the border town of Kibya, blowing up
45 houses and killing 69 Arab villagers. Sharon said he thought the houses were
empty.
In June 1967, as a general, Sharon led his tank battalion
to a crushing victory over the Egyptians in the Sinai during the Six Day War.
But what he considered his greatest military success came
in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. He surrounded Egypt's Third Army and,
defying orders, led 200 tanks and 5,000 men over the Suez Canal, a turning
point in the war.
Sharon was born on a farm outside Tel Aviv. The son of
Russian immigrants, he always remembered a lesson from his father as he
ascended to the highest office in Israel.
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