Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon (Hebrew: אריאל שרון‎, Arabic: أرئيل شارون‎, Ariʼēl Sharōn, also known by his diminutive Arik, אַריק, born Ariel Scheinermann, אריאל שיינרמן on 26 February 1928) is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a persistent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006.

Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army since its inception in 1948. As a paratrooper and then officer he participated prominently in the 1948 War of Independence, becoming platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in many battles, including Operation Ben Nun Alef. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101, the Retribution operations, the 1956 Suez War, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War.

During his military career, he was considered the greatest field commander in Israel's history, and one of the country's greatest ever military strategists. After his assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli public nicknamed him "The King of Israel" and "The Lion of God".

After retiring from the army, Sharon had joined the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–1992 and 1996–1999. He became the leader of the Likud in 2000, and served as Israel’s Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. In 1983 the commission established by the Israeli Government found that as Minister of Defense during the 1982 Lebanon War Sharon bore "personal responsibility" for the massacre by Lebanese militias of Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, for his having disregarded the prospect of acts of bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and not having prevented their entry. The Kahan Commission recommended Sharon's removal as Defense Minister, and Sharon did resign after his initial refusal to do so. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, as Prime Minister, in 2004–2005 Sharon orchestrated Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new Kadima party. His stroke occurred a few months before he had been expected to win a new election on what Matt Rees asserted to be "a promise of clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank".