Â鶹APP

Ariel Sharon by Helene C. Stikkel –

Ten best Facts about Ariel Sharon

Arel Sharon born Ariel Scheinermann on 26 February 1928 was an Israeli general and a politician. He happened to be the 11th prime minister from March 2001 to April 2006. He was one of the most influential and contentious politicians in Israel.

He played a tremendous essential role in the Israeli government from the creation of the nation in 1948. Currently, before he acquired a seat as a prime minister, he was a soldier and an officer in the army. He is believed to have taken part in many military conquests.

1. Ariel Sharon started his military career at a young age 

Sharon was only ten years when he joined the youth movement, Hanoar HaOved VehaLomed, a Federation of Young Students and Workers. In his early teenage, he started taking part in armed-night community patrols to protect his cooperative agricultural community of individual farms following the Green Revolution of Jewish residents in the land of Israel.

He actually gathered his courage throughout the patrols. At the age of 14, he further joined a military program called Gadna in Hebrew which was for the preparation of young people for military service in the Israel Defence forces. Later, he joined the Haganah, the main zionist underground paramilitary force, and the Israel Defence forces.

2. He was shot thrice but never succumbed to death

He was regarded as an aggressive and hardened soldier. During the First Battle of Latrun, The Arab Legion was formed by the United Kingdom to defend the territory against internal and external aggression under the command of Frederick Gerard Peake. 

As a Platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade,  Sharon moved his battalion swiftly up the ranks during the war to alleviate the Jewish community of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the attempt did not go as planned. 

Sharon lost139 of his crew members. He himself was left badly injured. He was shot in the stomach, groin, and foot. Habis captured him with five other crew members and healed his wounds. Later they were all traded back and Sharon resumed commanding his patrol unit.

3. Sharon took part in many military battles

Yom Kippur War by IDF Spokesperson’s Unit –

In his career as a soldier and high-ranking officer in the military Israeli forces, Sharon took part in many conquests. In 1948, he took part as a platoon commander in his unit where he was shot in the groin, stomach, and legs.

In 1951, Ariel Saron as Unit 101 commander led a raid in the Qibya massacre in 1953, a woman and her two children were killed and he was condemned by the public.
In 1956, he was the commander of Unit 202 in the 1956 Suez War. He commanded the paratrooper’s brigader. He was criticized by his superiors for going against their command of attacking the Egyptians. He nonetheless did not pull back his troop after the bad terms with his superiors but determinedly continued destroying his enemies.
Other battles that Sharon took part in were; the Six-day war, War of Attrition, and Yom Kippur war

4. Sharon was hard-headed

Even after he was criticized by his superior for the aggression of Egypt by his unit crew under his orders, Sharon still continue with his conquest against his enemies. Things did not go competently either because a total of 260 Eqyptian and 38 Israeli soldiers were killed at the battle at Mitla.

His actions were surrounded by controversies, viewing the deaths as unnecessary and unauthorized. This led Sharon to become demoted to an infantry brigade commander and received a law degree from Tel Aviv University.

Being demoted stopped him and neither did the controversies and so he used his infantry troops combined together, whereby he took victory with his offensive strategies in the Battle of Abu-Ageila. He regained his superiority hence he was nicknamed “The King of Israel.”

5. Sharon was a remorseless war hero

The War of Attrition by IDF Spokesperson’s Unit –

In all the wars that Sharon participated in like the 6-day war, the Suez War of 1956, the War of Attrition, and many other wars, he played a great role as a statesman who was defining his country,s border. He acted impenitently and seriously with or without the help of his superiors.

6. Sharon died of a stroke

After suffering a minor ischemic stroke, the obese Sharon who weighed more than 300 pounds, was advised by doctors to cut down on the amount and types of food to eat. 

The former prime minister of Israel always joked about his love for food and his gut. His favorite food was actually meat. Neither doctors nor friends to Sharon could impose a balanced diet on Sharon. He spent 8 years in a coma until his death in January 2014.

7. Sharon used calm means to seek peace in 2005

The Israelian separation or security wall. by Hans Verburg –

The cold-blooded no-nonsense military commander who led military raids which shed a lot of blood, at last resorted to peaceful means to cool the air of Palestinian aspirations and violence. His conclusions were that Israel could not remain both Jewish and democratic if it sententiously occupied Palestinian territory

He solitarily ordered the withdrawal of Israel settlers and soldiers from Gaza. Under him, a barrier was also constructed in and around the West Bank.

8. Sharon’s dirty actions as a military officer actually not a selfish act

Mark LeVine, a professor at the University of California Irvine, Specialist in the Middle East history, said that Sharon’s career as a military officer was defined by doing dirty work for the sake of the boundaries of his country.

All the dirty work he did was to salvage both the born and the unborn provided that them people belonged in his country Israel.

9. Ariel Sharon was a person who never embraced defeat

On 1st December 2004, was in jeopardy after a group of five ministers voted against the government’s 2005 budget in a first reading in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament in Jerusalem.

This humiliating defeat left him muddling to avoid early elections and save his Gaza withdrawal plan. From 16 to 30 august 2005 he expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from Gaza and West Bank settlements.

10. He died of shock but not rubber bullets

Despite being shot thrice; The stomach, Groin, and the leg Sharon did not die. He also was held captive by Habis he was not killed. Even though the Palestinians had a grudge against him, they could not kill him by bullet or explosives even to the extent that he announced he wouldn’t wear bulletproof since none fitted him.

Is because his poor diet schedule caused him to be obese hence he was prone to shock and other related diseases like cerebral amyloid angiopathy. The enemy of the many died of body complications instead of deadly weapons. 

Sharon is quite a remarkable figure in the history of Israel. He is yet to be remembered a century after century for his military tactics and professionalism, and his love for his country. He indeed was a public figure that had yearned for success throughout his life. He was laid beside his wife Lily sister to Margalit, his first wife who died in a car accident. Lily Sharon died of lung cancer in 2000.