Ariel Sharon was a highly esteemed general in the Israeli Army, its Defense Minister, Foreign Minister and the 11th Prime Minister of the State of Israel, at whose birth in 1948 he was present. Acknowledged to be the greatest field commander in the State’s thus short history, Ariel Sharon participated in, among others, the 1948 War of Independence, the Arab-Israeli (Suez) War of 1956, the Six Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War 1973 and the 1982 war with Lebanon. So popular was he with the people, he was dubbed the “King of Israelâ€, a moniker biblically reserved for Sauls, Davids and Solomons. While a political conservative for most of his days, Sharon split with his original Likud party in later years and supported the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, a move many attributed to basic pragmatism rather than to humanitarian motives. He oversaw an unprecedented growth in real estate development and Jewish immigration to Israel during his reign. Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006, at which time he suffered a debilitating stroke. After living for eight years in a coma, he died in 2014.
