Former Israeli Prime Minister Sharon dead: Army Radio
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli general and prime minister who was in a coma for eight years after he had a stroke at the height of his power, died on Saturday aged 85, Israeli Army Radio said, quoting a relative of his family. The hospital where Sharon was being treated called a media conference for about 0800 ET. (Reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Sharon: Dies at the Age of 85
January 11, 2014/By Nadia Massih The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died Saturday aged 85, was widely reviled in Lebanon for his role in the invasion of the country in 1982 as well as the massacres at the Beirut-based Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. Sharon was commonly dubbed the “Butcher of Beirut” for his association with some of the worst atrocities during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War.
He was a part of the Israeli military since the country’s creation, as a member of the Jewish Haganah paramilitaries in the 1947-48 war that led to the ‘Nakba,’ displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. He rose through the ranks with his belligerent military strategies, leading a brigade in the 1956 Suez War, and engineering the capture of the Sinai Peninsula 11 years later during the Six Day War.
However, it was in his political career that he will be most controversially remembered.
As Defense Minister he spearheaded the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, set up to rout out Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization and form a peace accord with the Beirut government. The invasion morphed into a long occupation, and inadvertently helped to confirm Hezbollah’s status as the resistance party. In 1982, Israel’s ally Bashir Gemeyel was assassinated by Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party member Habib Chartouni. His Kataeb (Phalange) fighters looked to the Palestinians to avenge the death and launched an attack of the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, which were under Israeli control. Hundreds of Palestinians, including many women and children, were brutally killed. It was a massacre that Sharon was personally implicated in. A U.N. investigation the next year concluded that Israel was responsible for the attacks, and the Israeli-run Kahan Commission the same year determined that Sharon was personally accountable. The reports’ findings said that Sharon bore responsibility for "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed." The conclusions led many to dub Sharon the “Butcher of Beirut” and forced him to resign from the defense post but he refused to leave Cabinet, remaining minister without portfolio.
His bellicose reputation continued into his tenure as prime minister. In 2000, he walked brazenly into the Temple Mount complex which houses the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa mosque, some of the holiest sites in Islam. The inflammatory move was widely attributed as sparking the Second Palestinian Intifada. He was also associated with the widespread expansion of illegal outposts in the West Bank. As Housing Minister in the 1990s, he oversaw the biggest drive settlements in 20 years. However, despite his uncompromising attitude, in 2004 he signed into law a plan to re-house all settlers in the Gaza Strip.)

Israel reacts to passing of iconic leader
Ynet Published: 01.11.14/Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had touched the lives of many politicians and public figures
President Shimon Peres mourned the passing of Ariel Sharon, saying "Sharon surrendered today to a heroic battle for his life. Arik was a brave soldier and a daring statesman, who donated much to the security and fortification of the State of Israel." He said, "Arik loved his people, and his peope loved him. He was one of Israel's greatest defenders and chief architects, who never knew fear and never lack for vision. Sharon knew how to decide and how to act." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the news of the historic leader's passing: "Ariel Sharon had a central role in the battle for Israel's security from the very beginning. He was first and foremost a brave soldier and a distinguished military leader, among the greatest commanders in the IDF ." Netanyahu added, "His memory will be saved forever in the heart of the nation." Treasury Minister Yair Lapid, whose father Joseph Lapid was often politically aligned with the former prime minister, commented on the news: "Sharon was one of the most distinguishable of Israeli leaders. A brave soldier and commander in the field, a leader without comparison in the diplomatic and political field, and a dear friend." "The State of Israel, which has missed Sharon's figure for eight years, mourns his death," said Lapid.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni mourned the passing of former Kadima chairman: "Arik Sharon was a farmer, a fighter, and a prime minister who became a father of a nation, but more than anything he was a man I loved."
"They say veteran soldiers never die – they fade away. Arik faded away eight years ago, and now he has left us for good. We had eight years to say goodbye, and yet we couldn't. We say goodbye to him now. My deepest condolences to Omri and Gilad who fought for his life with him and were always by his side," she added. Ehud Olmert, who replaced Sharon as prime minister, mourned the loss: "For his entire life Arik stood in the line of fire – in the place where Israel's destiny is determined." He added: "In the eight years since he collapsed he was missed by the State of Israel and by me personally. His absence will continue to be felt in the future as well."
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon mourned the passing of Ariel Sharon: "Despite the fundamental differences we discovered along the way, I always appreciated his experience and his leadership." He added that "Ariel Sharon was first and foremost an outstanding military leader and one of the shapers of the IDF as an army which strives for swift actions against the enemy."

Hariri Heads March 14 Delegation for STL Opening Session
Naharnet /Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Saturday that he will attend the opening session of the trial of the alleged killers of his father, late premier Rafik Hariri, on January 16 in The Hague.
“Hariri will head a March 14 delegation to attend the opening session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) reported on Saturday afternoon. The STL announced in December 2013 that its Trial Chamber has scheduled the start of trial in the case of the 2005 assassination of late premier Hariri and his companions for January 16, 2014. The STL also confirmed that it has received Lebanon’s share of the 2013 budget from the government. The full sum of 29, 386, 609 euros, amounting to 49 per cent of the tribunal's budget, was transferred to the STL's bank account, it said. In 2011, the court accused four Hizbullah members -- Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra – of being involved in the attack. A fifth Hizbullah suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was indicted in 2013. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected the STL, describing it as an American-Israeli product bent on destroying the party. He has vowed never to cooperate with the tribunal, saying that the suspects, who remain at large, will never be found.
Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive car bomb in Beirut on February 14, 2005. Source/Agence France Presse

Ban Warns against 'Political Vacuum,' Hails STL Trial to End Impunity
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has said the trial of the suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination next week was an important step to achieve justice as he warned that the absence of a new government in Lebanon could lead to a “political vacuum.” In remarks to reporters in New York, Ban said Thursday that he was looking forward for the start of the trial against four Hizbullah members in absentia at the seat of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague. “This is an important step to achieve justice” in Hariri's case and a series of other murders against Lebanese officials. “The international community is determined to end impunity against political assassinations,” he said. Ban said he appreciated the government’s payment of its share to the STL despite the deteriorating economic conditions in the country. The STL confirmed last month that it has received Lebanon’s share of the 2013 budget from the Lebanese government. The full sum of 29, 386, 609 euros, amounting to 49 per cent of the tribunal's budget, was transferred to the STL's bank account, it said. The trial of the alleged killers of Hariri will open on January 16. Four Hizbullah members - Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra - are to be tried in absentia for the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on the Beirut seafront on Feb. 2005. A fifth wanted suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was indicted in October after a pre-trial judge confirmed that he was accused of being involved in the murder. “I am deeply concerned about the escalation of violence witnessed in Lebanon in recent months,” the U.N. secretary-general told reporters in New York. He urged “all Lebanese parties to act with restraint and for the Lebanese people to come together to support the institution of the state.”He said it was “important” to form a new government, and warned that the presence of a resigned cabinet created a “political vacuum.” “I may have an opportunity of meeting either (caretaker) Prime Minister (Najib) Miqati or President (Michel) Suleiman this month and I will discuss this matter with them,” he said. The meeting will likely take place in Kuwait on the sidelines of the second donor conference for Syrian refugees.

STL Prosecutor Says New Details on Evidence to Emerge During Trial
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Norman Farrell has hinted that new sorts of evidence will appear during the trial of four Hizbullah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination case next week. In an interview with An Nahar daily published on Saturday, Farrell said the details of the evidence will be made public during the opening of the trial next Thursday. “You will hear more details and you will know that the evidence of telecommunications is not circumstantial,” he said. Four Hizbullah members - Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra - will be tried in absentia for the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on the Beirut seafront on Feb. 2005. A fifth wanted suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was indicted in October after a pre-trial judge confirmed that he was accused of being involved in the attack. The STL issued warrants against the four suspects in June 2011, and Interpol has issued a "red notice" for them but none has been arrested so far. The 2011 indictment against them said the case is built in large part on circumstantial evidence. It identified five networks of telephones used in the buildup to Hariri's assassination, and set out a detailed account of the days and hours leading to the detonation of 2.5 tons of explosives by a suicide bomber in a Mitsubishi van. Farrell rejected doubts raised on the evidence, saying there were repeated moves and monitoring by the same people for 50 days. The Prosecutor reiterated that the indictment of Hizbullah members did not mean that the party was accused of involvement in Hariri's assassination.

Suleiman Calls for Concessions as Saniora Meets him over New Cabinet
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora visited on Saturday President Michel Suleiman, who urged all parties to make concessions to form a government that wins parliament's vote of confidence. Saniora's press office said after his talks with Suleiman at Baabda Palace that the meeting was “serious” and “honest.” It will be followed by other meetings with the involved officials pending an appropriate decision, it said. The Baabda talks, which lasted an hour, came a day after reports said that the March 14 alliance had accepted a proposal to form a cabinet based on the 8-8-8 formula.
But a statement issued by Baabda Palace did not confirm the news, saying the president called for mutual concessions through a cabinet that wins the vote of confidence of the parliament and the trust of the Lebanese. Suleiman hoped that the political parties would reach an understanding on an all-embracing cabinet that prioritizes the daily and social lives of the people. Despite the optimism and reports that there was a 50 percent chance to form an all-embracing government, several hurdles still needed to be removed. Among them is the policy statement, which March 8 officials say should be left for discussion until after the formation of the cabinet. But March 14 officials, which al-Mustaqbal is part of, stress that the policy statement should be based on the Baabda Declaration and not the army-people-resistance formula as with previous governments.
The June 2012 Declaration includes a deal by rival officials to distance Lebanon from regional conflicts, particularly the war in Syria. The March 14 camp accuses Hizbullah of violating the Declaration by sending its members to flight alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops against the rebels seeking to topple him. Another major and new obstacle was the reported rejection of Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea to participate in a cabinet in which Hizbullah is represented. Al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri has reportedly held a one-hour telephone conversation with Geagea on Friday. The reports said, however, that the rival parties have agreed on the rotation of portfolios in the government in which the March 8 and 14 alliances and centrists would get eight ministers each. Local dailies said that Saniora is also expected to meet soon with Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a staunch supporter of an all-embracing cabinet despite a warning by Suleiman that he would form along with Premier-designate Tammam Salam a non partisan government by the end of the month if the rivals failed to strike a deal on the 8-8-8 formula
 

Geagea: No Final Stance Yet on Participation in All-Embracing Cabinet
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Saturday that the March 14 alliance hasn't yet decided whether it would participate in a 24-member national unity government. In remarks to al-Jadeed TV, Geagea said: “We haven't yet decided on our participation in an 8-8-8 cabinet.” There has been a flurry of political activity in the past days to win the approval of the March 14 alliance to participate in a cabinet in which it would get eight ministers similar to March 8 and centrists. But reports said Saturday that Geagea had rejected to have ministers in a government in which Hizbullah has representatives. His ally al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held a one-hour telephone conversation with him on Friday. But Geagea told al-Jadeed that Hariri hasn't yet taken a final decision on the March 14 alliance's participation in the 8-8-8 cabinet and did not try to convince him to do so. “Consultations on the formation of the government are going,” the LF chief added. President Michel Suleiman said Friday that Hariri had sent “positive signals” on accepting the 8-8-8 formula. But he hinted that he would sign a decree to form a non partisan cabinet, which the March 8 alliance describes as a de facto government, before the end of the month if the rival parties failed to reach consensus on the new proposal.

U.S. Official Says No Ban on Hizbullah Participation in New Cabinet
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/A U.S. official has said that Washington did not reject Hizbullah's participation in the new government if the approval of the cabinet line-up lied on the presence of its members in it. In remarks to As Safir daily published on Saturday, the official, who was not identified, said: “If the safe passage of the new cabinet in Lebanon and the closure of the caretaking era lied in Hizbullah's participation, then the U.S. does not mind to that.” “Lebanon's situation and its structure confirm without any doubt that there is no possibility to form a government without Hizbullah,” the official added. The official's remarks came amid a flurry of political activity to clinch a deal on an all-embracing cabinet, a Hizbullah request. A proposal for the March 8 and 14 alliances and centrists to get eight ministers each is under discussion. President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Tammam Salam have warned however that they would form a non partisan government soon if the rival parties failed to reach an agreement on the unity cabinet.

Mohammed al-Chaar's Death Spurs 'Selfie' Anti-Violence Protest
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/It started with a "selfie": a self-portrait picture of 16-year-old Mohammed al-Chaar, who was killed in a Beirut car bomb, has sparked a mini political protest by the Lebanese people. In dozens of pictures posted on Facebook and Twitter, young Lebanese hold up signs with a personal message and the hashtag #notamartyr, protesting the cycle of political violence in their country.
The "Not A Martyr" campaign sprung up after Chaar was killed in a December 27 car bombing that targeted Mohammed Shatah a prominent March 14 official and al-Mustaqbal leader former PM Saad Hariri's adviser. Moments before the explosion in downtown Beirut, the teenager had posed for a selfie with his friends. A day later, he died of his injuries in hospital. Angered and appalled by his death, a group of young Lebanese started a protest page on Facebook. "We can no longer normalize the persistent violence. We can no longer desensitize ourselves to the constant horror of life in Lebanon," the page reads. "We are victims, not martyrs," adds the page, rejecting the notion that innocent bystanders be labeled in the same way as those who chose to die for a political or religious cause. "But we are not hopeless, and we have dreams for our country... Tell us what you want for your country. Tell us what you want to live for." More than 7,000 people have "liked" the page, and hundreds have posted their own selfies. "I want to live for my son, not die for my country," reads one message with a photo of a woman kissing her young son on the beach. "As a future doctor, I hope that none of my patients are victims of war, bombings, politics or religion," reads a hand-scrawled message. Dyala Badran, a 25-year-old Beirut resident, was among the first to respond to the campaign, posting a selfie on her Twitter account on December 30. She looks into the camera, clutching a small sheet of white paper with the message "I want to bring the murderers to justice" written in black, and the word justice underlined. "I posted probably one of the more dramatic ones," she told AFP, adding that she felt "a lot of anger" building in her since Chaar's death.
"I was very angry that he was being labeled a martyr, because in my eyes, he wasn't, he was a victim of murder," she said.
'It could have been any of us' Her message was also intended to challenge what she calls a culture of "normalization" in Lebanon, where a population that weathered a 15-year civil war and numerous car bombs and attacks has learned to go about life after each new incident. "We just get on with our lives. That's supposed to be resilience, but it's not, its normalizing all this really dangerous violence," Badran said.
"Why are we letting these murderers go about their lives without trying them?" Another participant, Carina Aoun, left Lebanon two years ago for Dubai, and posted a message expressing the frustration of many Lebanese who end up abroad. "I want to stop looking for a new place to call 'home,'" her message reads. "It's that feeling of leaving because something might happen in Lebanon... it's unstable," she told Agence France Presse from the Gulf emirate, where she works in advertising. "You'd love to go back, but you have to think about your life and what you hope to achieve." Aoun also objected to those terming Chaar a "martyr," and said his death hit home for many young Lebanese who imagined themselves in his place. "The youth in Lebanon feel with him because it could have been any of us." While the campaign has attracted support and attention, it comes at a time when Lebanon is deeply divided. The bomb that killed Chaar was the latest in a string of attacks, many thought to be linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria. Many Lebanese feel trapped by their country's political violence but others are directly involved in the long-running fighting in the northern city of Tripoli, or even heading across the border to battle for or against the Syrian regime. Badran acknowledged the campaign's prospect for short-term change are slim, but said she was heartened by it nonetheless. "If we keep talking about these issues, then maybe we'll remember to work on them," she said. "I think it's very important to just talk about these things, to not just move on as we usually do." Aoun also sounded a positive note. "It takes a long time for change to come about it, but the start is what matters and I think this is an excellent start." Source/Agence France Presse

Iran Commander: Hizbullah's Missile Power Improved
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/A senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that Hizbullah has dramatically improved its missile capabilities and can now pinpoint targets anywhere in Israel. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said Israelis will see Hizbullah's new might should a war break out. He said slain Hizbullah commander Hassan al-Laqqis played a key role in boosting the group's military strength, although he did not elaborate. "He was a great, resourceful and very active Hizbullah commander whose works could be revealed should a Hizbullah-Israel war break out. He created great defense supplies," and was "one of Hizbullah's brains in the field of electronic war," Hajizadeh said. The comments were posted on the Guard's website, sepahnews.com. Al-Laqqis was assassinated last month near his residence in Hadath, in southern Beirut.
Top Revolutionary Guard commanders attended a service earlier this week in Tehran in commemoration of the slain commander. Hajizadeh didn't say how Hizbullah's missile capability had improved, but The Wall Street Journal has reported that the group has been moving parts of advanced guided-missile systems to Lebanon from bases where it had stored them inside Syria. U.S. officials told the Journal recently the weapons were transferred into

Lebanon from Syria piece-by-piece to evade Israeli air strikes.
Source/Associated Press..

EDL and Service Provider Workers Hold Sit-in
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/Contract workers of Electricite du Liban and service providers staged a sit-in at the state-run firm's headquarters in Beirut's Mar Mikhael area on Saturday to protest the dismissal of 62 KVA company workers. The contract workers committee issued a statement asking the management of KVA, a private company, to give the 62 individuals back their jobs. It warned that it would activate labor movements starting Saturday to “topple the plan of service providers.” The statement urged politicians to speed up the approval of an urgent draft-law on the employment of the contract workers. It also urged the management of SP -service providing companies - to “withdraw the intruding workers and mainly foreigners who have been trained by contract workers.” The committee issued another warning that it would take unprecedented escalatory measures.
 

General Security Arrests Robbery, Currency Counterfeit Gangs
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/General Security has arrested several Lebanese and Syrians for forming robbery and currency counterfeiting gangs in the eastern Bekaa valley, the state-run National News Agency said.
NNA said General Security members apprehended two Lebanese and a Syrian on suspicion of robbing homes and farms in and around the town of Bar Elias. The suspects have been referred to the judicial authorities, it said. The agency's officers have also arrested four Syrians in the town of Forzol for using counterfeit foreign currency and smuggling them to Syria, NNA said.
General Security launched an investigation to find out more details about their crime.

Danish Police: Lebanese Ship Likely to Have Dumped Cows
Naharnet Newsdesk 11 January 2014/Fourteen dead cows that washed up on the beaches of Denmark and Sweden were probably dumped overboard by the crew of a Lebanese ship after it encountered bad weather, Danish police said. "The police suspects that (the source is) a Lebanese ship that was transporting live cattle from a U.S. port to Europe," the South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police said in a statement. "The ship ran into a storm in the Bay of Biscay, in which a number of cows died," it added. The ship's management may be prosecuted since dumping dead animals in the Baltic Sea is prohibited, it said. The puzzling appearance of nine cows on the beaches of south Sweden and five in Denmark has stunned the public, especially after it was revealed that some of them had been shot and had their ears mutilated. The animals, the first of which was found on December 31, also had their back legs tied together and their stomachs cut open. The ears had been cut to remove the earmarks identifying the animals, police said. "The reason the stomachs had been slit open was probably to ensure the animal sank, and the back legs were probably bound so that a crane could grab and hoist the cow overboard," it said. The Lebanese ship's crew had asked to unload the dead animals in a Russian port but were turned down, after which they most likely dumped them around 18 kilometers (11 miles) off the Danish island of Bornholm, police said. The unidentified Lebanese vessel was currently docked "at a port in the Baltic Sea," it said. Swedish police on Tuesday launched an investigation into the incidents. "I've worked in the police for 40 years and I have never dealt with such a crime," Scania police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun Westford said. Source/Agence France Presse.

Women In Lebanon: Break the taboo
January 11, 2014/The Daily Star /The violent attack by a husband against his expectant wife in Tripoli reported Friday is among the most horrific of crimes, as was the sexual assault on a Syrian refugee child, but it is essential that the media, and society as a whole, address and discuss such occurrences head on, so that the taboos of violence against women and rape are finally broken.
Until this happens, many other similar crimes will continue, but will not come to light, as they will not be reported to the police. One in three women around the world will be victim to physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, and this is unacceptable. Women should not have to live in fear of the men they live with, or strangers in the street. The rape of a wife by a husband is still not considered a crime in Lebanon. This must change. The creation this summer of a dedicated Internal Security Forces unit tasked with policing domestic violence crimes is an important step, as is the addition of women police officers into the force. Extra steps are needed, however, including the construction of safe spaces for women who are fleeing violence or rape. It is essential that psychological support be given to victims of such crimes, so that they no longer feel like victims, but survivors who can continue with their lives, stronger than ever. The Social Affairs Ministry has, and rightly so, vowed to provide psychological support to the victim of Friday’s sexual attack and her family.
Children, and perhaps especially those in the refugee community, are also vulnerable to such abuses of power, and we must all speak out on these crimes.

Ariel Sharon: From Warrior to Man of Peace at Last
David Pollock /Washington Institute

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/ariel-sharon-from-warrior-to-man-of-peace-at-last

The Israeli leader showed himself capable of making bold policy reversals when he felt the country's welfare as a democratic Jewish state was at stake.
Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, at death's door today at age eighty-five after eight years in a stroke-induced coma, incarnated many of the contradictory dimensions of his entire country: courageous, and so unavoidably controversial; steadfast in his core convictions, yet flexible, impulsive, and even unpredictable in carrying them out; supremely self-confident, yet always acutely concerned about his country's security.
He rose to prominence, as the title of his 1989 autobiography succinctly notes, as a warrior: fighting with great ferocity and distinction in Israel's 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Suez war, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War; and then overseeing the 1982 Lebanon war, with a much murkier outcome, as minister of defense. But in his final years in political office as prime minister, even while ruthlessly and effectively striking back at Palestinian terrorists, Sharon demonstrated a very different side. He agreed to limit Israeli settlements in the West Bank, accepted the idea of an independent Palestinian state, and initiated the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The contradiction, or at least irony, was merely a superficial one; for only a man with Sharon's unrivaled reputation for toughness could have pulled off such switches so successfully. That was when and why President George W. Bush famously, and correctly, called Sharon a "man of peace."
Even much earlier, from his first days as a military commander, Sharon was usually determined to go his own way, at times regardless of higher authorities far from the field. The results were decidedly mixed. He first earned attention as the spearhead of Israel's battle against Palestinian infiltrators, leading the unit that launched the bloody reprisal raid on the West Bank village of Qibya in 1953. He then led a costly and unnecessary commando raid, far into enemy territory, on the Mitla Pass in Sinai during the 1956 war. Yet he also led a brilliant counterattack, again far behind Egyptian lines, across the Suez Canal in the 1973 war. Although little remembered today, Sharon's division actually advanced to within about sixty miles of Cairo to turn the tide of war and contribute to an honorable ceasefire -- and ultimately to Egyptian-Israeli peace.
Yet a decade later on Israel's northern front, as defense minister during the 1982 war against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon, Sharon ordered Israeli troops far beyond the initial forty-kilometer objective near the Litani River, all the way to the outskirts of Beirut. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, asked whether Sharon had misled him about the scope of this campaign, reportedly offered this laconic reply: "Well, Arik always tells me about his plans -- sometimes before, and sometimes after." The result was a brutal siege of Lebanon's capital city, which succeeded in expelling Arafat and the PLO but failed to crush their movement, or to reorder Lebanese politics to Israel's advantage. Quite the contrary; this Lebanon war left Israel with a new and more dangerous enemy: Hezbollah.
The Lebanon war also left a large stain on Sharon's reputation, because of the large death toll, culminating in the massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps around Beirut. All through his career, Sharon was tagged with leading military operations that inflicted civilian casualties, sometimes disproportionately. But this charge was misplaced. It was not Israelis, but Lebanese Phalangist militiamen, who murdered the Palestinians in those camps. An official Israeli commission of inquiry nevertheless found Sharon "indirectly responsible," and he was forced to resign as defense minister, although he remained in the cabinet a while longer. But Time magazine charged that Sharon had actually "encouraged" the massacre -- featuring a cover illustration of a Jewish star dripping with blood -- even though Christian guerrillas had actually committed the crime. Against all the odds, Sharon sued the American magazine for libel -- and won a symbolic judgment in his favor.
Sharon's last military venture was much more successful, with favorable political results that continue to shape the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to this very day. A man who began his political life as a protégé of David Ben-Gurion and then rose to influence under Begin finally achieved the pinnacle goal of sweeping Likud to electoral victory shortly after the failure in late 2000 of the second Camp David summit and the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising. New prime minister Sharon then conceived and led Operation Defensive Shield, a series of large-scale incursions to root out Palestinian terror cells from West Bank cities at the height of the second intifada, in 2002-2003. Once again there were wildly exaggerated media accounts of Israeli responsibility for massacres, most infamously in Jenin. The accusations were false; and despite all the naysayers inside and outside Israel, the military campaign largely succeeded.
This time Sharon followed up, not with a protracted reoccupation of Palestinian cities, but with the security barrier separating these cities from Israel and its own cities and settlements just to the west. The naysayers were proved wrong yet again; the barrier -- sometimes a wall, more often a fence -- has worked to stop terrorists. It literally reinforces the verbal calls to stop terrorism uttered by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, who replaced Arafat even as the barrier was being built. And the dramatic decline in Palestinian terrorism produced by the barrier, IDF action, and cooperation with Palestinian security services is what has enabled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, currently promoted by Secretary of State John Kerry, to resume, long after Sharon himself was struck down by the stroke that forced him from the political scene.
On a personal level, I recall the first time I met Ariel Sharon, and the lasting impression it produced of a man who could dream large and act accordingly, triumph over great adversity, and most of all, change course courageously as new circumstances required. In 1985, I sat with Sharon at one of his legendary, lavish private dinners. To my astonishment, he maintained at length that one million or more Jewish olim (immigrants) could quickly be brought to Israel from the Soviet Union -- and this was still at the height of the Cold War, before Gorbachev, and long before the collapse of communism and its notorious walls. I mentioned this prediction to a much more senior colleague, who called it fascinating but wildly implausible. And yet, within less than a decade, Sharon's dream of mass Soviet Jewish immigration came true.
Even more impressive to me, however, is the epilogue to this little story. At the time he made that rash but prescient prediction, Sharon explicitly intended it to rationalize Israel's continued hold over the West Bank and Gaza. Soviet Jewish immigration, he meant, would largely "solve" Israel's "demographic problem" of including so many Arabs within its expanded borders. He was the one, after all, who had driven the creation of Likud in 1973, and invested so heavily in Israeli settlements across the 1967 Green Line.
Yet many years later, when Sharon realized that this part of his dream was unrealistic, he reversed course and decided that for Israel's own sake, he had to uproot the settlements in Gaza -- along with four tiny, isolated West Bank settlements -- as he had at Yamit in Sinai for the sake of peace with Egypt in 1982. And for the sake of peace with the Palestinians, or at least separation from them, he had to build a wall dividing Israel from the West Bank, and concentrate further settlement only in the sliver of land around Jerusalem and Israel's "narrow waist" near the Mediterranean coast -- precisely the area that Palestinians and other Arabs have finally agreed could be swapped to Israel as part of a final peace agreement with a Palestinian state.
In order to accomplish this historic reversal, Sharon had to make one last military-style surprise maneuver, but in the political arena. That was his bold decision to break from Likud and form his own party, Kadima, to oversee the planned withdrawal from Gaza and the further concessions to come. Critics of some of these steps, including myself, fault Sharon not for pulling out of Gaza but for doing so unilaterally instead of by agreement with the Palestinian Authority. This arguably gave Hamas an advantage there that it has retained ever since, albeit more precariously now. Perhaps Sharon did not fully realize, back in 2005, that he could try to make a deal with the newly installed and untested Abbas, rather than with the tested-and-proved-untrustworthy Arafat. For his part, Sharon argued that he could not let any Palestinian leader determine whether Israel would remain both Jewish and democratic.
That is an important detail, but a detail nonetheless. The larger point is that Sharon, and almost certainly only Sharon, could get Israel out of Gaza. The Israeli public trusted him to take care of all that, giving Kadima a solid vote of confidence in what turned out to be Sharon's last electoral campaign. It is a measure of Sharon's personal political power and credibility that, without him, Kadima has virtually disappeared from the Israeli political map.
And so, to the last, Sharon was decisive -- and therefore also divisive. With leadership, of course, comes controversy. Given all these seemingly contradictory twists and turns, what really is Sharon's legacy? His own career trajectory sums it up well: first be a fearsome warrior, in order to turn later to the work of peace. Because of this legacy, Israel today can contemplate its future more confidently, even as the region all around it implodes, or explodes. Whether that national confidence produces a new paragon of personal courage and political decisiveness in the spirit of Ariel Sharon is still an open question.
**David Pollock is the Kaufman Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of Fikra Forum.