Sharon sold the pullout as a security move. The withdrawal and the barrier, which left large West Bank settlement blocs on Israel’s side, led many to suspect his real intention was to sidestep negotiations with the Palestinians and make it easier to hold onto what really mattered to him — chunks of the West Bank, with its biblical Jewish resonance and value as a buffer against attack from the east.
Sharon embodied the farmer-soldier image cherished by the pugnacious Jewish state that arose from the ashes of the Holocaust.
He was born to Russian immigrant parents on Feb. 26, 1928, in the farming community of Kfar Malal, 10 miles (15 kilometers) north of Tel Aviv, and at 14 joined the Haganah, the pre-state defense force. He commanded an infantry platoon during the 1948 Mideast war over Israel’s creation.
Leading a ragtag band of soldiers, some Holocaust survivors, Sharon stormed the Jordanian Arab Legion stronghold at Latroun, a key spot on the road to Jerusalem, during the 1948 war that followed Israel’s creation. He was badly wounded in the leg and belly, and bled for hours while surrounded by enemy soldiers. He once told The New York Times how he dragged himself into a ravine and drank mud mixed with blood.
“I know it’s a terrible thing. Because people will read it and they will say, ‘Look, he drinks also blood,’” he said, laughing his trademark deep, hearty chuckle.
In 1953, he commanded Unit 101, a force formed to carry out reprisals for Arab attacks. After the slaying of an Israeli woman and her two children, his troops blew up more than 40 houses in Qibya, a West Bank village then ruled by Jordan, killing 69 Arabs. Sharon later said he thought the houses were empty.
After Israel’s 1956 invasion of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Sharon was rebuked for engaging in what commanders regarded as an unnecessary battle with Egyptian forces. Some 30 Israeli soldiers died.
The accolades mounted as well. Sharon received praise for his command of an armored division during the 1967 Mideast War, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula.