Ariel Sharon - Biography Chapters

1928 – 1947 Childhood and Youth of Ariel Sharon

1922 – Vera Shneorov, a medical student in the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, forms a bond of love with Samuel Sheinerman, an agronomy student and the head of Po'aley Zion party in the city. Activists of the Communist Revolution are after Samuel for his Zionist activity, and in February 1922 Vera and Samuel run away to Baku and from there make an Aliyah (immigration to Israel) in a ship with very little possessions. Samuel fulfills his Zionist dream. For Vera it's a forced compromise.

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Once in Israel, Samuel goes to Mikve Israel agricultural school and upon graduation he and Vera join a new community called Ein Chai, which later becomes Kfar Malal. Samuel ,the agronomist always tries to make sure that there is order in the village. He is not really loved but he is treated with respect. With time, he gains a reputation of an arrogant, aggressive and bitter man.

The village of Kfar Malal belongs to the Labor Movement but Sharon's parents refuse to cooperate with its communal framework. In this socialist community, the individualist Sharons are the only ones to fence off their house.

On 1926, Sharon's older sister, Judith (nicknamed Dita), is born. Two years later Ariel (nicknamed Arik) is born.

On August 1929, late at night, Kfar Malal is warned that nearby Arabs are about to attack the village. Vera immediately takes Dita and Arik to the cowshed, which is the designated hiding place for women and children. The men are outside, protecting the village with loaded guns. After long hours of nervous waiting, it turns out to be a false alarm. Since that incident, Vera constantly instills in her children fear of the Arabs.

Samuel and Vera work the land and fields but see themselves as having a superior education and culture to those of other Kfar Malal members.

When little Arik is three years old, he tumbles and falls on a rock and cuts his chin deep. Instead of taking him to the local clinic, Vera holds him in her arms and walks two miles to the neighboring city of Kfar Saba. She doesn't rely on Kfar Malal's medical team.

Relationship between Sharon's parents and other Kfar Malal members are getting worse, and it sometimes effects the way children treat little Arik. The chubby kid is often called "a bull". Sharon grows up being part of his parents' fight against the establishment, against the community, against the collective. He learns that he needs to shape things on his own and not accept them at face value.

When Sharon is six years old, his father gives him a baton and tells him to watch the fields and orchards so that no one would steal fruits from them. From that day on, little Arik is often seen with his baton.
Sharon's childhood experiences of not quite belonging in his home village have a profound effect on the soldier to be.
At the age of 14 Ariel Sharon becomes an instructor in the military youth movement, the Gadna. He is different from other instructors. He is full of initiative and makes his trainees do things that other instructors would not allow. He sends them alone on night operations to patrol in 'unfriendly' neighboring Palestinian Arab communities. The Arabs, witnessing Jewish settlements over land they have inhabited for hundreds of years, sporadically attack Kfar Malal.
Later, Sharon formally joins the Hagana, a military organization which later becomes the official army of the State of Israel.

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