Ariel Sharon - Biography Chapters

2001 Ariel Sharon - Prime Minister Elect

On February 6, 2001, five months into the second Intifada, the al-Aqsa intifada, Ariel Sharon is elected Prime Minister after defeating former Prime Minister Ehud Barak by a landslide. He receives 62.4 percent of the votes while Barak receives only 37.6 percent.

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After Sabra and Shatila, Sharon has been a disgraced figure in Israel. Now, his rehabilitation is complete. He now feels the weight of the responsibility for the nation on his shoulders, the responsibility for the whole Zionist enterprise and for future of the people of Israel, the Jewish people. He aspires to be remembered as a responsible leader and do away with the stigma and the memory of the time in Lebanon.

Uri Avneri, political journalist and activist, says: "This man was and still is a man of power, an aggressive man, merciless, but he seems to people like a nice grandfather, kind, easy, a man of peace. People imagine the Sharon they want and that has nothing to do with the real Sharon."

Here are excerpts from Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon’s victory speech:
"Several minutes before I entered the hall, US President Bush called to congratulate me. He told me that he aimed for close cooperation with the government that I'll lead. He recalled a tour we took together to Samaria and the Jordan Valley (West Bank). He said that no one would have believed back then that ‘I one day would be president and you Prime Minister.’

"Today, the State of Israel has embarked on a new path: a path of domestic peace and harmony, and striving for security and genuine peace… Over the years, differences of opinion and divisions have grown deeper in our nation and in our society. We have had our fill of animosity and senseless hatred.

"The time has come to focus on that which unites us, and to reach a consensus as broad as possible. I know that there is a national yearning to stand together and face the challenges of the future. I hereby declare that I wish to establish a national unity government, with as many members as possible. I turn to the Labor Party to walk together with me, on the basis of true partnership, along the difficult path to security and peace.

"The government that I'll lead will work towards restoring security to the citizens of Israel, and to achieving genuine peace and stability in the region. I know that peace means painful compromises on both sides. Any future agreement will be based on security for all peoples in the region. I call upon our Palestinians neighbors to abandon the path of violence and return to dialog and seek ways to resolve the disagreements between us in a peaceful manner. The government which I'll lead will work towards a realistic agreement which will safeguard the existential and historical interests of Israel, and will be based on mutual respect, and honoring of reciprocal obligations.

"We will open a new page in our relations with Israel’s Arab citizens in an effort to create a true partnership, and a sense of equality between all citizens. The government that I'll lead will commit itself to social issues, alongside the issues of security and peace, with education being the top. And above all this is Zionism, the issue of national honor, immigration and settlement of the Land.

"The government which I'll form will pursue the strengthening and expanding of a united Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and the eternal capital of the Jewish people for which we are forever obligated: 'If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.'

"At this moment, when the Israeli people have expressed their confidence in me to lead the country for the next several years, Lily is not with me, and I miss her here.
"We have a small country blessed with talent; a country that has achieved a lot. Let us all begin tonight to march ‘as one man with one heart’ on a new path. Together we can overcome all of the challenges before us. Together we can make all our hopes and dreams come true. Thank you all."

Sharon began his first day as prime minister in a visit to his wife's grave, Lily. He then went to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He placed his right hand on one of the big stones, looked up intently and whispered a short prayer. Later, Sharon said to reporters: "Jerusalem has been the capital of the Jewish people for three thousand years, and the Temple Mount and the Western Wall will remain in its heart for ever."

From the very start of the Intifada, settlers in the occupied territories have been killed. The 'daddy' of the settlers, now prime pinister, pays his condolences to a settler's family on 31 May, 2001, and is ambushed by a grieving woman settler: "Tell me Arik, 8 months, 8 months, they are shooting on our houses. Where were you? Where? You are our messenger, do your job. We can't take it any more, we can't go on burying our dead. We can't. We had it. We didn't elect you in time of peace. We elected you because we know that Arik Sharon knows how to make war."

The settlers are disappointed in Sharon. As the Intifada escalates, Sharon demonizes Arafat as the source of all the trouble. In December, 2001, Sharon confines Arafat to his headquarters in Ramallah and seeks to exclude the elected President of the Palestinians, humiliating him in the process.

In just one month, March 2002 alone, 140 Israelis die in suicide bombings. Now, the wider Israeli public demands action. Sharon attacks Arafat's headquarters and sends tanks into almost every Palestinian town, Ramallah, Nablus and Bet Lehem among them, and jailes thousands of Palestinians, many without trial. IDF attacks and bulldozes Jenin's refugee camp.

January 2003

In two years of unabated conflict, more than 2,000 Palestinians and almost a thousand Israelis are killed, most of them civilians. Feelings of fear and lack of personal security dominate the Israeli public. And so, despite Sharon's failure to stop the attacks on Israel, in the 2003 elections he is voted in again, with a huge majority. He is the only candidate who is admired as strong and tough enough to mercilessly fight the Arabs, and on the other hand he is seen as the only one who is capable of bringing peace and make concessions that would be accepted by a vast majority in Israel.

Since his re-election, Sharon is under American pressure to engage in a peace process. He acknowledges the occupation and the adverse effects it has on Israel; he concedes the possibility of a Palestinian state, and talks of painful concessions. But, at the same time, Israel is building a wall, avowedly to stop terror attacks, which causes the Palestinians further loss of their land, and fences them in.

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