Ariel Sharon (26 February 1928 – 4 January 2014) was Prime Minister of Israel from 7 March 2001 to 14 April 2006, succeeding Ehud Barak and preceding Ehud Olmert, and Minister of Defense from 5 August 1981 to 14 February 1983, succeeding and preceding Menachem Begin.
Biography[]
Sharon was a junior officer in the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948. In the 1950s, his natural aggression found an outlet in Israel's newly-founded special forces. In the Sinai campaign in 1956, he commanded a parachute brigade, exceding his orders in an attack on Egyptian defenses in the Mitla Pass that ended in success, but at excessive cost. This move held back Sharon's career.
Recovering from the controversy of Mitla, Sharon once more showed outstanding fighting qualities while commanding a tank division in the 1967 Six-Day War, achieving the vital breakthrough at Abu Ageila. He was recalled from retirement to serve in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and led an armored division in a bold stroke across the Suez Canal in a bod stroke that turned the initially disastrous war in Israel's favor. Leaving the army for good in 1974, Sharon embarked on a controversial military career. As defense minister during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he was accused of partial responsibility for the massacres of Palestinian civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut and forced to resign from the ministry.