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To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
From: Vicki Clow
Subject: Biography of Ariel Sharon. Israel's new Prime
Minister.
MONDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2001
(This was written the day before the election.)
ICEJ NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
ISRAEL TURNS TO SHARON: A VETERAN OF WAR AND PEACE
PART 1...
If all those lopsided opinion polls are reliable, Israeli voters will
install Ariel Sharon as their next prime minister on Tuesday,
completing a most remarkable comeback for this native-born farmer
whose long military and political record engenders considerable doses
of both respect and scorn.
Resilient and stout at 72, Sharon has displayed an unusual capacity
for grace in the face of a withering barrage of disparaging electoral
rhetoric. The campaign team of resigned Prime Minister Ehud Barak, in
concert with the Israeli Left and many noted Arab leaders, have
labeled Sharon a "warmonger," trying to scare voters away. Barak
himself has cited Sharon's role in the Lebanon War and in promoting
settlement growth as factors that should disqualify him for the
premiership.
But Sharon has maintained his trademark smile and confident stride.
And the vast majority of Israelis have been equally unfazed, now ready
to give him the chance to right the lurching ship of state.
Sharon's career has been a major focus of this snap election, with the
left-leaning press rushing into print volumes of details about his
checkered past, reminding the public exactly why he has been
politically written off so many times. Are voters overlooking this
past? Or is there another side to the story?
"I want to say something about my demonization," Sharon told YEDIOT
AHARONOT recently. "After all, I am known as someone who eats Arabs
for breakfast. This is baseless. People are killed in wars. But I
never allowed the mistreatment of a prisoner, and I never humiliated
anyone."
Should Sharon be forever exiled for Sabra and Shatila? Did he mislead
Prime Minister Menachem Begin about the planned incursion into
Lebanon? Was it a disservice to the nation to bolster the settlement
movement, no matter what cabinet post he held?
TALENTED SOLDIER: Of Russian Jewish extract, Sharon was born near Kfar
Saba, on a moshav plagued by marauders from neighboring Arab villages.
At 13, he was already patrolling the community's fields at night, club
and dagger in hand. At 14, he was initiated into the Palmach, the
famed Jewish underground force, and developed keen skills at scouting
hostile terrain.
With the War of Independence in 1948, Sharon served as a platoon
leader and was wounded during the lengthy struggle to take the
fortress at Latrun. As a young officer in the 1950s, he commanded the
famous anti-terrorist "Unit 101," leading numerous successful
retaliatory raids inside Gaza and Jordanian-held Judea/Samaria.
During the 1956 Sinai Campaign, he led a paratrooper brigade during
the battle for control of the Mitla Pass.
By this time, Sharon had emerged as an able leader and brilliant
strategist, but with a touch of brashness. IDF training is based on
two models: The British tradition stresses a strict chain of command,
while the Wingate tradition [first taught by British officer Orde
Charles Wingate during the Mandate era] emphasizes individual
initiative. Sharon tended toward the Wingate school of thought.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, Sharon led an armored division which breached
Egyptian lines in the Sinai and opened the peninsula to conquering IDF
forces. And in the Yom Kippur War, Sharon achieved legendary status
with his decisive crossing of the Suez Canal and encirclement of the
Egyptian Eighth Army at Kilometer 101.
POLITICAL PIONEER: Sharon left the army in 1974 to enter politics, and
immediately played a major role in uniting the nationalist camp under
the banner of the new Likud party, headed by Begin. When the Right
rose to power in 1977, Sharon served as Minister of Agriculture and
chaired the special ministerial committee for settlements, positions
that allowed him to channel the nation's energy and resources into
large-scale construction in Judea/Samaria and Gaza.
The Labor party had previously established a series of 25 "security"
settlements in the strategic Jordan Valley and near the "Green Line,"
according to the Allon Plan. Sharon beefed up the Jordan Valley
communities, added east-west arteries to access the narrow coastal
plain via the Samarian mountain ridge, and planned a ring of
protective neighborhoods around Jerusalem. Sharon also pressed plans
for 56 new Jewish communities in the Galilee, where Jews were
outnumbered by Israeli Arabs at the time. In addition, he joined
hands with the biblically-inspired Gush Emunim ["Bloc of the
Faithful"] to begin planting what some today refer to as "political"
or "ideological" settlements in the heart of Judea/Samaria, eventually
establishing 64 new settlements there.
Sharon's upbringing in a farm setting had ingrained in him a
pioneering spirit and a deep attachment to the land of his Jewish
forefathers. Using a "hands on" approach, he scouted out the familiar
hilly terrain and selected areas uninhabited by Arabs for settlement.
Besides returning Jews to the empty hilltops once home to the ancient
Israelites, Sharon was also trying to block the path of invading
forces and the rise of a Palestinian state Sharon never quite realized
his goal of populating the territories with 2 million Jews - there are
now some 200,000 settlers - but his strategy has complicated
subsequent efforts to apply the "land-for-peace" formula in these
areas.
Sharon's record in promoting extensive Jewish settlement is marked by
one glaring exception - Sinai. Sharon and then-Foreign Minister Moshe
Dayan erected a "buffer zone" of Israeli towns along the eastern side
of Sinai, and Sharon was out to expand it. But the dramatic journey
of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem in 1977 sealed their
fate.
Elevated to Defense Minister, Sharon was receptive to the prospects of
peace with this ancient enemy. He considered Egypt a civilization
that shared a biblical history with Israel. Egypt also wielded power
in the Arab world. And like many Israelis, he did not consider the
Sinai part of the biblical Land of Israel. So he came to terms with
the Camp David accords and subsequent peace treaty, which called for a
phased withdrawal from Sinai, despite the military risks he knew it
entailed.
In April 1982, Sharon implemented the last phase of the Israeli
evacuation from northern Sinai, including the Jewish towns of Ophira
and Yamit. He reluctantly ordered the forced evacuation of Yamit, a
community of 5,000 residents close to the Israeli border. Its
inhabitants were evicted, buildings demolished and infrastructure
uprooted, leaving a silent heap of desert ruins.
Sharon quickly resumed his patronage of the settlement enterprise,
using various cabinet postings (industry and trade, construction and
housing, national infrastructure) to bolster the movement through
government subsidies, and privately aiding associations engaged in
acquiring property in eastern Jerusalem. Sharon stirred a ruckus by
personally buying a house once owned by Jews in the Muslim Quarter of
the Jerusalem's Old City.
Finally, in yet another major contribution to the Zionist cause,
Sharon showcased his flare for bold action by organizing the purchase
of tens of thousands of caravans and a huge construction effort, in
readiness for the flood of Russian Jewish immigrants that started to
pour into Israel from the Soviet Union in 1989. His decisive action
helped ensure that the wave of newcomers did not spend their first
years in Israel living in tents, like so many returnees in the past.
EMBATTLED LEADER: The height, and nadir, of Sharon's political power
came with the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He has been charged with
deliberately misleading the Begin Cabinet and the Knesset into
approving the "Peace for Galilee" campaign with minimal objectives,
while his real, secret intentions were to mobilize the IDF in the
pursuit of more ambitious goals. Secondly, Sharon was held indirectly
responsible for the massacre of some 800 Palestinians by Lebanese
Christian militiamen in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.
As Defense Minister, Sharon spearheaded the planning of Operation
"Peace for Galilee," meant to free Israel's northern towns from
incessant PLO terrorist attacks. The IDF had entered Lebanon on prior
occasions to combat the harrowing threats from the PLO's entrenched
army in southern Lebanon - known as "Fatah Land." The PLO had created
a "state with a state," setting up its own roadblocks, running its own
courts, imposing taxes and maintaining an independent militia of up to
20,000 heavily armed men, primarily to stage terrorist attacks on
Israel. As the cross-border assaults grew in frequency and horror,
Israel launched the "Litani Operation" in 1978, a limited incursion to
drive the PLO north of the Litani River - 15 miles above the border.
The PLO quickly returned, bringing with it a heavy concentration of
Katyusha rocket launchers and long-range artillery capable of hitting
Israel's northern communities. As thousands of shells rained down on
the Galilee, and the PLO scored several daring terrorist attacks in
Israel and abroad, it became clear serious action was needed to
cripple its capabilities.
Sharon began discussions in the Cabinet and Knesset for a strategy to
invade and destroy the PLO presence in Lebanon, using the existing
"Oranim Plan" from 1979 as a model. This plan called for the
"annihilation of the terrorist threat... including in particular in
Beirut" and for "neutralizing the Syrians through threatening
maneuvers while attempting to avoid real fighting with them." From
the outset, Sharon publicly advocated the maximalist tenets of Oranim
- reaching Beirut, working for an Israel-friendly Maronite-led
government, and rolling back Syrian influence. This was made clear to
political leaders in Jerusalem, military commanders in the field, and
even on the international stage in talks with US officials.
One IDF officer of note who reportedly backed Sharon's ideas was none
other than Maj. Gen. Ehud Barak, then head of IDF Planning, who sent
Sharon a private memo in March 1982 outlining similar plans for war in
the North. Barak advocated "a swift operation" directed against
Syrian targets as well, including surface-to-air missiles deployed in
the Lebanon Valley and within Syria itself, presenting an opportunity
for "massive use of our air and ground forces against ground forces in
Lebanon or in the Golan Heights." According to a recent report in
HA'ARETZ, Barak's plan proposed deception on many levels, each aimed
at keeping different audiences "in the dark" - meaning Washington,
Jerusalem and even colleagues within the IDF.
End of Part 1....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ARIEL SHARON...
PART 2....
In May, 1982, the Israeli cabinet finally reviewed a plan submitted by
IDF commander Raful Eitan which set a minimum objective of sweeping
the PLO back about 25 miles north, thus removing the Galilee from
firing range. Cabinet members acknowledged that the evolving battle
may call for a deeper thrust and, at Sharon's request, a special
security cabinet was to meet twice a day to supervise IDF operations.
On June 5, the cabinet approved "Peace for Galilee" by near unanimous
consent. And during the course of the war, each tactical move was
first considered and voted on by the cabinet, meeting twice a day, and
only then was Sharon authorized to command IDF maneuvers.
Towards the end of the Lebanon War, in mid-August, the IDF tightened
its presence around Beirut and initiated a barrage of artillery
attacks on PLO positions in the city. In reaction, the PLO scattered
some 2,500 militiamen throughout West Beirut - particularly in the
urban refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, which contained high-rise
apartment buildings and underground mazes of tunnels, storehouses,
bunkers, arsenals and command centers.
Israel decided in mid-September to establish control over West Beirut,
including the neighborhoods of Sabra and Shatila, a move that came
right as newly-elected president Bashir Gemayal was murdered by a
Lebanese Christian working for the Damascus-controlled Syrian National
Party. Reluctant to commit forces to house-to-house fighting, the IDF
agreed to surround and close off the Palestinian neighborhoods while
Lebanese Christian "Phalangist" forces commanded by the Gemayal family
entered the towns to rid them of remaining terrorists.
It was under these conditions that the Phalangists entered Sabra and
Shatila on September 16 and massacred about 800 Palestinians, many of
them civilians. Soon after the gruesome attack, Sharon faced
accusations that he had encouraged or permitted the attack. Two weeks
later, Israel appointed a commission of inquiry to find out if, and to
what extent, he was responsible. The three-man Kahan commission
acknowledged that no Israeli soldier had taken any part in the
killings, but found that Sharon "made a grave mistake when he ignored
the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed by the Phalangists against
the population in the refugee camps." He was eventually forced to
resign as defense minister, although he stayed in the Begin
government.
In his defense, Sharon has contended that IDF commanders instructed
the Phalangist units to avoid harming civilians, and that no one
expected the massacres to occur, based on the past performance of
these IDF allies. In addition, Gemayal's assassin, a Christian, had
been caught almost immediately.
Sharon successfully sued TIME magazine for libel in publishing an
article alleging he actually encouraged the Maronite leadership to
exact revenge. An appeal is still pending in another libel suit
against HA'ARETZ; the case involves an article charging Sharon
deceived Begin about his plans to push all the way to Beirut.
Over the years, there have been new revelations that tend to exonerate
Sharon and point to a Syrian hand behind the massacres. A growing
body of evidence suggests the killings were masterminded by one Elias
Hobeika, a Lebanese Christian loyal to Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad
and operating at the top levels of Lebanese intelligence.
The most comprehensive source of published information on this
connection was written by Hobeika's body guard, Robert Hatem, in a
book banned in Lebanon. Hatem describes Hobeika as the leader of the
"intelligence unit" of the Phalangist army responsible for the
massacre. He was under strict orders not to resort to unnecessary
violence, but ordered his men to carry out "total extermination, camps
to be wiped out."
Journalists stationed in Lebanon report that Hobeika was the most
feared Phalangist in Lebanon, and even served as a bodyguard to Bashir
Gemayal before his death. But within a few years, Hoebika was openly
defending Syria's control over Lebanon, while privately he had
established close business ties with Rifaat Assad, brother of Hafez
and overlord of the lucrative narco-terrorism industry in the Beka'a
Valley.
When Palestinians worldwide marked the 18th anniversary of Sabra and
Shatila this past September, a number of Arab press reports carried
assertions by relatives of the victims accusing Hobeika for their
deaths. He was never questioned or tried for his role, they
complained, and he had just completed a term as a pro-Syrian member of
Lebanon's parliament. The top Fatah official in the country also
accused him of blocking erection of a monument for those killed. As a
result, some analysts now contend Hobeika staged the massacre to
further Syrian interests by setting the PLO and Maronites further at
odds, defaming Israel, and thus presenting Damascus as the only power
broker who could save Lebanon from self-destruction.
BOUNCING BACK: Ariel Sharon has managed to recover from the Lebanon
War and other setbacks, serving in the cabinets of prime ministers
Yitzhak Shamir and Binyamin Netanyahu. When Netanyahu resigned as
Likud chairman after his electoral defeat in 1999, Sharon took over
stewardship of the party and as leader of the Opposition. He now
stands poised to assume the one position of high office denied to him
thus far - head of the government. As his long-time associate Uri Dan
quipped after the Kahan commission findings: "Those who don't want to
accept [Sharon] as defense minister will have to accept him as prime
minister."
It is difficult to gauge at this point exactly how the recent efforts
to once again tarnish Sharon's image and paint him as a "butcher" of
Arabs will impact Israel and the region. Israelis appear foremost
concerned about personal security in this election and are turning to
him in hopes he will better manage the current conflict with the
Palestinians. They also trust that he will pursue peace talks, but
drive a harder bargain than Barak, who pressed on with ever more
generous concessions in the midst of the violence.
As for the Arab parties, there is a strange sense of justice in the
fact that the orchestrated riots after Sharon's visit to the Temple
Mount on September 28 set off a chain of events that have catapulted
him to the top. Just his mere presence at the helm will test their
true intentions like nothing else has before. And contrary to all the
talk of looming war and disaster, Sharon aides say there may be a show
of begrudging respect for the old war hero.
The story has been circulating that when Sharon refused to shake the
hand of Yasser Arafat at the Wye River talks in October 1998, the PLO
chief promptly saluted the ex-general.
And Sharon often tells of that poignant moment when Anwar Sadat landed
at Ben-Gurion airport on the way to Jerusalem, and peace. As the
Egyptian leader was descending from his plane, Begin and his Cabinet
were lined up to greet him on the tarmac, with Sharon some five
dignitaries down in the receiving line. Sadat was heard mumbling:
"Where's Sharon? Where's Sharon?" As they finally came face-to-face,
Sadat revealed that he had come to end the state of war with Israel
because he finally realized he could not defeat Sharon and the IDF on
the battlefield.
ICEJ NEWS Researched and written by David Parsons, Rashel Gibbs and
Amanda Ruth Thomas
**************************************************************
From: National Unity Coalition for Israel
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: ISRAEL ELECTS JEWISH HERO
AND THE WINNER IS . . .ARIEL SHARON BY A 19% EXIT POLL MARGIN!
Kansas City Star - Monday February 5, 2001
Ariel 'Arik' Sharon: A Jewish hero
By Shoula Romano Horing
The media, the Arab world and opponents like to portray Ariel "Arik"
Sharon as a man of war who can't make peace. They say his visit to the
Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, provoked months of
Palestinian violence.
They continue to hold him ultimately responsible for the 1982 massacre
of Palestinians by Christian Lebanese militiamen in the Sabra and
Shatilla refugees camps in Lebanon.
However, many of Sharon's supporters, including myself, have always
seen him as a Jewish hero -- similar to King David -- and as someone
who has worked tirelessly all his life to save Israel from its enemies
and to protect its security.
Sharon has participated in all the wars of Israel and has been the
leading warrior against terrorism.
During the 1948 War of Independence, he commanded an infantry unit and
was badly injured.
In 1953 Sharon founded and led the special anti-terrorist commando
unit "101," which carried out successful retaliatory operations
against Arab terrorists' bases in Egypt and Jordan. After the Sinai
Campaign against Egypt in 1956, terrorism stopped.
As head of Israel's Southern Command, Sharon was able to destroy the
PLO terrorist infrastructure in Gaza in seven months in 1971. For 10
years afterward, there was no terrorism in Gaza.
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Major General Sharon, in a daring and
unexpected maneuver, led his tank division to a brilliant crossing of
the Suez Canal into Egypt, cutting off an Egyptian army and
effectively ending the war.
As the Israeli minister of defense from 1981 to 1983 and in
retaliation for persistent attacks against northern Israel by a PLO
ministate in Lebanon, Sharon - with cabinet approval - orchestrated an
invasion of Lebanon. The PLO terrorists were expelled.
Tragically, in the chaos following the assassination of the newly
elected Christian president of Lebanon by a fellow Christian Arab, a
massacre of Palestinians was conducted by Christian militia units in
which not a single Israeli participated.
Enemies of Israel and Sharon cynically blamed Sharon for the Sabra and
Shatilla massacres without any basis of fact.
In his libel suit against Time magazine, Sharon proved that the
allegation that he had discussed the need for the Christians to take
revenge for the assassination was a lie.
The people who condemn Sharon are the same ones who portray Yasser
Arafat as a man of peace. Arafat is directly responsible for 25 years
of terrorism by ordering the murder of women and children in schools
and attacks on hotels, airports, residential buildings and more.
Critics of Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount should know by now that
the visit was used by Arafat as a pretext for premeditated violence to
gain more Israeli concessions in the negotiations. His gamble worked
since Ehud Barak's last offer was more generous than what was proposed
before the violence began.
Those who portray Sharon as a warmonger prefer to forget that he was
in many governments that were involved in peace negotiations.
In 1977 he supported the peace agreement with Egypt, in which all of
the Sinai was given up. He was the defense minister who was
responsible for moving Jewish settlers from the Sinai and destroying
their settlements.
He served in the Shamir government, which was involved in the Madrid
peace conference. He was foreign minister in the Nethanyahu government
and supported the Wye River Agreement, which gave an additional 13
percent of Judea and Samaria to Arafat.
Now Arik Sharon is needed to re-establish Israel's deterrence power
and to destroy the terrorist infrastructure that was created by Arafat
in the West Bank, which exists in close proximity to the heart of
Israel where 80 percent of its population lives.
Despite his heroics in serving Israel, he has been falsely demonized
and vilified. As any leader with a rich and long past he has made
mistakes, but through it all, his love for the land of Israel,
including Judea and Samaria, and his pride in being Jewish has never
wavered or been questioned.
He is a man of principle who does not act according to popularity
polls. Ariel Sharon has earned the right to become Israel's prime
minister and ensure its ultimate survival.
Shoula Romano Horing is an Israeli, an attorney and the host of "Oh
Jerusalem," a radio show on KCXL in Kansas City.
Winner Has 45 Days to Form Government
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's election will fill only the prime minister's
post, and the winner - either the heavily favored Ariel Sharon or
incumbent Ehud Barak - faces a difficult task in forming a government
that has the support of the fractured parliament.
Once official results are announced - within eight days of Tuesday's
election- the winner has 45 days to form a coalition government and
get it approved by the parliament, or Knesset.
If Barak loses the election, he could remain as a caretaker prime
minister for up to 45 days while Sharon works to form a government.
If the winner of Tuesday's vote fails to win Knesset approval within
45 days, another election is called. In such a case, the prime
minister elected Tuesday cannot run again.
The winner of Tuesday's vote faces an additional hurdle - the 2001
budget. The Knesset must pass the budget by March 31 since Barak has
so far been unable to win parliament approval for his spending plan.
If a budget is not passed by the March 31 deadline, Israeli law
stipulates that new elections will be called for prime minister and
parliament.
The prime minister elected Tuesday will not have the standard
four-year term. His tenure will last until November 2003, when
elections for prime minister and parliament are to be held.
Barak, who was elected to a four-year-term in 1999, prompted Tuesday's
special election when he resigned in December after his parliamentary
coalition fell apart.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
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