"He
has gone. He went when he decided to go," Gilad Sharon said outside the
hospital where his father had been treated in recent years.
The life and career of the man widely known by his nickname "Arik" will be remembered for its three distinct stages: his eventful and controversial time in uniform, his years as a vociferous political operator who helped create Israel's settlement movement and mastermind of the Lebanon invasion, then his successful term as a pragmatist prime minister, capped by a dramatic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and curtailed at the height of his popularity by his sudden stroke.
Monday 20 January 2014
Israeli General and Prime minister Ariel Sharon, who was highly revered and hated for his battlefield exploits and ambitions to reshape the Middle East, died Saturday, eight years after a stroke left him in a coma from which he never awoke. He died at age 85.
Sharon's
son Gilad announced the death on Saturday afternoon. Sharon's health
had taken a downturn over the past week and a half as a number of bodily
organs, including his kidneys, stopped functioning.
Being one of Israel's most famous soldiers, the Prime minister was known for unflinching ways,bold tactics and disobedience of orders. As a politician he became known as "the bulldozer," a man contemptuous of his critics while also capable of getting things done.
He led his country into a divisive war in Lebanon in 1982 and was branded as indirectly responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps outside Beirut when his troops allowed allied Lebanese militias into the camps. Yet ultimately he transformed himself into a prime minister and statesman.
