Israel Former Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon Dies At 85
Israel -
Former prime minister Ariel Sharon died on Saturday at Sheba Medical
Center in Tel Hashomer, days after his condition deteriorated
dramatically.
Sharon
would have turned 86 next month. His family gathered at the hospital to
be with him in his final moments. His sons Omri and and Gilad had been
by his side since his condition deteriorated on January 1.
Gilad
Sharon reacted to the death of his father on Saturday, saying that "he
went when he decided to go." Gilad Sharon thanked the medical staff at
Sheba Medical Center and thanked all of those who had prayed for the
former prime minister.
Professor Shlomo Noi, the director of Sheba Medical Center, officially announced Sharon's death at a press conference.
Noi
stated that Sharon had continued to fight for his life in the past week
as his health further
deteriorated "against all odds."
He added that, on Saturday, Sharon's heart had weakened and he "peacefully separated from his family."
A
state funeral will be organized for Sharon by the Prime Minister's
Office. Current and former world leaders are expected to come to Israel
for the funeral. His body will lie in state at the Knesset before the
funeral on his Negev ranch beside his wife Lily, who died in 2000.
Sharon's
vital organs failed, including his kidneys and his lungs. His blood
pressure and heartbeat, which returned to normal on Monday, deteriorated
again on Thursday. Hospital officials said others in his condition
would not have lasted as long as he did.
Media from around the world gathered at the hospital to deliver the news as soon as Sharon's passing was formally announced.
Sharon's
career ended in January 2006 when he suffered a debilitating stroke,
his second in under a month. Since then, he has been in a coma on life
support systems.
Sheba
director Ze'ev Rotstein said Monday that only a miracle could save
Sharon's life. A day earlier Rotstein said that Sharon, whose first name
means lion in Hebrew, was "fighting like a lion."
Sharon
was one of Israel’s legendary politicians and military leaders. He
played an instrumental role in IDF victories in the Sinai desert in both
the 1967 Six Day War and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. His victories on
the battlefield, immortalized by the image of him in an IDF uniform with
a white bandage wrapped around his wounded forehead, earned him the
title, “Arik, King of Israel.”
He
was equally fearless in the political arena, where he was the father of
two parties, Likud and Kadima. As defense minister in 1982, he oversaw
the Lebanon War before he was ousted from office in 1983 as a result of
the Sabra and Shatilla massacre for which the Kahn Commission of Inquiry
found him indirectly responsible.
But
he returned to politics. As construction and housing minister from 1990
to 1992, he was responsible for a massive building effort of 144,000
apartments to house the flood of Russian-speaking immigrants from the
former Soviet Union bloc. As the father of the settlement movement, he
was also instrumental in building thousands of homes in Judea and
Samaria and is famous for urging right-wing activists “to run for the
hilltops.”
He
rose to the post of foreign minister in 1998. In September 2000, as the
head of the Likud party, his walk on the Temple Mount was cited by
Palestinians as the trigger for the second intifada.
He was elected prime minister in 2001 and under his leadership Israel began to build its security barrier in the West Bank.
He
was famous for the slogan “The fate of Netzarim [a Jewish settlement in
the Gaza Strip] is the fate of Tel Aviv.” But as prime minister, he
formulated and executed the disengagement, in which Israel evacuated 21
Gaza settlements along with another four in northern Samaria. In 2005,
he left the Likud in anger, choosing to create Kadima with Shimon Peres,
Ehud Olmert and Livni.
After his stroke, Kadima went on to win the 2006 election under Olmert’s leadership.
