Book review: Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon, by David Landau

by David Landau
Knopf
3 stars
Jack Kelly

Its dust jacket hails Arik as "the first in-depth, comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last 40 years".

Comprehensive it certainly is, and author David Landau's timing is fortuitous. Sharon died on January 11 this year, aged 85. Born on February 26, 1928, in Kfar Malal in central Israel to parents of Russian Jewish descent, Sharon (originally, Scheinerman) joined the Haganah, the underground Jewish army during the British Mandate, at age 14. He fought bravely in the war of independence and joined the Israel Defence Forces after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Sharon remained in the IDF until 1973, rising to the rank of major general. In 1953, he founded and commanded Unit 101, a commando unit charged with launching retaliatory strikes against Palestinian terrorists. He commanded a brigade of paratroopers in the 1956 Arab-Israeli war, and an armoured division in the 1967 war.

Sharon's greatest military triumph came when he took his armoured division across the Suez Canal during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, cutting off the Egyptian Third Army and forcing Egypt to sue for peace.

A national hero as a result of that daring action, Sharon went into politics. He helped found the right-wing Likud Party and became defence minister in the government of Menachem Begin in 1981.