Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon

by David Landau

  In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty, based on the new constitution, as a way station to a permanent status settlement. As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror, willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty. With such a leadership, reformed civil institutions and security structures, the Palestinians will have the active support of the Quartet and the broader international community in establishing an independent, viable, state.

  Progress into Phase II will be based upon the consensus judgment of the Quartet of whether conditions are appropriate to proceed, taking into account performance of both parties … Phase II starts after Palestinian elections and ends with possible creation of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders in 2003…

  • International Conference: Convened by the Quartet, in consultation with the parties, immediately after the successful conclusion of Palestinian elections, to support Palestinian economic recovery and launch a process, leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders.

  • Such a meeting would be inclusive, based on the goal of a comprehensive Middle East peace (including between Israel and Syria, and Israel and Lebanon), and based on the principles described in the preamble to this document.

  • Arab states restore pre-intifada links to Israel (trade offices, etc.).

  • Revival of multilateral engagement on issues including regional water resources, environment, economic development, refugees, and arms control issues…

  • Quartet members promote international recognition of Palestinian state, including possible UN membership.

  Phase III: Permanent Status Agreement and End of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict—2004–2005

  Progress into Phase III, based on consensus judgment of Quartet … Phase III objectives are consolidation of reform and stabilization of Palestinian institutions, sustained, effective Palestinian security performance, and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations aimed at a permanent status agreement in 2005.

  • Second International Conference: Convened by Quartet, in consultation with the parties, at beginning of 2004 … to launch a process with the active, sustained, and operational support of the Quartet, leading to a final, permanent status resolution in 2005, including on borders, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements; and, to support progress toward a comprehensive Middle East settlement between Israel and Lebanon and Israel and Syria, to be achieved as soon as possible.

  • Parties reach final and comprehensive permanent status agreement that ends the Israel-Palestinian conflict in 2005 … includ[ing] an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue, and a negotiated resolution on the status of Jerusalem that takes into account the political and religious concerns of both sides, and protects the religious interests of Jews, Christians, and Muslims worldwide, and fulfills the vision of two states, Israel and sovereign, independent, democratic and viable Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security.

  • Arab state acceptance of full normal relations with Israel and security for all the states of the region in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

  VII

  Agreed Documents on Movement and Access from and to Gaza

  November 15, 2005 (Excerpts)

  Rafah

  Rafah will be opened as soon as it is ready to operate at an international standard in accordance with the specifications of this agreement and as soon as the 3rd party [the European Union] is on site, with a target date of November 25.

  Crossing Points

  The passages will operate continuously. On an urgent basis, Israel will permit the export of all agricultural products from Gaza during this 2005 harvest season. The new and additional scanner will be installed and fully operational by December 31. At that time, the number of export trucks per day to be processed through Karni will reach 150, and 400 by end-2006 … Israel will permit export of agricultural produce from Gaza and will facilitate its speedy exit and onward movement so that quality and freshness can be maintained…

  • The PA will ensure that the passages will be protected on the Palestinian side of the border…

  Link Between Gaza and the West Bank

  Israel will allow the passage of convoys to facilitate the movements of goods and persons. Specifically:

  • Establish bus convoys by December 15.

  • Establish truck convoys by January 15.

  • Work out detailed implementation arrangements in a bilateral committee of the GoI and PA with participation as needed from the Quartet team and the USSC [U.S. Security Coordinator].

  It is understood that security is a prime and continuing concern for Israel and that appropriate arrangements to ensure security will be adopted.

  Movement Within the West Bank

  Consistent with Israel’s security needs, to facilitate movement of people and goods within the West Bank and to minimize disruption to Palestinian lives, the ongoing work between Israel and the U.S. to establish an agreed list of obstacles to movement and develop a plan to reduce them to the maximum extent possible will be accelerated so that the work can be completed by December 31.

  Gaza Seaport

  Construction of a seaport can commence. The GoI will undertake to assure donors that it will not interfere with operation of the port…

  Airport

  The parties agree on the importance of the airport. Discussions will continue on the issues of security arrangements, construction, and operation…

  Third Party

  The 3rd party will have the authority to ensure that the PA complies with all applicable rules and regulations concerning the Rafah crossing point and the terms of this agreement. In case of non-compliance the 3rd party has the authority to order the re-examination and reassessment of any passenger, luggage, vehicle or goods. While the request is being processed, the person, luggage, vehicle or cargo in question will not be allowed to leave the premises of the Rafah crossing point.

  The 3rd party will assist the PA to build capacity—training, equipment and technical assistance—on border management and customs.

  NOTES

  Preface: Land of Hope

  1. Marit Danon interview, Jerusalem, November 2009.

  2. Omri Sharon interview, Tel Aviv, January 2011.

  Chapter 1: Poor Little Fat Boy

  1. Yigal Sarna, “His Childhood,” Hadashot, September 15, 1985.

  2. “Man of the Year,” HaOlam Hazeh, September 24, 1973.

  3. Dahlia Eliashiv interview, Kfar Saba, November 8, 2006.

  4. Yuval Steinitz interview, Jerusalem, April 30, 2008.

  5. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 35.

  6. “Arik Sharon’s Saison,” Haaretz, August 1, 1983.

  7. “It’s All Talk,” Israel Radio, February 8, 1990.

  8. “An Etzel Fighter: Sharon Commanded a Saison Posse.” Arutz Sheva Israel National News, June 28, 2005.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 37.

  11. Mordechai Zippori interview, Karmei Yosef, January 30, 2007.

  12. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 38.

  13. Bregman, Israel’s Wars, 19.

  14. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 44.

  15. Omri Sharon interview, Tel Aviv, December 2010.

  16. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 28.

  17. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 54–58.

  18. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 32.

  19. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 62.

  20. Dan, Ariel Sharon, 13.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Asher Levy interviews, Tel Aviv and Latrun, March 12, 13, 2008.

  23. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 65.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid., 72.

  26. Northern Command, File C/A/3/7, September 1952, Top Secret, IDF Archives.

  27. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 76.

  28. Ibi
d.

  29. Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956, 136, 150.

  30. Benziman, Sharon, 40.

  31. Har-Zion, Chapters of a Diary, 161.

  32. Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life [Hebrew], 114.

  33. Gideon Altschuler interview, Karmei Yosef, February 28, 2007.

  34. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 89.

  35. Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956, 278.

  36. Ibid., 203.

  37. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 91.

  38. Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life [Hebrew], 115.

  39. Ariel Sharon to Chief of Operations, January 5, 1954, IDF Archives.

  40. Altschuler interview.

  41. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 28.

  42. Gilad Harel, “The Azoun Raid,” personal testimony to the Paratroop Brigade book and Web site The First Ten Years; Yitzhak Gibli and Aharon Davidi, interviews in The Sixth Night, a documentary broadcast by Israel Television Channel 2 in June 1996.

  43. Ariel Sharon, “Reprisal Actions: How We Were, and How We Fought” (lecture, Sapir College, March 20, 2003).

  44. Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life [Hebrew], 132.

  45. Ibid., 641.

  46. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 100.

  47. Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 258.

  48. Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life, 173; Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life [Hebrew], 179.

  49. Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956, 312–13.

  50. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 111.

  51. Shmuel Tamir, Son of This Land, 2:1138–39.

  52. Commander of Battalion 890 to Chief of Staff, June 27, 1955, IDF Archives.

  53. Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956, 413.

  54. Ibid., 361–62.

  55. Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 25.

  56. Golani, There Will Be War Next Summer, 235.

  57. Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956, 426.

  58. Peres, Battling for Peace, 113.

  59. Peres, Ben-Gurion, 169.

  60. In There Will Be War Next Summer, Golani writes that Meir Amit, the chief of operations on the General Staff, and Uzi Narkiss, his deputy, were out of the loop and that senior officers in Southern Command—and Sharon, too—were unaware of the political purpose of the parachute drop.

  61. Defense Ministry protocols, cited by Amir Oren, “38 Soldiers Died in Vain. Who Approved? Who Lied?,” Haaretz, October 26, 2006.

  62. Laskov’s report to Dayan, December 4, 1956, cited in Oren, “38 Soldiers Died in Vain.”

  63. Golani, There Will Be War Next Summer, 526–27, citing Ze’evi’s testimony to Laskov. Golani writes, too, that in addition to the tanks and the infantry that Sharon mentions, the “reconnaissance patrol” included a 120-millimeter mortar battery, ammunition trucks, and fuel tanker-trucks. He cites the official war record of Southern Command, which refers to “a belligerent reconnaissance force sent out in the direction of the pass.”

  64. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 147.

  65. Ibid., 150.

  66. Golani, There Will Be War Next Summer, 519.

  67. Ibid.

  68. Dov Tamari interview, Caesarea, March 10, 2007.

  69. Eitan Haber, “Paratroop Brigade 202 Rules the Country,” Yedioth Ahronoth, March 5, 1982.

  70. Nahum Barnea, “Doers, Motta Gur Style,” Koteret Rashit, October 29, 1986.

  71. Yitzhak Navon interview, Jerusalem, June 26, 2007.

  72. Moshe Dayan, Story of My Life, 243.

  73. Shimon Peres interview, Tel Aviv, July 11, 2006.

  74. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 156.

  Chapter 2: Probationer

  1. Yitzhak Navon, personal archives.

  2. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 158.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Peres interview.

  5. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 146.

  6. Benziman, Sharon, 82.

  7. Strangely, that date is inaccurate: the correct date was May 6.

  8. Anonymous interview, Tel Aviv, November 2006.

  9. Sarit Yishai-Levy, Hadashot, September 11, 1988.

  10. Benziman, Sharon, 87.

  11. Rabin, Service Notebook, 1:118.

  12. Ibid., 119–20.

  13. Ehud Barak interview, Tel Aviv, July 23, 2006.

  14. Rabin, Service Notebook, 1:118.

  15. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 179.

  16. Yael Dayan, Soldier’s Diary, 8.

  17. Zippori, In a Straight Line, 150.

  18. Bregman, Israel’s Wars, 68.

  19. Colonel (res.) Ami Gluska, Hebrew University of Jerusalem doctoral thesis, cited in Amir Oren, “IDF Research Paper: Sharon Spoke with Rabin in 1967 About ‘Seizing Power to Take a Decision’ to Go to War,” Haaretz, November 16, 2004; Ami Gluska, Eshkol, Give the Order (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 2004).

  20. Peres, Ben-Gurion, 193.

  21. Ze’ev Schiff, “Surprising Conversations,” Haaretz, June 1, 2007.

  22. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 185.

  23. Bregman, Israel’s Wars, 81; Rabin, Service Notebook, 1:182.

  24. Benziman, Sharon, 95.

  25. Rabin, Service Notebook, 1:188.

  26. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 201.

  27. Nir Mann, “History Doesn’t Repeat Itself,” Yedioth Ahronoth, June 1, 2007.

  28. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 214.

  29. Shmuel Tamir, Son of This Land, 1,411.

  30. Benziman, Sharon, 106.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 189.

  33. Bregman, Israel’s Wars, 93, citing Abdel Magid Farid, secretary-general of the Egyptian presidency, in his Nasser: The Final Years (Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 1994).

  34. Adan, On the Banks of the Suez, 43.

  35. Herzog, War of Atonement, 5–12.

  36. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 202.

  37. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 238.

  38. Ibid., 231.

  39. Ze’ev Schiff, “Argument in Gaza,” Haaretz, March 2, 1972.

  40. Benziman, Sharon, 117.

  41. “Not a Single Minister Proposed Bringing Back the Bedouin,” Maariv, May 5, 1972.

  42. Nadel, Between the Two Wars, 133.

  43. Adan, On the Banks of the Suez, 247.

  44. Herzog, War of Atonement, 22.

  45. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 264.

  46. Hefez and Bloom, Shepherd, 222.

  47. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 271.

  48. Ran Kislev, “He Offered Himself as a Minister,” Haaretz, July 13, 1973.

  49. Dan, Ariel Sharon, 57.

  50. “Sharon Calls for an Alternative Alignment Against the Ruling Alignment of Labor-Mapam,” Maariv, July 18, 1973.

  51. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 266.

  Chapter 3: Desert Storm

  1. Herzog, War of Atonement, 151.

  2. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 269–70.

  3. Ibid., 288.

  4. Argaman, Pale Was the Night, 285. The book is a biography of Dr. Pinhas Sussman, who served as commander of Sharon’s war room during the Yom Kippur War and, two decades later, as director general of the Ministry of Defense when Sharon was prime minister.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 294–95.

  7. “Sharon to the Commission: I Tried to Rescue the Strongpoints,” Haaretz, January 1, 1995.

  8. Bergman and Meltzer, Yom Kippur War, 79.

  9. Protocol: Consultation with the Prime Minister, July 10, 1973, 2:50 p.m.

  10. Bartov, Dado, 2:74; Herzog, War of Atonement, 84, 2:73–74.

  11. Bartov, Dado, 2:74.

  12. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 299.

  13. Bartov, Dado, 2:86.

  14. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 301–2.

  15. Adan, On the Banks of the Suez, 130.

  16. Protocol: Consultation with the Prime Minister, August 10, 1973, 7:50 p.m. Lieutenant General (res.) Haim Bar-Lev and Minister Yigal Allon report on their tour of the fronts.

  17. Ze’ev Schiff, “The Rashomon Effect on October 8,” Haaretz, December 7, 1975.

  18. Yehoshua Saguy interview, Rishon L
ezion, August 30, 2007.

  19. Avraham Tamir interviews, Tel Aviv, August 20, 24, 2006.

  20. Asher Levy interview, Tel Aviv, March 12, 2008.

  21. Protocol: Consultation with the Prime Minister, August 10, 1973, 7:50 p.m.

  22. Protocol: Consultation with the Prime Minister, September 10, 1973, 7:30 a.m.

  23. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 305.

  24. Bergman and Meltzer, Yom Kippur War, 157.

  25. Argaman, Pale Was the Night, 302.

  26. Excerpts from radio recordings; Bergman and Meltzer, Yom Kippur War, 140–50.

  27. Amnon Reshef interviews, Tel Aviv, October 17, 31, 2006.

  28. Herzog, War of Atonement, 194–95.

  29. Bartov, Dado, 2:132.

  30. Benziman, Sharon, 145–47.

  31. Altschuler interview, August 20, 2006.

  32. Tamir interview.

  33. Herzog, War of Atonement, 199.

  34. Gai, Bar-Lev, 258.

  35. Adan, On the Banks of the Suez, 163–65.

  36. Herzog, War of Atonement, 203–6.

  37. Ibid.

  38. “Sharon: A Bit Complicated, but Doable,” tape recordings, Ynet, May 9, 2011.

  39. Herzog, Arab-Israeli Wars, 212.

  40. Reshef interview, October 17, 31, 2006.

  41. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 315–19.

  42. Reshef interview, October 17, 31, 2006.

  43. Bartov, Dado, 2:242–47.

  44. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 325–26.

  45. Jackie Even interviews, Holon, September 21, 25, 2006.

  46. Ariel Sharon, Warrior, 328.

  47. Ibid., 330.

  48. Herzog, War of Atonement, 242.

  49. Schiff, October Earthquake, 226.

  50. Tamir interview, August 20, 2006.

  51. Asher Levy interview, March 12, 2008.

  Chapter 4: Advise and Dissent

  1. Ehud Barak interview, Tel Aviv, July 2006.

  2. Bar-Lev had demobilized by then and returned to his ministry desk, and so his interview, the army explained, unlike Sharon’s, was not an infringement of the rules. The author, then a young writer on The Jerusalem Post, derided this distinction in an article headlined “Why Criticize Sharon and Not Bar-Lev?”