Arik - The Life Of Ariel Sharon

by David Landau

  Oct. 7 in, 3.1, 3.2

  Oct. 8 in

  Oct. 9–14 in

  Oct. 15–16 in, 3.1, 3.2

  peace efforts after, 4.1, 4.2

  trauma of, 5.1, 6.1, 13.1

  “war council on the dunes” in

  “war of the generals” in, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 4.2

  Yosef, Rabbi Ovadia, 12.1, 12.2, 14.1, 17.1

  Zahala, 1.1, 2.1

  Zamir, Zvi, 3.1, 3.2

  Ze’evi, Rehavam “Gandhi,” 1.1, 9.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3

  Zeira, Eli, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2n

  Zimmerman, Lily, see Sharon, Lily Zimmerman

  Zimmerman, Margalit, see Sharon, Margalit Zimmerman

  Zinni, Tony, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 15.1n

  Zion, Mount

  Zionism, 5.1, 7.1, 8.1, 9.1, 10.1, 12.1, 12.2, 15.1, 15.2, 16.1n, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 17.5

  “making the desert bloom” and

  as racism

  settlement policy and, 2.1, 5.1

  Zionist General Council

  Zionist Labor movement

  Zionist Left

  Zippori, Mordechai, 1.1, 2.1, 5.1

  ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

  ill.1 Mordechai Scheinerman: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.2 Arik and Dita: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.3 Farmyard: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.4 Family portrait: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.5 Avigail: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.6 No annexation: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.7 At the beach: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.9 Seder night: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.8 Miriam and Dita: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.10 Young Sharon: courtesy of Natana Levine

  ill.11 Neck-deep in fighting”: January 1948. Israel Defense Forces and Defense Establishment Archives (IDF Archives)

  ill.12 Meir Har-Zion : IDF Archives, Assaf Kutin.

  ill.13 “Hostile takeover”: IDF Archives, Avraham Vered

  ill.14 Moshe Dayan : Israel Government Press Office (IGPO)

  ill.15 “Ate from the same mess-tin”: IDF Archives, Avraham Vered

  ill.16 Rehavam Ze’evi and Arik: IDF Archives, Avraham Vered

  ill.17 David Ben-Gurion: IDF Archives, Avraham Vered

  ill.18 Gur, Arik, Lily and Vera: IDF Archives, Avraham Vered. Courtesy of Gilad Sharon

  ill.19 May 1967: IDF Archives

  ill.20 Yael Dayan: IDF Archives, Amos Zucker

  ill.21 Generals Tal, Sharon, Gavish, Yoffe: IDF Archives

  ill.22 Arik and Ze’evi: IDF Archives

  ill.23 Arik and Omri: IPPA photo archive

  ill.24 Haim Bar-Lev and Dayan: IDF Archives, Giora Gera

  ill.25 General Yoffe: IGPO

  ill.26 Not up to the job: IPPA photo archive

  ill.27 Colonel Amnon Reshef: IDF Archives, Eli Chen

  ill.28 October 8: IDF Archives, Shlomo Arad

  ill.29 Tanks: IDF Archives

  ill.30 Amphibious bridging tugs: Shlomo Arad

  ill.31 Bar-Lev: IGPO, Yossi Greenberg

  ill.32 M-113 armored personnel carrier: IDF Archives

  ill.33 Rolling bridge: IDF Archives, IDF Spokesman

  ill.34 Dayan and Abrasha Tamir: IDF Archives

  ill.35 Yaffa Yarkoni: Isaac Shokal

  ill.36 “King of Israel”: IGPO, Moshe Milner

  ill.37 Rabin: Uzi Keren, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.38 Ministerial repast: Israel Sun, Israel Simyonski

  ill.39 Anwar Sadat: Israel Sun

  ill.40 Begin, Burg, and Katzover: IGPO, Chanania Herman

  ill.41 Hebron Hills: IDF Archives

  ill.42 Near the Canal: IDF Archives

  ill.43 With his defense minister: IGPO, Nati Harnik

  ill.44 Sa’ad Hadad: IDF Archives

  ill.45 Begin and Hadad: IDF Archives, IDF Spokesman

  ill.46 Beaufort: IDF Archives, Ministry of Defense

  ill.47 Lebanon, June 1982: Shlomo Arad

  ill.48 Yitzhak Shamir and Mordechai Zipori: IDF Archives, IDF Spokesman

  ill.49 Rabin, Eitan, Tamir; IDF Archives, Uri Dan

  ill.50 Bashir Gemayel: IDF and Defense Establishment Archives, Uri Dan

  ill.51 Arik and Raful: IDF Archives

  ill.51 Arik and Raful: IDF Archives

  ill.52 Honor guard: Uzi Keren, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.53 Protesters: Uzi Keren, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.54 With unfurled maps: Israel Sun

  ill.55 Yisrael Katz: Moshe Shai

  ill.56 Lily: IGPO, Nati Harnik

  ill.57 Druze feast: Leon Minster, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.58 Arik, Modai, and Levy: Moshe Shai

  ill.59 “Night of the Microphones”: Moshe Shai

  ill.61 Minister of Housing: Israel Sun, Ilan Ossendryver

  ill.62 From Russia: Israel Sun, Ilan Ossendryver

  ill.63 Sycamore Ranch soiree: Micky Kratzman, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.64 Election night, 1992: Micky Kratzman, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.65 King Hussein: IGPO, Amos Ben Gershom

  ill.66 Netanyahu: IGPO, Ya’acov Sa’ar

  ill.67 Yonatan: Moshe Shai

  ill.68 Ehud Barak: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.69 Temple Mount: AFP/Getty images

  ill.70 Reuven Adler: Nir Kedar, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.71 Uri Dan, Cyril Kern, Arie Genger: David Rubinger

  ill.72 Coalition: IGPO, Amos Ben Gershom

  ill.73 Marit Danon: IGPO, Moshe Milner

  ill.74 Mayor Giuliani: IGPO, Amos Ben Gershom

  ill.75 Shaul Mofaz and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer: IGPO, Moshe Milner

  ill.76 “Teaching you where the fish pees from”: Amos Biderman, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.77 Bus-bombing: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.78 Dov Weissglas: Lior Mizrachi, Baubau Agency, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.79 “Arik and I, I and Arik.”: Israel Sun

  ill.80 Michal Modai: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.81 Comfortable, confident, enjoying the job: Baubau Agency, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.82 Oval Office: IGPO, Moshe Milner

  ill.83 Aqaba, June 2003: Israel Sun, Ariel Jerozolimski

  ill.84 “The president liked Sharon”: Alon Ron, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.85 Mahmoud Abbas: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.86 Peace diplomacy cartoon: Eran Wolkowski, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.87 Rotem: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.88 Yitzchak David Grossman: IGPO, Amos Ben Gershom

  ill.89 Naomi Blumenthal: Pavel Wohlberg, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.90 Dan Halutz and Moshe Ya’alon: Reuters

  ill.91 Omri: Lior Mizrachi, Baubau Agency, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.92 Tommy Lapid: Lior Mizrachi, Baubau Agency, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.93 Festival of Tabernacles: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.94 Atzmona: IGPO, Amos Ben Gershom

  ill.95 Crawford, Texas: IGPO, Avi Ohayon

  ill.96 Disengagement: IGPO, Mark Neyman

  ill.97 Kfar Darom: IGPO, Yossi Zamir

  ill.98 Hannuka: Lior Mizrachi, Baubau Agency, Haaretz Newspaper Archives ©

  ill.99 Omri goes to jail: Israel Sun, Kfir Sivan

  PERMISSION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

  Greenhill Books: Excerpt from The War of Atonement by Chaim Herzog. Copyright © 1975 by Chaim Herzog. Reprinted by permission of Greenhill Books as administered by Pen & Sword Books.

  The Orion Publishing Group: Excerpt from Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life by Moshe Dayan. Copyright © 1976 by Moshe Dayan. Reprinted by permission of The Orion Publishing Group.

  Penguin Books Ltd.: Excerpt from Elusive Peace: How the Holy Land Defeated America by Ahron Bregman. Copyright © 2005 by Ahron Bregman and
Brook Lapping Productions Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.

  Random House LLC: Excerpt from On the Banks of the Suez: An Israeli General’s Personal Account of the Yom Kippur War by Avraham Adan. Translation copyright © 1980 by Presidio Press. Reprinted by permission of Presidio Press, an imprint of The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

  Simon & Schuster, Inc.: Excerpt from Warrior: An Autobiography of Ariel Sharon with David Chanoff. Copyright © 1999, 2001 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  A Note About the Author

  David Landau immigrated to Israel from the United Kingdom as a young man. His career in journalism began in 1970 at The Jerusalem Post, and he joined Haaretz in 1993 as news editor. He founded of Haaretz’s English edition and was its editor from 1997 to 2004, and was editor in chief of Haaretz’s Hebrew edition until 2008. He is the longtime Israel correspondent for The Economist. Landau collaborated with Israel’s president Shimon Peres on Peres’ memoir, Battling for Peace, and he published, with President Peres, Ben-Gurion: A Political Life. He is also the author of Piety and Power, an account of the increasingly significant role the ultra-orthodox (haredi) play in Israel, the United States, and Europe. Landau graduated with a degree in law from University College London and studied in leading yeshivas in Israel. He is married with children and grandchildren and lives in Jerusalem.

  For more information, please visit www.aaknopf.com

  Illustrations

  Mayflower man: Grandfather Mordechai Scheinerman (illustration credit ill.1)

  A nicer childhood than he admitted to: Arik (left) and his sister, Dita, in Kfar Malal in 1933 (illustration credit ill.2)

  Busy farmyard (illustration credit ill.3)

  Family portrait to send home to Russia? Father Samuil and Mother Vera with Arik, Dita, and Vera’s brother, Joseph (illustration credit ill.4)

  Fussily turned out: with Avigail, Samuil’s sister (illustration credit ill.5)

  Defending the property: no annexation here (illustration credit ill.6)

  Rare respite: Samuil with his two children at the Tel Aviv beach (illustration credit ill.7)

  Stories from Petrograd: with Miriam and Dita (illustration credit ill.8)

  Seder night at the Scheinermans, 1935: bare boards but fine wine. Left to right: Aunt Avigail with cousin Natana, Uncle Sholem with Arik, Vera with Dita, Grandmother Miriam, Samuil. (illustration credit ill.9)

  A plump, clear-eyed boy, 1937 (illustration credit ill.10)

  “Neck-deep in it and fighting”: January 1948 (illustration credit ill.11)

  Reprisal operation: with “Israel’s finest soldier,” Meir Har-Zion, April 1954 (illustration credit ill.12)

  Spirit of 101: “hostile takeover” of the paratroopers (illustration credit ill.13)

  “Awarding wings” to Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, 1955: a complicated lifelong relationship (illustration credit ill.14)

  “Ate from the same mess tin”: Sinai War, October 1956 (illustration credit ill.15)

  At the Mitle Pass, October 31, 1956. Rehavam Ze’evi (center) warns; Arik (left) laughs. Who directed the pointless battle that followed? (illustration credit ill.16)

  Special affection: with David Ben-Gurion in 1957 (illustration credit ill.17)

  “He really was a lovely boy.” Gur with Arik, Lily, and Vera, December 1963. (illustration credit ill.18)

  May 1967: digging in on the Egyptian border (illustration credit ill.19)

  With Yael Dayan, war correspondent, legend debunker (illustration credit ill.20)

  The Six-Day War winning team, June 1967: Generals Tal, Sharon, Gavish, and Yoffe. (illustration credit ill.21)

  On our side? Arik and Ze’evi pray together with Chief Chaplain Shlomo Goren, March 1968. An IDF reprisal force was pinned down across the Jordan border. (illustration credit ill.22)

  Bereaved father, bereaved brother: Arik with Omri, May 1968 (illustration credit ill.23)

  With Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev (left) and Dayan (right) on the Suez Canal. Israel’s initial defenses were “amateurish.” (illustration credit ill.24)

  “I really like the Bedouin.” With General Avraham Yoffe, visiting Negev neighbors. (illustration credit ill.25)

  Not up to the job: transferring Southern Command to General Shmuel Gonen, July 1973 (illustration credit ill.26)

  “The situation was catastrophic. He was focused, businesslike, constructive.” With Colonel Amnon Reshef at the start of the Yom Kippur War, October 1973. (illustration credit ill.27)

  October 8: Gonen tracks Arik down in the desert (illustration credit ill.28)

  Grappling with the monster. Tanks drag the 180-meter-long rolling bridge toward the canal. (illustration credit ill.29)

  Amphibious bridging tugs put the first Israeli tanks across (illustration credit ill.30)

  On the dunes with Haim Bar-Lev, October 17. “I kept myself from hitting him.” (illustration credit ill.31)

  Command vehicle: M113 armored personnel carrier (illustration credit ill.32)

  Monster in place: the rolling bridge viewed from the Israeli side of the canal (illustration credit ill.33)

  With Dayan and Abrasha Tamir (top right). The superficial head wound dealt his rivals a mortal blow in the race for glory (illustration credit ill.34)

  With iconic wartime singer Yafa Yarkoni, in “Africa,” days after the canal crossing (illustration credit ill.35)

  “King of Israel”: reservists of the 143rd Division after the cease-fire (illustration credit ill.36)

  Together, in lockstep, for decades: with Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister, 1976 (illustration credit ill.37)

  Ministerial repast, 1978; lifelong yearning for falafel (illustration credit ill.38)

  “Aha, it’s you.” Egyptian president and peacemaker Anwar Sadat. (illustration credit ill.39)

  “A large Jewish settlement will surely arise near Nablus.” February 1981: the minister of agriculture and chairman of the cabinet settlement committee shows Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Interior Minister (and Palestinian autonomy negotiator) Yosef Burg (directly behind Begin) the site of Elon Moreh. Right, Gush Emunim leader Benny Katzover. (illustration credit ill.40)

  November 1981: now minister of defense, with young settlers at Maon in the Hebron hills (illustration credit ill.41)

  Going over the ground: with Egyptian officers near the canal during an official visit as defense minister (illustration credit ill.42)

  In pain, but in control: Begin with his defense minister, March 1982 (illustration credit ill.43)

  Guard of honor: with South Lebanese army commander Sa’ad Hadad (illustration credit ill.44)

  Allies at war: Begin and Hadad, June 7, 1982 (illustration credit ill.45)

  Costly conquest: Beaufort, June 7, 1982 (illustration credit ill.46)

  King again? With IDF reservists in Lebanon, June 1982. (illustration credit ill.47)

  “Those who say he duped us and misled us are simply distorting.” Cabinet briefing in Lebanon, June 21, 1982. Yitzhak Shamir, foreign minister, in the foreground. Behind him, Mordechai Zippori, general turned minister, a persistent critic of the war. (illustration credit ill.48)

  Rabin (second from right), still supportive: August 1982, near Beirut. Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan is on the left; General Abrasha Tamir is in the center. (illustration credit ill.49)

  With Lebanese presidential candidate Bashir Gemayel at his headquarters near Beirut, August 1982: collusion now, peace later (illustration credit ill.50)

  September 15, 1982, the day before the massacre: Arik and Raful at the IDF command post on a rooftop overlooking Sabra and Shatila (illustration credit ill.51)

  Honor guard for dishonorable departure: February 1983, leaving the Ministry of Defense (illustration credit ill.52)

  Arik’s courtroom victory in New York over Time magazine was not unanimously welcomed back home. (illustration credit ill.53)

  Made his mark on
the geography: with unfurled maps in 1984 (illustration credit ill.54)

  “Let me help you build a camp”: with political adviser Yisrael Katz in 1985, starting the hard climb back up the greasy pole (illustration credit ill.55)

  With Lily at a Likud Party meeting, 1986: “by her husband’s side through every one of his battles” (illustration credit ill.56)

  Guest of honor at a Druze feast (illustration credit ill.57)

  The “constrainers”: left to right: Arik, Yitzhak Modai, David Levy. (Behind Arik is Ehud Olmert.) (illustration credit ill.58)

  “Who is in favor of eliminating terror?” Tel Aviv, February 1990, “Night of the Microphones.” (illustration credit ill.59)