Ariel Sharon Has Died.

Well technically Ariel Sharon died of a stroke in 2006. This is more a case of his vital organs decomposing to the point that they can no longer be sustained by machine. However to say that Sharon was a central and divisive character in middle-eastern politics is an understatement.

Born in 1928 in Palestine at 14 years old Ariel Sharon joined Haganah which alongside groups like Irgun and the Lehi formed the Jewish Resistance Movement. This was a paramilitary group that set about and succeeded in expelling British forces from Palestine through a campaign of terrorist bombing and assassination. Most notable amongst their attacks were the bombing and sinking of the Patria ocean liner that killed 260 civilians and the assassination of Lord Moyne the British Minister of State for the middle-east.

Following the expulsion of the British the Jewish Resistance Movement became the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Sharon one of its commanders. During what is described as the "Israeli War of Independence" by Israelis but the "1948 Arab-Israeli War" by those who see it as a mere extension of Jewish attempts to purge Arabs from Palestine Sharon was promoted to commander of the Alexandroni Brigade which fought some of the fiercest battles of the war. Having earned a reputation as a tough, brave and highly aggressive soldier who was seriously wounded several times following the war Sharon was promoted to commander of the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance company and later to an intelligence officer at the IDF's central command.

In 1952 Sharon set up and headed the infamous Special Forces Unit 101. This was a commando force set up specifically to mount attacks against civilians in Syria, Jordan and Egypt in retaliation to attacks by Palestinian militias. The most controversial Unit 101 operation was Operation Shoshana which took place in October 1953 and saw Israeli troops commanded on the ground by Sharon blow up 45 house, a school and Mosque which were all occupied at the time. 69 Palestinian civilians were killed of which 46 were women and children. What became known as the Qibya massacre was at the time condemned by both the US State Department who described the incident as shocking and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) who passed Resolution 101/1953 which expressed the strongest possible censure.

Partly in response to the Qibya massacre Unit 101 was merged into the paratroop regiments of the IDF but Sharon remained as a commanding officer. In 1956 Sharon was the field commander of paratroop Unit 202 which invaded Egypt to seize a seemingly pointless patch of desert just east of Sinai's Mitla Pass. This was the first act of "Operation Musketeer" which Israel had concocted with France and British Prime Minister Anthony Eden to give Britain a pre-text to seize the Suez Canal and prevent Egyptian President Gamal Nasser from nationalising it for the good of the Egyptian people. This was known at the time as "The Suez Crisis."

In June 1967 Israel used the build up of Egyptian forces in the Sinai as a pre-text to launch a pre-emptive war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan which became known as either "The Six Day War" or "The 1967 Arab-Israeli War." In six days of lightning conflict Israel overwhelmed the opposition seizing large swathes of territory most notably east-Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine and the Golan Heights in Syria. Technically this war between Israel and Syria is still going on today. Key to Israel's success was their defeat of Egyptian forces at the battle of Abu-Ageila which prevented Egyptian tanks rolling across the Sinai. Israeli forces on the Sinai front were commanded by Ariel Sharon.

On October 6th 1973 Egyptian and Syrian forces used the Jewish day of Atonement to launch a surprise attack on Israel which is know by some as "The Yom Kippur War" or "The 1973 Arab-Israeli War." With almost their entire armed forces at home on leave for the Jewish equivalent of Christmas holidays this war very nearly succeeded in wiping Israel off the map. What is largely seen as key to Israel's victory is the way that a division of tanks commanded by Ariel Sharon broke through Egyptian lines at the Telsa corridor before defying orders to cross the Suez Canal to encircle Egypt's Third Army. For that Sharon is regarded by many Israelis as the saviour of the nation.

Buoyed by his success in the 1973 war Sharon entered politics as a member of the Likud Party and special aide to the then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Sharon quickly aligned himself with extreme-Zinonist wing of the party which frequently advocates the expulsion and even extermination of Palestinians in order to build a wider Jewish state. Sharon himself said in 1956 that he advocated his troops raping Arab women because they are slaves of the Jews and with the blessing of god it would force them to give birth to Jewish children. However this quote is hotly disputed by supporters of Sharon.

In 1981 Prime Minister Menachem Begin appointed Sharon as Israel's Minister of Defence. It was from this position that Sharon masterminded the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Officially this was done in response to attacks against Israel by groups based in Lebanon such as the attempted assassination of Israel's Ambassador to the UK Shlomo Argov. Unofficially though it was to expel Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Lebanon where they enjoyed support from Syria and install a puppet regime headed by the Christian Bashir Gemayel. This was a particularly brutal war and although Israeli troops finally withdrew in 1985 the conflict continued as a civil war until 1990.

Perhaps the most horrific incident of what is now known as "The First Israel-Lebanon War" came in the days following the September 14th (14/9/82) assassination of Bashir Geyamel when IDF troops encircled the Sabra and Shatila camps for Palestinian refugees. At dawn on September 16th (16/9/82) those IDF troops allowed - and some say assisted - Geyamel's Phalange militia to enter the camps to extract their brutal revenge. Over the next two days and under the full view of the IDF the Phalangists proceeded to massacre some 3,500 civilians in scenes that were reminiscent of the Nazi holocaust. It was only after Ariel Sharon personally was no longer able to pretend that he did not know what was going on that the slaughter was finally brought to a halt. The events of the Sabra and Shatila massacre and the wider Israeli invasion are examined in great detail in very good Israeli animated film called "Waltz With Bashir."

To their credit the Israelis themselves found Ariel Sharon to be indirectly but personally responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre through the Kahan Commission which led to Sharon being sacked from government all but ending his political career.

However on September 28th 2000 (28/9/00) Sharon marched into the al-Asqa Mosque complex on the Jerusalem's Temple Mount declaring that it was his basic right as a Jew and this holiest of Muslim sites would forever be under Jewish control. This caused so much anger amongst Palestinians that is almost single-handedly sparked the second (or al-Asqa) Intifada which saw some 3000 people killed. Riding the wave of anti-Palestinian feeling that the Intifada created Sharon managed to come back from the political wilderness and was elected Israeli Prime Minister in March 2001.

No doubt coming under extreme pressure from the US and the European Union (EU) due to his involvement in Sabra and Shatila Sharon adopted the 2002 Roadmap for Peace. As part of the Roadmap in 2004 Sharon ordered the eviction of Jewish settlers and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. This offended many in Sharon's Likud Party so Sharon simply went off and formed the rival Kadima Party. Leading in the polls Sharon was widely expected to win a second term as Prime Minister when he was suffered a stroke in 2006  and much like his predecessor Yitzhak Rabin was struck down seemingly on the verge of signing an historic peace deal with Palestinians.

So there you have it Ariel Sharon - a hero to some but a butcher to many. The scary bit is that the way things are going in Syria Israel may well need his ilk again.

17:20 on 11/1/14 (UK date).