Israel's 'Lion of God' dead at 85 Ariel Sharon served as 11th prime minister from 2001-2006 January 11, 2013
The “Lion of God” died today at the age of 85.
Ariel Sharon, the 11th prime minister of Israel who served in that capacity from 2001 to 2006, suffered a serious stroke on Jan. 4, 2006, and had been incapacitated since.
But Sharon, whose name, Ariel, means “Lion of God” and was sometimes called “The King of Israel” – or “The Butcher of Beirut,” depending on who was doing the nicknaming – still had loomed large over the nation he was so instrumental in establishing.
Sharon will go down in history as one of Israel’s fiercest military warriors and a longtime hawk on security matters, but he will also be remembered for his controversial evacuation of Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip. To this day Israel continues to feel the devastating security consequences of the Gaza disengagement, which left the Islamist terror group Hamas in control of the border territory.
Aside from the Gaza withdrawal, Sharon was widely considered one of the greatest field commanders and military strategists in Israel’s history – and reviled as one of the worst of villains by Israel’s enemies. Sharon fought in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Suez War, the Six-Day War of 1967, the 1969 War of Attrition, the Yom-Kippur War of 1973, and served as Israel’s minister of defense during the 1982 Lebanon War.
Sharon’s policies both on and off the field of battle lent muscle to the fledgling Israeli state, which was surrounded by enemies on every side, yet survived its formative years no doubt in part because of Sharon. .... .... .... ....
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