Ariel Sharon : a life /

As of this writing, Ariel Sharon remains comatose; his physical condition has recently deteriorated, and there is no possibility of his resuming his public career. So, as Israel struggles to cope with threats from Hamas on its west, Hezbollah on its north, and Iran on its east, it is pertinent to examine the career of the charismatic Israeli warrior and politician who struggled mightily to ensure the security of the state of Israel and its citizens. Hefez is a newspaper editor and serves as a captain in the Israel Defense Forces reserves; Bloom is also a newspaper editor and an investigative journalist. They view Sharon, justifiably, as a giant figure on the political and military scene who has had an enormous effect on events for decades. But this is far from a hagiography. Sharon is shown here as possessing immense physical courage and willingness to act boldly (or recklessly) as both a military and political leader. As a soldier, he showed great devotion to his men, and that devotion was usually reciprocated. But Sharon often acted like a bull in a china shop, taking dangerous gambles that often proved disastrous, and he routinely ignored the instructions of his superiors. He displayed a lust for power and a willingness to bend the truth in that pursuit. It is too early for the verdict of history to be rendered upon Sharon, but this revealing and engrossing biography adds a great deal to our understanding of the man. --Jay Freeman Copyright 2006 Booklist

Ariel Sharon played a massive role in the modern history of Israel as a courageous soldier in the War of Independence, a military leader in successive campaigns, a key member of conservative governments, and, finally, prime minister. He was often controversial and shocked his country when in 2003 he advocated withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank after decades of encouraging settlement. Israeli journalists Hefez and Bloom (editor in chief and managing editor, respectively, Yediot Tiksohret) have compiled a detailed narrative of this central figure in the creation and growth of Israel, a man whose military courage and political opportunism helped secure Israel's survival but whose stubbornness and preference for military solutions obstructed real progress toward peace and stable borders. They explain his long public service as shaped by his physical bravery, resilience, unpredictability, willingness to challenge convention, and ability to change his positions. This comprehensive overview (which includes details on his massive stroke suffered this January) stimulates respect for his strengths but also regret that neither he nor other Israeli leaders were farsighted enough to combine their desire for security with understanding of Palestinian needs. This volume will be a useful addition to collections on the Middle East conflict. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/06.] Elizabeth R. Hayford, Associated Colls. of the Midwest (retired), Evanston, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

An admiring, if critical, life of the Israeli warrior/politician. When Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke in January 2006, he "cast Israel's future in a nebulous light." So write Hefez and Bloom, editors of the Israeli weekly newspaper Yedioth Tikshoret, in this study of a man widely reviled and widely honored both at home and abroad. The point is well taken, for Sharon had just engineered what seemed an impossibility: the removal of unauthorized Israeli enclaves in Gaza and the West Bank after having been "the greatest proponent of Jewish settlement in the occupied territories." The equivocation was characteristic of Sharon, the authors assert; the man--born Arik Scheinerman and given his Hebrew nom de guerre by David Ben-Gurion--himself had long opposed the creation of a Palestinian state and then endorsed it, had favored massive retaliation against Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War but rejected it in the second, had long held out against the withdrawal from the West Bank and then ordered that very thing. What Sharon's legacy will be is anyone's guess, but he will likely be remembered for the creation of the right-wing Likud Party, which has dominated Israeli politics for many years. Hefez and Bloom's account of the strange-bedfellow rivalries across and within party lines is fascinating: the long rivalries among Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin, Ehud Olmert and Sharon over the years make it seem a miracle that any unified act has ever come out of the Knesset. Sharon's late move to the center, the authors suggest, was heartfelt and not the result of political calculation; even though its coincidence with Colin Powell's lobbying for moderation vis-à-vis the Palestinians after 9/11 is interesting, the shift may owe most to Sharon's desire "to change his entry in the annals of history from warmonger to peacemaker." Peacemakers are rare in the Middle East today, and this well-written biography is thus particularly timely. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.