Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon: PATRICK MARTIN Sharon: A ruthless enforcer in tune with Israels mood, according to Globe and Mail. Obituary Ariel Sharon, fierce defender of a strong Israel, dies at 85 Ariel Sharon, the hard-charging Israeli general and prime minister who was admired and hated for his battlefield exploits and ambitions to reshape the Middle East, has died, eight years after a stroke that left him in a coma. He was 85. AP Video Video No Israeli leader left behind such a paradoxical legacy as did Ariel Sharon. When Israel expands settlements, it continues the path set by Sharon in the late 1970s and early 80s, when, as minister of agriculture in the first Likud government of Menachem Begin, he built dozens of new West Bank communities. Yet as Israel negotiates an agreement with Palestinians that would inevitably involve uprooting settlements, it is likewise faithful to the legacy of Sharon, the only Israeli leader to dismantle settlements twice, in Sinai in 1982 and then in Gaza in 2005. More Related to this Story MICHAEL BELL For Sharon, a lasting conviction that Israel must survive at any cost (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.