Sharon, Ariel

Israeli right-wing Likud politician, prime minister 2001–06. Initially a soldier, he left the army in 1973 to help found the Likud party with Menachem Begin. He was elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in 1977 and held a succession of influential posts. A leading member of the staunchly nationalist new right, he took over Likud's leadership from Binyamin Netanyahu after the party's defeat in the 1999 general election. His electoral victory over Labour's Ehud Barak in February 2001 endangered the Israel–Palestine peace process, as it was his controversial visit to Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) in September 2000 that precipitated a second Palestinian intifada (uprising). In January 2006, shortly before a general election, Sharon suffered a massive stroke and entered a permanent coma. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, took over as party leader and prime minister.

Sharon formed a coalition government with the Labour Party in 2001 and took a hardline approach, vowing he would not budge in any future negotiations with Palestine over the status of Jerusalem, which he pledged would remain ‘whole and united’ under Israeli sovereignty. In March 2002, in retaliation against suicide bombings by Palestinian extremists, he launched operation ‘Defensive Wall’, building a security barrier around the West Bank. He also declared that all leaders of the Palestinian extremists were targets for assassination and during 2003–04 a number were killed by Israeli forces.

But this forceful approach was met by further suicide bombings against Israeli targets and from November 2003 Sharon began to pursue a new strategy of unilateral withdrawal from parts of the occupied territories, culminating in the expulsion of Jewish settlers and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005. Sharon's motivation was to freeze the peace process, which was being driven by a US-developed ‘road map’, and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state until the Palestinian leadership had abandoned violence and terrorism. This ‘disengagement plan’ was popular with Israeli voters, but split the Likud party. In November 2005, ahead of a general election set for March 2006, Sharon resigned as Likud leader and formed a new party Kadima.