Ariel Sharon : a life / Nir Hefez and Gadi Bloom ; translated from the Hebrew by Mitch Ginsburg.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 487-490).

The battle of Latrun -- Georgian roots -- The outsiders -- An average student -- In uniform -- Love and war -- Unit 101 -- Qibiya -- Commander of the paratroopers -- The tragedy in Qalqilya -- The Mitla trap -- Death comes home -- A second marriage -- Fame at Abu Ageila -- Gur -- Tacit agreement -- Isolating Gaza -- A not-so-honorable discharge -- Founding the Likud -- Shock on Yom Kippur -- Crossing the canal -- King of Israel -- Political rookie -- The Shlomtzion debacle -- Minister of agriculture -- Defense minister -- The road to Lebanon -- Ensnared in Beirut -- Sabra and Shatilla -- Alone on the farm -- Minister of industry and trade -- First intifada -- The night of the microphones -- Minister of housing and infrastructure -- Fall from power -- Blunder in Oslo -- Rabin's assassination -- Back in office -- Minister of national infrastructure -- Foreign minister -- Likud chairman -- Lily -- Opposition leader -- The Temple Mount -- Prime minister -- Policy of restraint -- 9/11 -- Defensive shield -- The road map -- Recession -- Landslide victory -- Police investigations -- Trapping Netanyahu -- From Aqaba to Geneva -- Declaring disengagement -- Referendum blues -- Victory in the Knesset -- Traumatic disengagement -- The big bang -- The last battle.

Presents the life of the former prime minister of Israel, exploring his long military career, rise to political power, dramatic personal life, and his influential approach to maintaining Israel's right to exist in the Middle East.

"Warrior, statesman, peacemaker - few world leaders have had as dramatic and pivotal a life story as Ariel Sharon. And as this new biography shows, perhaps no modern leader's life has been as tightly woven into the history of his nation." "Born in 1928 and raised in spartan circumstances on a kibbutz, Ariel Sharon was taught by his parents to take principled stands and then to plow ahead. And for decades to come Sharon would do just that, forging a life of strength, resilience, and sometimes, according to his detractors, reckless action." "Based on unprecedented access to many of the key players in Sharon's life, hundreds of interviews, and thousands of pages of documents, Ariel Sharon presents a leader who was first and foremost a military man. Sharon fought in Israel's War of Independence (in which he was left for dead on the battlefield); assembled Israel's first special forces brigade, the wild Unit 101; and led the Lebanon War, the most controversial campaign in Israel's history. As a general, he directed military campaigns that are still studied in military academies across the world." "Yet Sharon was also a political animal. This book explores his fraught relationships with prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as with legendary minister of defense Moshe Dayan; his thirty-year championing of the settlement movement in Gaza and the West Bank; and his startling decision to initiate "disengagement," uprooting settlers, destroying settlements, and dividing his country." "Sharon's personal life has been equally tumultuous, as this book recounts - his first wife, Margalit, was killed in a car accident; his eldest son, Gur, wounded by an accidental rifle discharge, died in his arms. His second wife, Lily (Margalit's younger sister), died of cancer, concluding one of the great love stories of Israeli public life. And ultimately came the stroke that felled Sharon, removing him from power at a time when the Israeli people needed his leadership most."