Sharon: The Life of a Leader [Hardcover]

Gilad Sharon (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 25, 2011

Drawn from extensive personal archives and filled withstartling revelations, the definitive biography of Ariel Sharon illuminates hislife and work from the penetrating perspective of his youngest son, Gilad Sharon—one of his father’s closest confidants.Readers of George W. Bush’s Decision Points, Tony Blair’s A Journey,Yitzhak Rabin’s The Rabin Memoirs, and Moshe Dayan’s Story of My Life,as well as Benjamin Netanyahu’s A Durable Peace, will be fascinated by Gilad Sharon’s piercing, authoritative, and intimateportrait of Ariel Sharon the Prime Minister, the father, and the military hero,in a narrative that traces his evolution into a powerful and influential forceat the center of Middle Eastern and world politics.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A multifaceted picture of an Israeli patriot, military leader, and family man.” (Kirkus)

“Surprising reading. . . . The biography vividly delineates the qualities a leader needs to excel today.” (Publishers Weekly)

From the Back Cover

By the son and intimate confidant of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon comes an unparalleled look at the life and work of one of the world’s most powerful leaders. “A multifaceted picture of an Israeli patriot, military leader, and family man” (Kirkus Reviews).

From his youth as a soldier to his service in government, Ariel Sharon has personified Israel’s unyielding drive for security. He revolutionized the Israel Defense Forces and established the anti-terror commando Unit 101. His leadership during the Six-Day and Yom Kippur wars made him a national hero and propelled him into the political arena. As terror grew throughout the Middle East at the end of the twentieth century, Sharon’s commitment to protect and bring peace to his people underscored his election to prime minister in 2001. But within months of taking office, the 9/11 attacks shook the Western world—thrusting the controversial statesman into the center of international affairs.

Sharon has walked a fine line between waging war on Israel’s enemies and accommodating demanding allies, a balancing act that is often subject to public misperception. As prime minister, he built a fence to separate Israel from the West Bank’s suicide bombers; he isolated Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters; and in a stunning and unprecedented move, he withdrew Israel’s settlements from Gaza. Throughout his life but especially as prime minister, Sharon kept a meticulous personal record of events and of the discussionshe had with world leaders, including George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin, King Abdullah, Kofi Annan, Gerhard Schroeder, Jacques Chirac, Hosni Mubarak, Mahmoud Abbas, and others. But what the public knew of these interactions often differed dramatically from what went on in private.

Gilad Sharon, the prime minister’s youngest son and close confidant, has combed through his father’s vast archive—conversations, personal notes, diaries, daybooks, military directives, correspondence, and thousands of other documents—to offer a rare, intimate, and compelling look at one man’s evolution into one of the world’s most powerful and influential figures. Filled with news-making revelations, Sharon provides a rare view of global politics in action as well as a window onto the day-to-day life of a prime minister. A dazzling portrait of a legendary elder statesman and the nation he helped to build, here is a masterful biography and an illuminating analysis of modern Middle Eastern politics and the forces that have shaped this volatile region.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Harper (October 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061721506
• ISBN-13: 978-0061721502
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #783,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ariel Sharon: Israel November 1, 2011

By William Garrison Jr. VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

[Ariel] "Sharon: The Life of a Leader" by his youngest son, Gilad Sharon, hardback & paperback, (Oct. 2011). My review is not meant to be a biography of the subject of this book: Ariel Sharon. Ariel was a `big man': physically, militarily & politically. For those who may be unfamiliar with Ariel, his life mirrored the military and political history of the state of Israel a decade even before its birth in 1948. Ariel served in the budding Israel Defense Force, led `retaliation' raids against Palestinian terrorists hiding in the Jordan-dominated West Bank, commanded various military units in all of its wars, and eventually becoming its Prime Minister. Again, a `Big Man'. [There are those Arabs who hate him for what he believed in, and, thereby, will rate BOTH my review and the book as a bad one-* or `no'. But, be fair, is my review really `bad' just because I review a book and report that the book is really worth reading to gain a better understanding of an Israeli leader?] But to the book itself, it is written by his youngest son, Gilad, who was about the age of 44 when he finished this book, so he didn't really `know' his father for almost half of Ariel's life - which brings us to how this book came about. The author, Gilad, noted that his father was, what we would call today, a `pack rat' in keeping the many letters, notebooks and documents that Ariel accumulated during his life (okay, to be charitable, an `archivist'). {Somewhere in Ariel's collection is a yellowing letter from myself requesting him to autograph several Israeli FDCs that I had mailed to him; after several months his secretary mailed the FDCs back to me - unsigned -- admittedly, to my disappointment.} From these `in house' family documents, Gilad expanded insights into both his father's character and purpose as an ardent Israeli nationalist. Especially how Ariel promoted the development of over one hundred Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, the West Bank and in the Negev - all in an attempt to establish a better, defensible `security zone' for Israel. From these documents, and meetings with various world leaders who politicked with Ariel, Gilad has written a book worthy of attention to anyone interested in Israeli `statehood' history. [Perhaps the most controversial incident of Ariel's career was the murders of Muslims in the Sabra & Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon that were committed by revengeful Phalangists. Gilad wrote about this incident in several brief pages, whereby he notes that while the Kahan Commission found that "the Phalangists bore direct responsibility for their murderous acts" the Commission found that Ariel as Defense Minister had an "indirect responsibility" for the incident, and thereby, should resign - which he did. Gilad analyzes this topic in about five brief pages, in which he argues that as his father was not responsible for the incident, he should not be held accountable for the Phalangists' actions (p. 293-298). Regarding this massacre, Gilad noted how Ariel did win a libel suit against Time magazine for alleging that Ariel had urged the Pahlangists to take revenge on the [Sabra-Shatila] Palestinians for the murder of Bachir Gemayel (p. 298-300). Then the history of Ariel's election an Prime Minister, and then his cripling stroke. So much history, a fine biography from a proudly defensive son. 625 pages, but so much more could have been written. Lots of new insights regarding the military and political disputes amongst Israeli generals during the 1973 war as to how it should be fought.]

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Israel, seen through the father by a son December 4, 2011

By N. Ravitch

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Less a biography of a prominent and controversial Israeli leader than an attempt by a son to show his father in a favorable light, and even more a general defense of the Zionist state, this volume does succeed. General and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon emerges as just the strong but compassionate leader Israel needed, needs, and unfortunately has lost for good. He now lies in a vegetative state. One wonders why he is not allowed to die in peace.

Sharon's son Gilad shows his father to be brave, resolute, and far-sighted in the face of Arab hostility and treachery and European disingenuousness about Zionism.

Arabs have every reason to oppose Zionism since they are prisoners of medieval religiosity and unfulfilled ethnic cravings. Europeans on the other hand, and some Americans, whether out of anti-semitism, guilt for sins of commission and omission towards the Jews, or naive leftist dislike of manly nationalism oppose and close their eyes to the deeds of bloodthirsty Arab terrorists.

This volume presents not only a positive picture of Ariel Sharon; it gives the case for Israeli national determinism to resist and to survive. In my view the position taken by Gilad Sharon is 99% right and justified. Not a great book and not one without repetitions to be avoided it nevertheless makes a splendid case for why and how Israelis may defend their human right to live, prosper, and survive. The civilized world deserves blame and censure that a case for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness HAS TO BE DEFENDED AT ALL BY THIS PEOPLE.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Top class biography March 11, 2012

By David in the USA

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

What a pleasant surprise this book was. Well written, with plenty of primary sources used, including transcripts of telephone conversations between Sharon and Tony Blair, Kofi Annan, etc.

We learn of the world's indifference to the Jewish victims of Arab terrorism, with blithe talk of a "circle of violence" as if Arab terror and Jewish self-defence are morally equivalent.

Lots of interesting insights into Israeli politics, too, and the author does not shy away from giving tough and honest opinions.

A great read: I couldn't put it down.