Israel - Rise to power



Sharon's uneven rise to political power is in large part the story of his military career. After retiring from the IDF, he and his family settled on their farm in Negev. From there he founded the right-wing Likud which would become a significant political force for the remainder of the twentieth century. He planned to run for the Knesset, but then he was recalled to service in the military when the 1973 Yom Kippur War broke out on 6 October. The costly successes of his Armored Reserve Division 143 in the Sinai determined the outcome of the war and led to the peace treaty with Egypt. Sharon criticized his superiors openly, however, and his special appointment was withdrawn. He returned to civilian

Israel

life and renewed his interest in politics, running for and winning election to the Knesset in December 1973. He immediately became a member of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, but resigned from the Knesset after a year.

In 1975 he was appointed security advisor in the administration of Yitzhak Rabin. Two years later he was appointed minister of agriculture, member of the Ministerial Committee for Defense, and chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Settlement Affairs in Menachem Begin's first government. In these roles Sharon was instrumental in Israel's extensive settlement program in the Gaza Strip, Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and the Golan Heights, and was considered the voice of Gush Emunim, the staunchly religious settlers' group.

In recognition of his contributions to the Likud Party's victory in the 1981 election, Begin appointed Sharon minister of defense in August 1981. While in this position, the defense department prepared a plan for conflict with Lebanon; and they successfully eradicated the PLO infrastructure in Lebanon at a high cost to that country as well as to the PLO. Support for the war with Lebanon eroded rapidly among the people of Israel, who had been told that the operation would not extend beyond 40 km (25 mi) of the Israeli border. Protest rallies against the Begin government increased after Israeli troops moved into West Beirut and the remaining Palestinian resistance fighters were eliminated in a massacre. U.S. president Ronald Reagan sent messages to Begin, urging him to seek a peaceful resolution to the situation in Lebanon. An Israeli government commission that later investigated what occurred in West Beirut determined that there was some Israeli responsibility for the massacres; and Sharon left his post as defense minister, remaining in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.

From 1984–90 Sharon was minister of industry and trade. Then in 1990–92, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Sharon, as minister of housing and construction initiated a massive construction program in the West Bank and Gaza, ostensibly to accommodate the immigration of Russian Jews into Israel. The number of settlements on the West Bank grew from 75 to 130.

From 1992–96 Sharon held posts in defense, foreign affairs, and intelligence. As a member of the inner cabinet, he helped form joint projects with Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority. He served as minister of national infrastructure in 1996 until his appointment to the post of minister of foreign affairs in 1997. While in that post, he led the Final Status Agreement negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. He was instrumental in drafting the contents that defined the commitments of all parties to the agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. After Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government collapsed in 1998, Labor candidate Ehud Barak won in the May 1999 elections. Sharon ran for and won the leadership of Likud (with 53% of the vote) at a time when the party faced the challenge of rebuilding its strength. After Barak resigned in December 2000, Sharon won a special prime ministerial election in February 2001 with the largest vote margin ever in Israeli politics, taking 62% of the vote. After the Knesset voted in March to replace the system of direct election for the prime minister established in 1996 with the one-vote parliamentary system, Likud won the 28 January 2003 elections with 29.4% of the vote to the Labor's 14.5%, and Sharon retained his position as prime minister.

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