From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth, comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most dramatic and imposing Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years. The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel’s history. A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the Six-Day War of 1967, and is credited here with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. After leaving the professional army, Sharon became a political leader and served in numerous governments, most prominently as the defense minister during the 1982 Lebanon War in which he bore “personal responsibility,” according to the state’s commission of inquiry, for massacres of Palestinian civilians by Lebanese militia. As a general and as a politician, he championed the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. But as prime minister, he performed a dramatic reversal: orchestrating Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Landau brilliantly chronicles Sharon’s surprising about-face, combining the immediacy of firsthand reportage with the analysis and independent insight of a historian’s perspective. Sharon suffered a stroke in January 2006 and remains in a persistent vegetative state. This biography recounts the life of the man who is considered by many to be Israel’s greatest military leader and political statesman, illustrating how Sharon’s leadership transformed Israel, and how his views were shaped by the changing nature of Israeli society. *Starred Review* Since his massive stroke in January 2006, Ariel Sharon has remained in a persistent vegetative state. Given the strong passions and controversy he engendered as both a military and political leader, it is perhaps surprising that many Israelis from each side of the political divide look back on his career and personality favorably. Landau has written for both Right and Left newspapers in Israel and is currently the Israel correspondent for the Economist. His thorough, balanced, and scrupulously fair biography makes clear why Sharon was capable of winning respect and admiration, even from his staunch political opponents. In recounting Sharon’s youth, Landau reveals Sharon as always prepared to swim against the tide, as he and his family resisted the pressures of nearby kibbutzim to maintain the independence of their farm. As a military leader, he was rash, occasionally brutal, and sometimes defiant of superiors, but at critical moments, especially during the Yom Kippur War, he was decisive and brilliant. As prime minister, despite his earlier promotion of settlement activity, he dismantled settlements and withdrew from Gaza. This is an outstanding, warts-and-all portrait of an arguably great, if not a particularly likable, Israeli leader. --Jay Freeman “A thorough, extremely candid description and assessment of the military and political lives of the controversial Sharon, who has been in a vegetative state since a massive stroke in 2006. The author...displays a deep familiarity with the details and contexts of Sharon’s career....[and] is also adept in the descriptions of the labyrinthine political world of Israel during Sharon’s era. Splendid reporting, comprehensive research and probing analysis inform this unblinking view of a complicated man and a sanguinary geography.” — Kirkus (starred review) “[Landau’s] thorough, balanced, and scrupulously fair biography makes clear why Sharon was capable of winning respect and admiration, even from his staunch political opponents….This is an outstanding, warts-and-all portrait of an arguably great, if not a particularly likable, Israeli leader.” —Jay Freeman, Booklist (starred review) “It is Sharon’s wholly surprising journey from ruthless military commander to what Landau calls ‘national father figure,’ from territory-expanding champion to Palestinian state advocate, that most interests Landau in ‘Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon,’ his fine, comprehensive and readable biography. Five years in the making and published just after Sharon’s death last month, the book closely chronicles Sharon’s epic military and political battles, serving as a kind of national history….Whether or not we understand why he changed, we are given a close look at how and when, including Sharon’s sudden use of the word ‘occupation’ in 2003 to describe Israel’s control over the West Bank and Gaza, anathema to his right-wing base at the time. Sharon never really recognized the importance of the Palestinians to Israel’s future as much as he accepted the importance of the Americans and their policy requests. He did see, Landau argues, that unless Israel rid itself of rule over millions of Palestinians, it could not survive as a Jewish and democratic state. His willingness to act boldly on that understanding through withdrawal from Gaza, Landau says, is his most