CLOSE-UP
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Wielder
Of The
Sword
And The
Plowshare
Ariel Sharon, who makes no secret
that he has his eye on Yitzhak
Shamir's job and is promoting his
autobiography, is a soldier with
roots deep in Israeli soil.
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
24 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1989
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hatever else he is, Ariel Sharon
is a tough interview. After all,
this is a man who has survived
Arab bullets and shrapnel, who
once bounced back to fight
after a truck rolled over and crushed his arm.
This is a man who has proven equally
durable in shrugging off controversy. Tried
by a military tribunal for striking a soldier,
singled out for blame for the Sabra and
Shatilla massacres, battered by an endless
succession of internecine disputes, Sharon
has weathered every storm and answered
every tough question.
More than all that, Ariel Sharon is a
politician with very big ambitions. Despite
his long years in the military, he displays
a surprising gift for the soothing generali-
ties that are the universal language of
democratic politics.
Sharon was in Washington recently, pro-
moting his new autobiography, Warrior.
Not surprisingly, some critics are dubbing
the book a "campaign autobiography," a
label Sharon does little to dispute. •
In response to the most obvious ques-
tion, Sharon smiles and answers with the
aplomb of an unannounced contender for
the American presidency.
"If you ask about my political life, if I
am able to get the nomination of my par-
ty, which is the largest political party in
Israel, and maybe the most democratic one
that exists in Israel, then of course I will
accept it," he says. "I believe I can con-
tribute in setting goals for the future, and
I believe I can contribute in the peace pro-
cess. Maybe, if I can use the name of my
book, the 'Warrior' may become a peace-
maker. I believe I can do it."
The job Sharon covets is the one now
held by Yitzhak Shamir._ According to
some analysts, Sharon has a reasonable
chance to succeed the embattled prime
minister. According to his own analysis,
Sharon is a kind of frontrunner.
And Ariel Sharon has never been one to
doubt himself; in fact, the rich abundance
of confidence has been a source of both his
military successes and his political tribula-
tions.
Sharon was born in 1929 in Kfar Malal,
a moshav on the coastal Plain of Sharon.
His father, an agronomist and ardent
Zionist, had made the trek from Russia in
1921; his mother, less ardent, dropped her
medical studies to accompany him.
In his book, Sharon describes his father
in terms that have a curious resonance in
his own life. "The problem was that the
man was by nature unable to compromise,"
he writes. "The problem was also that he
was an agricultural scientist, and, in his
own field, a visionary. Nor was he the kind
to keep his mouth shut and nurse secret
resentments."
Tbday, the connection to the land re-
mains the most obvious passion in
Sharon's life. When pressed for his gut
responses to events like the Sabra and
Shatilla massacres, he gives automatic,
well-rehearsed answers.
But when he talks about the physical
land of- Israel, he becomes excited in a way
that goes well beyond the politician's
automatic evocation of such images.
"You have to know that my strength
never came from political apparatus," he
says. "It came primarily from the land,
from my root in the land, from the trees,
the horses, the sheep and the flowers, from
the colors that change every day there
Despite his love for the land, events
quickly drew Sharon into the military life.
At 13 he was guarding the fields of the
moshav, armed with a club; at 14 he was
initiated into the Haganah. Several years
later, he was trained as a squad leader in
the Jewish underground.
During the next few decades, Sharon
climbed the rungs of the Israeli military,
beset at every level by struggles with more
cautious superiors. After the War of In-
dependence, he became intelligence chief
for the Central Command, where he first
encountered Moshe Dayan, whom he called
a brilliant man but a weak leader.
Indeed, Sharon is a man without heroes.
His professional relationships are, at best,
ambiguous. In his book, Dayan reappears
regularly as a good soldier and a bad
leader. Chaim Bar-Lev, Sharon's superior
during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, was a
mortal enemy. Yitzhak Rabin was a weak
and indecisive leader.
Sharon gives the distinct impression
that he alone has consistently understood
the strategic realities of Israel's situation,
that he alone has kept alive the daring
spirit of Israel's founders.
As leader of the famed Commando Unit
101, Sharon pioneered the innovative,
highly mobile style of anti-terrorist actions
that became the hallmark of the Israel
Defense Forces. Soon the unit was ab-
sorbed by the regular-army paratroopers,
with Sharon in charge.
It was at about this time that Sharon
had his first major brush with controversy.
In response to the murder of a young
mother and two infants, Sharon's band of
fighters staged a major assault on the
village of Kibbiya. The results were tragic;
dozens of houses were blown up, and 69
civilians were killed.
In his book, Sharon blames the Kibbiya
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