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[[Image:Ariel-sharon.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]

[[Image:Ariel-sharon.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]

'''Ariel Sharon''' (1928-  ) was [[prime minister]] of [[Israel]] from March 2001 until January 2006, when he suffered a debilitating [[stroke]] and was succeeded by [[Ehud Olmert]].  Sharon has been in a [[coma]] since that time.  As the leader of the [[Likud]] party, Sharon swept into power after the breakout of the [[Second Intifada]] in 2000.  With each incident of violence from the [[Palestinians]], Sharon executed a tit-for-tat response that left [[Yassir Arafat]] increasingly isolated until he was confined to a single compound in [[Ramallah]].  When Arafat fell ill in October 2004 he left for [[France]] and died the following month.  The Second Intifada died with him.   

'''Ariel Sharon''' (1928-  ) was [[prime minister]] of [[Israel]] from March 2001 until January 2006, when he suffered a debilitating [[stroke]] and was succeeded by [[Ehud Olmert]].  Sharon has been in a [[coma]] since that time.  As the leader of the [[Likud]] party, Sharon swept into power after the breakout of the [[Second Intifada]] in 2000.  Sharon's firm response to the subsequent wave of [[Palestinian]] terrorism left [[Yassir Arafat]] increasingly isolated until he was confined to a single compound in [[Ramallah]].  When Arafat fell ill in October 2004 he left for [[France]] and died the following month.  The Second Intifada died with him.   

Sharon then announced he would unilaterally evacuate all the settlements in the [[Gaza Strip]], which he carried out in August 2005.  It was an action that split his own Likud party and led to the formation of the new centrist [[Kadima]] party.  He was in the early planning stages for a similar finalization of the status of the [[West Bank]] settlements when he slipped into a coma.

Sharon then announced he would unilaterally evacuate all the settlements in the [[Gaza Strip]], which he carried out in August 2005.  It was an action that split his own Likud party and led to Sharon leading elements of the Likud to form the new centrist [[Kadima]] party with members of the Labour and other parties.  Still hugely popular, Sharon was in the early planning stages for a similar finalization of the status of the [[West Bank]] settlements when he suffered the stroke that left him in a coma. He was often said to be the one figure who could form a consensus in the fractured Israeli polity. <ref>http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/weyrich/060106</ref>

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