Conductor politician

Also known by his diminutive Arik [אָרִיק]

Served as the 11th prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006

Rose in the ranks of the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, participating in the 1948 Palestine war as platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in several battles

Became an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101 and the reprisal operations, including the 1953 Qibya massacre, as well as in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973

Yitzhak Rabin called him "the greatest field commander in our history"

Upon leaving the military, he entered politics, joining the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–92 and 1996–99

As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War

An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, for which he became known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs, and he was subsequently removed as defense minister

From the 1970s through to the 1990s, he championed construction of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip

Became the leader of the Likud in 1999, and in 2000, amid campaigning for the 2001 prime ministerial election, made a controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount, triggering the Second Intifada

Orchestrated the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier in 2002–2003 and Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005

In November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima

Expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals

Following a stroke on 4 January 2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death in 2014