ARIK, David Landau
ARIK, David Landau
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ARIK
The Life of Ariel Sharon

Author: David Landau

Narrator: Walter Dixon

Unabridged: 19 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 02/01/2014


Synopsis

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.

About David Landau

David Landau was editor in chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz from 2004 to 2008. Before joining Haaretz in 1997, Landau was the diplomatic correspondent and managing editor of the Jerusalem Post. He is the author of Piety and Power: The World of Jewish Fundamentalism and worked with Shimon Peres on his memoir, Battling for Peace. He currently writes for the Economist.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ben

Great thorough research, fascinating material, but strangely empty in the accounts of his early life and the wars in which he served in as a soldier. Filled to the brim with every political machination and strategy or possible political interpretation once Sharon's political career begins. There is......more

For a political review, this will be informal. I had never heard of Ariel (Arik) Sharon until I picked up this book. As a biography of the military general and later Prime Minister who impacted on Israel so profoundly, I couldn't put it down. Arik's politics shaped the Israel of today. Is it for the......more

Goodreads review by Red

Whether you love or hate Ariel Sharon (and there seem to be few in the middle), you can't help being struck by his resilience and his ability to place himself in the middle of so many pivotal moments in the history of Israel and the Middle East more broadly. I thought Landau did a nice job of writin......more