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And thanks to the writer (whom I will email) for giving us this glimpse of the man, Arik. I worry about him because of the weight!

I read such an interesting article about Sharon in Vanity Fair some months ago.

As a child of Russian emigres in what was to be Israel, he was very malnourished, and everyone around him lived on a very meager diet.

I can't remember what the food was that was mentioned, but it was all they had to eat for most of the time, but because of that all the rest of his life he has apparently craved rich foods.

Thanks so much for posting this fascinating article about Fallaci. What an icon she is, and how sad it makes me feel that so few are heeding her words of wisdom.

Ariel Schinerman (aka Ariel Sharon) was born in 1928 in Kafr Malal, Palestine, a small communal farm in Western Palestine to his Russian immigrant parents, Samuel and Vera Scheinerman. When he was 14 years old, he joined the Haganah, a paramililitary high school organization. While he was in this club, he met his future wife, Margalith, who he later had a son with named, Gur. In a five year span of time, Sharon had two very large tragedies happen to him. In 1962, Margalith died in a car accident and five years later, Gur died as a result of playing with Sharon's rifle and it accidentally going off. After Margalith, Sharon promptly married her younger sister, Lily. While he was married to her, he had two sons, Omri and Gilead, and two grandchildren. Lily also passed away in May 2000.

While he was in the Haganah, he fought in the 1948 war of independence in which he commanded an infantry company in the Alexandroni Brigade. In June of 1953, Sharon led a special forces unit called Unit 101 in raids on the al-Burj refugee camp in Gaza and against the village of Qibya, where several people were killed. The greatest military success that Sharon achieved was during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. He commanded 27,000 Israeli troops across the Suez Canal into Egypt which in turn put the war in his nation's favor.

Ayear later, Sharon started off his long political career by winning a place in the Israeli parliament (Knesset). When the 80's kicked off, he did run into some trouble though. He drew up plans for massive Jewish settlements on the West Bank, and later authorized a dozen new ones. This upset several people when Israel and Egypt were talking peace. Sharon said it was done in an effort to avoid the possibility of withdrawal. Sharon also led Israel into Lebanon, which was widely criticized, and cause a war lasting 20 years, ending in September 2000. There is still tension today between these two countries.