The World Is Bidding Farewell to Ariel Sharon, "the Lion of God"

Ariel Sharon lies near death tonight in the Sheba Medical Center. The 85-year-old former Israeli prime minister is facing his "final hours" according to a Medical Center spokesman. His condition remains mostly unchanged since the Center announced on Thursday a dramatic deterioration in his medical status. The Center at Tel Hashomer downgraded Sharon’s status to very critical on Thursday. Hospital officials said he was in immediate danger of death and that others in his condition would not have lasted as long as he has. Sharon's family gathered at the hospital to be with him in his final hours. His sons Omri and Gilad have been at his side since his condition deteriorated on January 1. “He is fighting and we are here with him all the time,” Omri Sharon told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday afternoon. Sharon’s vital organs have failed, including his kidneys and his lungs. His blood pressure and heartbeat, which returned to normal on Monday, deteriorated again on Thursday. Media from around the world have gathered at the hospital. Police distanced photographers and prevented them from taking pictures of the Sharon family. Roni Sehayek, who was raised in the Sharon household, came out to the media and said, “The situation is not good” but would not elaborate. “It is surreal,” said Dalia, a 65-year-old patient at the hospital in Tel Hashomer. “I am used to seeing crowds here awaiting a birth. I am not used to seeing so many people waiting for a death. But an era is ending and this is part of history.” Sharon’s career ended in January 2006 when he suffered a debilitating stroke, his second in under a month. Since then, he has been in a coma on life-support systems. Sheba director Ze’ev Rotstein said on Monday that only a miracle could save Sharon’s life. A day earlier, Rotstein said that Sharon, whose first name means lion in Hebrew, was “fighting like a lion.” When Sharon dies, the Prime Minister’s Office will organize a state funeral. Current and former world leaders are expected to come to Israel to attend it. His body will lie in state at the Knesset before the funeral at his Negev ranch, where he will be buried beside his wife, Lily, who died in 2000. ~~~~~ Dear readers, with the death of Ariel Sharon, the world will have lost the last great Israeli founder-soldier. Only Shimon Perez, the 90-year-old President of Israel, will remain of that herioc cadre of Jewish patriots who fought so gloriously to establish a homeland for the Jewish community that had been decimated a decade earlier in Hitler's holocaust. Sharon was a commander in the Israel Army from its inception in 1948. As a paratrooper and officer, he participated prominently in the 1948 War of Independence, becoming a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in many battles, including Operation Ben Nun Alef. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101, and the Retribution operations, 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. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. During his military career, Ariel Sharon was considered the greatest field commander in Israel's history, and one of the country's greatest ever military strategists. After his assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israel public nicknamed him "The King of Israel" and "The Lion of God." After retiring from the army, Sharon joined the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments n 1977–92 and 1996–99. He became the leader of the Likud in 2000, and served as Israel's Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. There are few generations in the history of any country that can equal the commitment, determination and success of the Israel Founders. And Ariel Sharon will be remembered as one of the handful of military commanders who made Israel happen. In 2005, he was voted the 8th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israel news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis. A $250 million park named for him is under construction outside Tel Aviv. When complete, the Ariel Sharon Park will be three times the size of New York's Central Park and introduce many new ecological technologies. A 50,000-seat amphitheatre is also planned as a national concert center. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ariel Sharon's family - and with all the Israeli people as they prepare to bid farewell to one of the greatest of their beloved heroes.