[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Attorney Dov Weissglas suffered from a common
Israeli misunderstanding of nuance in the English language. When an
American responded to him with "I understand" he thought it met "I agree". ]

The Israeli Patient
Searching for Ariel Sharon's Political Legacy
By Christoph Schult SPIEGEL ONLINE 11/04/2010 12:16 PM
URL:http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,726928,00.html

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has now been in a coma for almost
five years. But his presence still looms over the country's political
course. Would he have ultimately made peace with the Palestinians? Those who
knew him best provide some answers.

Seated on the terrace of the Dubnov Restaurant in Tel Aviv, he resembles his
father. There is a thick bulge of flesh where his neck ought to be and his
massive stomach is engaged in a running battle with the edge of the table.
His face is as round as a pita bread. Omri Sharon, 46, places little value
on appearances. An old T-shirt is stretched across his midriff, he is
wearing old sandals on his otherwise bare feet and he carries a pistol
strapped into his waistband.

His body language is defensive. And he doesn't want to talk, particularly
not with journalists. And no, he doesn't want to talk about his father,
either. He is more soft-spoken than one would expect, like his father, whose
raspy voice never quite fit his massive physical presence.

Omni Sharon's mobile phone rings. The caller asks about a signature,
something related to a legal matter. Two years ago, Sharon spent several
months in prison after being convicted of collecting illegal donations to
his father's election campaign in 1999. Prosecutors are investigating again,
against both sons this time -- and again they are looking into allegations
of suspicious campaign donations for the senior Sharon.

It isn't just his two sons to whom Ariel Sharon left behind a difficult
legacy when he had a severe stroke and fell into a coma almost five years
ago. To this day, the entire country is living with the consequences of a
policy that the former prime minister began but was never able to end. It
was Sharon who ordered the construction of the security wall, which was
designed to protect Israel against acts of terror but also anticipated a
possible border between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Then he
withdrew the Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, a move that was soon
followed by the Islamist group Hamas' assumption of power in the coastal
region.

Classic Music and News Broadcasts

Sharon, who is now 82, has been lying in a coma for the last 53 months at
the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer east of Tel Aviv. The hospital's
rehabilitation center is in the eastern section of the enormous campus. On
the second floor, to the right of the nurses' station, is a door with a
guard sitting in front of it.

At first, anyone who entered Sharon's room had to wear a surgical mask,
gloves and sterile clothing. But his immune system has stabilized since
then. A condition like bronchitis is no longer life-threatening for Sharon,
who can now be treated with antibiotics. Nevertheless, only a handful of
people visit him. His sons have been successful at keeping him isolated. In
fact, not a single photo of the famous patient has even been released to the
public.

Sharon is in a light coma. He is breathing independently and is fed through
a gastric feeding tube. He has kept his considerable weight, and has even
gained a little weight. There are times when he sleeps and times when he is
awake, his eyes open. The television set, usually tuned to a National
Geographic channel, is on when he is awake. The nurses and visitors play him
classical music and, of course, news broadcasts.

The sons, who visit him for several hours every day, hope that he will
eventually wake and be able to sit in a chair and see his grandchildren. The
doctors are more skeptical. Still, in the next few weeks Sharon, after
spending almost five years in the hospital, will be moved home to his
beloved ranch on the northern edge of the Negev Desert.

'We Aren't Giving Up Hope'

George W. Bush was still the president of the United States when Ariel
Sharon fell into a coma on Jan. 4, 2006. In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel
had been in power for two months. And in Israel, there were several
indications that the old warhorse Sharon, of all people, could bring about a
long-desired peace with the country's Palestinian neighbors. "It's obvious
how much the country misses him," says his son Omri. Do the brothers believe
that their father will emerge from the coma? "We aren't giving up hope."

After Sharon fell into a coma, the Kadima Party, which he had founded,
became the strongest faction in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Kadima
could not prevent the election of Sharon's former fellow Likud Party member
Benjamin Netanyahu to prime minister. Nevertheless, Sharon's statement that
the Israeli presence in the Palestinian territories was ultimately an
"occupation" set off a dynamic that finally forced Netanyahu to accept the
two-state solution -- at least rhetorically.

No matter what decisions Sharon's successors have made in the last five
years, the question as to what the former premier would have done has always
loomed. When he was in office, Sharon himself hardly ever commented publicly
on his motives, and he was silent on the steps he planned to take after the
Gaza withdrawal. The retired general and veteran of the Six-Day War was
always skeptical toward the media.

But what kind of a person was Ariel Sharon? Would he have been prepared to
accept a Palestinian nation? Would he have been the one to overcome the
mutual blockade? Or was his withdrawal from Gaza merely an attempt to reduce
international pressure on Israel and save the Jewish settlements in the West
Bank? Finally, what are the chances that he will emerge from the coma? Four
people who have had close relationships with Sharon for many years offer
some answers: a good friend from his days in the army, his secretary, his
key political advisor and his personal doctor.

The Friend: Chaim Erez

Chaim Erez is 74, seven years younger than Sharon. Born in Warsaw, he lost
his parents while fleeing from the Nazis and, after traveling through Iran,
India and Egypt, he reached the territory then under the control of the
British Mandate for Palestine. After the establishment of Israel, he served
in the Israeli army for 33 years, retiring from his military career as a
major general.

Erez is standing next to the old British police station in Latrun, on the
road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Today the fortress houses the Israeli
Armored Corps Museum and a memorial site, of which Erez is the chairman.

He extends his arm and points to the plain. "Arik was wounded down there,"
he says, using Sharon's nickname. The Israeli Army suffered one of its worst
defeats during the 1948/49 war of independence in the hills of Latrun.
Sharon was a platoon commander in an infantry company at the time. The
Israelis tried five times to capture the fortress, which was being held by
Jordanian forces, but failed. Many Israeli soldiers were killed, and Sharon
had to spend hours in the field before he was rescued. "He thought he was
going to die," says Erez. "That experience shaped him tremendously."

After the war, Sharon became the commander of the notorious Unit 101, which
conducted reprisal attacks against Arab villages. He had heard the "heroic
tales" about the unit when he was a child, says Erez.

The Impetuous Bulldozer

The retired general stops in front of a bridge-laying tank. Using these
tanks, Erez's unit was the first to cross the Suez Canal in the 1973 Yom
Kippur War. Sharon, who was in charge of the army's southern command, gave
the orders to cross the canal, a decision for which he was sharply
criticized. Instead of rushing ahead, he had been ordered to hold the
Israeli positions on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal.

There is a memorial in a grove about 100 meters from the museum, where
visitors can press a button and hear a segment of the radio communication
between Erez and Sharon. Erez had radioed Sharon that he and his men needed
another 24 hours to prepare for the operation. Sharon replied that if he
waited any longer, the army's senior command would stop the advance. Today,
Erez says that Sharon was right. "He understood that no plan could be
implemented exactly as ordered. Arik transformed the war into a success."
Black-and-white photos depict Sharon after his arrival on the west side of
the Suez Canal, smiling and with a bandage wrapped around his forehead.

His impetuous nature prevented Sharon from advancing any further within the
military. The "Bulldozer," as he was called by then, went into politics
instead. Under Menachem Begin, the first Likud prime minister, Sharon was
named agricultural minister in 1977 and was later appointed defense
minister. In 1982, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Christian
Falangists allied with Israel staged a massacre in the Sabra and Shatila
Palestinian refugee camps. An investigative commission held Sharon
indirectly responsible for the atrocities, and he was forced to resign as
defense minister.

At the time, one of his friends predicted: "Those who didn't want him as
chief of staff got him as defense minister. Those who don't want him as
defense minister will get him as prime minister." Commenting on the
prediction, Erez says that one can only change things in Israel by being a
dictator.

The Secretary: Marit Danon

The woman sitting in Café Pituim in Jerusalem's German Colony neighborhood
wears her hair combed tightly back and tied into a short ponytail. She is
wearing a black cardigan over a white blouse. She seems elegant and
disciplined.

Marit Danon was head secretary in the prime minister's office -- between
1990 and 2001 she served under four prime ministers from across the
political spectrum: Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud
Barak. When Sharon and his right-wing Likud block won the election in
February 2001, her world fell apart.

She was afraid of Sharon, especially after reading the biography by Israeli
journalist Uzi Benziman. The book, called "An Israeli Ceasar" in English,
paints a picture of a ruthless man who feels that he is constantly at war:
against the Arabs, against political enemies and against fellow party
members. "I could no longer sleep at night after reading that book," says
Danon, 61.

She went to Ehud Barak, who was still the prime minister, and said: "I will
not work with that man." Barak pounded his hand on the table and said:
"Marit, you will not leave this place."

Sharon came, and Marit Danon stayed. She soon realized that her impression
of the man was all wrong. "Since my father died, I have never met a man who
treated women with such respect," says Danon. "He stood up whenever I walked
into the room. He never walked out of a room ahead of me, and he always held
open the door for me." Only once did Sharon reprimand his secretary --
because there wasn't enough water in a vase of flowers in his office.

'He Was Lonely'

Sharon, who seemed almost shy in public, confided in his head secretary many
times. "He told me everything that moved him. He was lonely." At difficult
times, says Danon, Sharon would often say that it worried him that he didn't
feel worried.

According to Danon, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip was a
nerve-wracking decision for Sharon. When she arrived in the office 24 hours
before the evacuation, Sharon told her about a nightmare he had had the
night before, in which he was hanging from a rope that went down into a
well. Then the rope broke. "I'm convinced that the Gaza withdrawal affected
his health," says Danon.

Danon was alone with the prime minister in his study on the evening of Dec.
18, 2005. "I was showing him something, but then he suddenly started to
mumble. I realized immediately that he was having a stroke."

It was only a minor stroke, but when doctors examined him afterwards they
discovered what was apparently a congenital heart defect, a small hole
between the left and right ventricles. Sharon was scheduled for surgery on
Jan. 5. On the day before the operation he asked his deputy, Industry
Minister Ehud Olmert, to come to his office. Sharon told Olmert that he was
going to transfer his official duties to him for three hours on the next
day. "Can I fire everyone?" Olmert joked. "Yes," Sharon replied, "but don't
touch Marit." That evening, Sharon had a second, more severe stroke and fell
into a coma, leaving behind a mystery.

Had he simply mellowed into a nice old man? Or had he become politically
more moderate? Danon, at any rate, still votes for the left-leaning Meretz
Party and not Sharon's Kadima.

The Political Advisor: Dov Weissglas

If anyone can address the issue of Sharon's political transformation, it is
Dov Weissglas. The 64-year-old, wearing a neatly pressed white shirt and a
tie, is early for our scheduled meeting in a café on Rothschild Boulevard in
Tel Aviv. His office is around the corner. "I feel uncomfortable saying
this," says Weissglas, "but I'm the one who made Prime Minister Sharon."

When Weissglas met Sharon in 1982, he was working in the legal department at
the Defense Ministry. The young lawyer prepared Sharon's statement before
the investigative committee charged with determining who was responsible for
the massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. As the investigation
dragged on, Weissglas became Sharon's personal attorney.

On Feb. 21, 1983, Time published an article claiming that Sharon, according
to a secret report, had allegedly discussed the "need for revenge" against
the Palestinians with the Christian Falangists. Weissglas successfully sued
the magazine.

Eighteen years later, Sharon was looking for someone to head the prime
minister's office. The first person in the job had left after a few months.
"Sharon was bursting with self-confidence at the time," says Weissglas.
"Even though he was one of the most hated people, he had managed to get
himself elected prime minister. Criticism didn't affect him, and neither did
praise."

Weissglas changed that. "I taught him that life isn't as dichotomous as he
had thought."

A Note from Bush

The advisor paid special attention to relations with the United States.
Weissglas proposed a deal to the Americans: Israel would withdraw from the
Gaza Strip and, in return, Washington would recognize the large settlements
in the West Bank. The US government, sensing that Sharon was merely trying
to rid himself of a burden by withdrawing the Gaza settlements, asked him to
clear three additional settlement blocks in the West Bank. "You don't get
anything for the Gaza withdrawal," Weissglas says, quoting the Americans,
"but for three settlements in the West Bank you'll get a letter from Bush."

Sharon agreed. On April 14, 2004, the US president gave Sharon his written
assurance that the "facts on the ground" that had been in place since 1967
would be recognized as part of a peace solution. This was code for the three
key settlement blocks, Ariel, Ma'ale Adumim and Gush Etzion. It was Sharon's
biggest success.

But would Sharon really have allowed the Palestinians to form a state?
"Sharon didn't believe that such a state was in Israel's interest. But he
understood that it could no longer be prevented. That's why he said to
himself: Let's make the best of it."

This change of heart led to the so-called Roadmap for Peace in the Middle
East in 2003. It envisioned the creation of a Palestinian state, but it also
required the Palestinians to fight terrorism. To marginalize Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat, Weissglas introduced the idea of a Palestinian prime
minister. The post was given to Mahmoud Abbas. When Arafat died, Abbas
became president, and Salam Fayyad, an old acquaintance of Weissglas, took
his place as prime minister. Today Prime Minister Netanyahu is in peace
negotiations with the Abbas/Fayyad duo.

Weissglas doubts that Netanyahu has as much courage as Sharon when it comes
to breaking ranks with the hardliners on the right. But even if Netanyahu
manages to bring about a peace treaty, Weissglas will be able to say with
confidence that Netanyahu merely completed what Sharon began.

The Personal Physician: Dr. Shlomo Segev

Dr. Shlomo Segev has known his patient for more than 10 years. They met in
2000, when Sharon's wife Lili was on her deathbed. "He sat at her bed for
hours. He didn't do anything. He was just there for her," says Segev.

Lili Sharon died shortly before Sharon became prime minister. He had never
had a personal doctor, but it was a requirement for the head of state, and
Segev became his official physician. "He wasn't interested in medicine,"
says Segev. "He thought it was superfluous."

Sharon regularly invited the doctor to his ranch, not for his health but
because he wanted company.

No Never

"Arik never pretended to be sick, but he would take advantage of every
little cold to talk to me. I came, examined him and then we went to the
table. We ate and talked, often for hours. The food played a central role in
our conversations."

Even today, when Segev returns from a trip, he goes to Sharon's room and
tells him about the restaurants he went to and the food he ate.

How much of this is Sharon aware of? "When you say his name, he senses that
someone is there," says Segev. "And when you walk around his bed, you have
the feeling that he's following you with his eyes." He reacts to pain, such
as when someone presses against his hand. He has received oxygen treatment
to reactivate his brain.

What are the chances that he will wake up from the coma? "The statistics
aren't his favor," says Segev. "But medicine is like love: There is no
'never' and no 'always'."

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan