(Ariel Sharon)
In these troubled times in the Middle East, this name is often spoken of; he is the Prime Minister of the state of
Israel. He is
considered a hard-liner and a tough negotiator; yet some Jews think he is too
lenient when it come to the Palestinian Authority and
its terror campaign against the occupation of Israel. Ariel Sharon
is not a newcomer to conflict; he served in the Israeli army for 25 years and
retired as a major general. He holds a law degree from Hebrew University and held several posts in the Israeli
government. In 1967, Egypt in the South and Syria in the north were amassing troops and tanks along the
Israeli border. On June 5, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against the Arab
confederacy and in barely three hours, had destroyed 391 planes on the ground
and 60 airborne fighters; this war is called the Six-Day War. Israel controlled all the air space in the Middle East. This monumental victory was due
to the audacity of Ariel Sharon and a tank unit that he commanded. Before the
war, Israel would send tank units into the Sinai desert to
destroy the Sam-7 missile sites that Egypt built to protect its tanks; Egypt would build them, Israel would destroy them.
Israel knew that if the Sam-7 sites were left as is in the
Sinai desert and Egypt would attack, Israel didn’t stand a chance. The USA pleaded with Israel to stop the destruction of these Egyptian missile
sites and since the US was Israel’s main arms supplier and ally, they heeded the request. During the months
preceding the Six-Day War, Israel was surrounded by 250,000 Arab troops, 2000 tanks and
700 jet aircraft; they were doomed.
Ariel Sharon and his tank unit sneaked into Egyptian-held territory
through a very dangerous mountain pass that no one knew existed and destroyed
the missile sites. This permitted the Israeli Air Force to come in at an angle
that nobody expected and enjoyed a tremendous victory. We may disagree with Israel’s politics but they are only protecting the territory
that was promised to them by God. By the
way, the land that Israel won from Egypt in the Sinai, was given back to them by
Menachen Begin in 1977; he said that this land was not in the territory that
God had promised Israel. “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto
thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river,
the river Euphrates: