Paul Calvert and Daniel Seaman look back at the Israeli Prime Minister's life

Daniel Seaman and Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon was an Israeli politician and general in the Israeli Army. He was considered the greatest field commander in Israel's history and one of the country's greatest military strategists.

He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel and championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However as Prime Minister, in 2004-05 he orchestrated Israel's controversial disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Shortly after, in 2006 he was incapacitated by a stroke and was left in a permanent vegetative state until his death on January 11th 2014 at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel.

To find out more about this iconic figure, his legacy and impact on the nation of Israel, Paul Calvert spoke with Daniel Seaman, who used to be the Director of the Israeli Government Press Office.

Paul: How important was Ariel Sharon as a leader in Israel?

Daniel: I think there is no doubt that he was a towering figure. Some people liked him and some people disliked him. I think when people have mixed feelings about someone it means he was decisive and that meant that some people didn't like those decisions. But I think that is the tremendous quality in true leadership, it is the ability to make decisions and move forward.

If there is one image of Ariel Sharon it is that he was called the Bulldozer. He made a decision, he went and he followed through on it, and that is true leadership.

Paul: He was a military man and fought in Israel's major wars, do you think that led his politics?

Daniel: I have no doubt about it. It's obvious that you can't go through something like that and it not effect your character and who you are; and that's what made him such a brilliant military leader.

Ariel Sharon was on a par with the major military minds throughout history; his tactics and things he did are still taught in major schools, both on the infantry, (he was a commander of paratroopers) and also on tanks. He was a brilliant military mind, so that sets him out on the world stage, absolutely.

Daniel Seaman

But what he always said that really affected him was his early life as a farmer; that connection and bond to the land; that understanding of the cycles. He became a farmer after he was in the military and he always saw himself first and foremost a farmer, but more than anything else he was a military leader.

Paul: Was the settler movement important to him?

Daniel: It was important to him, but with anything Ariel Sharon did, whether it was his military career, his political career, or even his efforts with the expansion of Jewish settlements in the land of Israel, it was his belief in what was necessary for the survival of the Jewish people in this country.

This goes back to 100 years ago, even the UN decisions when creating the State of Israel, that wherever there was a Jewish community that's where the Jewish State was; wherever there was an Arab community that's where the Arab State was. That is still true today and he understood that axiom: that we have to continue and strengthen the Jewish settlements here because it will eventually determine what the borders will be, once we reach a resolution with our Arab neighbours.

Every concept of his was 'what was important for the State of Israel?' and were these things in accordance with that belief at that moment. This is probably leads us to the question about his withdrawing of Jewish communities? That just proves the point. At that moment he believed that withdrawing the Jewish presence from the Gaza Strip and tearing down communities (was in the best interests of Israel). (This meant) uprooting the lives of people who had lived there for over 40 years; taking and removing them from their homes; three generations of people who only knew that place as their home; and moving them out of there.