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

Paul: How important was he in the establishment of the Nation of Israel?

Daniel: He fought with one of the Jewish Undergrounds, The Palmach, but he was not one of the founding fathers in that sense. But he was in the immediate Generation who established the state of Israel and he rose to fame in the mid 50's when he set down the doctrine for the Israeli Military. Up until that time it was a rag tag military with some support from Jews from around the world; military expertise such as from Orde, Wingate etc - people who lent their expertise and knowledge to the Jewish Community before and after the British mandate.

He was one of the first leaders of the state of Israel and he started determining the military doctrine for the state of Israel. So in that sense he was very important. He went through the whole process: through the military, becoming a politician, becoming leader of the state of Israel - so he certainly has a stake in the initial creation of the state of Israel .

Paul: Now you have served under many Prime Ministers, did you serve under Ariel Sharon?

Daniel: Yes, I was Director of the Government Press office during his years as Prime Minister and ss such it brought me into contact with him. I served under 6 prime ministers altogether and I remember his period very fondly.

Paul: What sort of stories do you have of working with him in General?

Daniel: What was surprising was that he was nothing that people expected him to be. He had a public image, a public persona, that was totally opposite of who he was personally. He was a far more gentle person than anybody expected.

I personally admired him for years and was very taken aback by his personality which is very gentle, extremely intelligent and very cultured. He was a person who listened to classical music and he was very knowledgeable in many cultural aspects. I think for many journalists, if they were honest, there was not a situation when they met him that they weren't taken by his personality, which was very different from what they were expecting. That was a tremendous advantage for someone dealing with public relations, to completely shake up people's perceptions and I loved that part about him.

I recall a fantastic interview with the London Times. Initially he had come into the meeting very pre occupied, to the extent somebody leant in to ask "Is he fully there?" I was thinking 'how do I (deal with this)?' We had half an hour and they were asking questions and he wasn't really responsive, his thoughts were somewhere else. I was very nervous for a while and then a brilliant (turn took place when) the Editor of the Times asked about some pictures that were on the wall, including a very famous picture of Ariel Sharon on his farm with a sheep on his shoulder. And at that moment Ariel Sharon just lit up! Going straight to his feelings about being a farmer.

We were about 10 minutes away from the end of the interview, which from my point of perspective was a total catastrophe, and suddenly Sharon sort of woke up. He walked over and started discussing the pictures and started discussing farming and sheep growing, and his bulls, and from there it immediately led into the political questions and became a fantastic interview. Sharon was very pleased, they were very pleased, and it just went to show, if you found the right angle to this man he opened up and was a very generous person in his personality.

Another memory I have is that he was very supportive of his people. He was there for you. Even if you'd made a mistake, he would follow through on things with you, check what the reasons were, but you never felt that it was personal. He would never chew you out on it if you made an honest mistake. If you put in a genuine effort he backed you up on it which gave you a lot of confidence to set your sights on the goal and not sit back like a beaurocrat finding all the reasons why not to do something.

So his character affected people around him. People knew that with Sharon you are goal oriented and you don't have to be afraid of making mistakes you just have to be afraid of not going for it - that's something he was unforgiving about!

Paul: What do you thing the nation owes to Ariel Sharon?

Daniel: In all honesty nothing. A nation does not owe an individual, the individual owes the nation. As Kennedy said: "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country".