Former Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon was buried near his ranch in southern Israel in an a military burial on Monday afternoon, drawing thousands of mourners, including Vice President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, The Jerusalem Post reported. They joined with other dignitaries from all over the world who also lay wreaths, and eulogized the world leader who died last Saturday. He had been in a coma for 8 years.
Police deployed hundreds of officers, border policemen and volunteers to secure the funeral, due to the ranch's close proximity to the Gaza Strip.
Thousands came to the Israel's parliament (the Knesset) on Sunday to pay their respects to Sharon.
Numerous Arab-Israeli wars put Sharon's military leadership skills to the test, instrumental in leading Israel to victory in four major conflicts-1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982, each time returned to a leadership role to help Israel defeat its Arab enemies. At times, he argued with his generals over military strategy, but few ever questioned his knowledge of the region.
"No one can lecture me about the need for peace. I am the one who was in those battles. Therefore I am the person who can prevent war," Sharon once said.
During his premiership, it was the hawkish Sharon who disengaged Israelis living in Gaza.
Ariel Sharon was born Ariel Scheinermn in the Sharon Valley at the time of the British mandate in Palestine. His parents were Zionist emigres from Russia, BBC reported. In Israel's war of independence of1948, Sharon was commanding an infantry company. By 1953, Sharon founded the commando Unit 101. Sharon was seen as perhaps the country's greatest war generals, but oft-times clashed with military personnel over strategy.
"The establishment of Israel depended on a generation of brave fighters to rebuild a legacy of Jewish bravery that seemed to have disappeared," Netanyahu said. "Ariel Sharon had a central role in rebuilding this legacy."
The death of Sharon "feels like a death in the family," added Vice President Joe Biden.
"Many of my fellow Americans, some of whom are here, feel that same sense of loss... he was indomitable," the vice president added.
"[Like] all historic leaders, all real leaders, he had a north star that guided him," Biden said. "A north star from which he never in my observation, never deviated. His north star was the survival of the state of Israel, and the Jewish people wherever they resided," Biden said on the podium near Sharon's coffin.
