During Israel’s most dire hour, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Arab armies had inflicted heavy casualties and severe psychological trauma on a people conditioned to expect swift military victory, it was Ariel Sharon, then a Major General in the Israel Defense Force, who broke through Egypt’s 1st and 3rd Armies, created a bridgehead over the Suez Canal, and crossed over to surround the Egyptians. It will forever be remembered as a coup so daring that it earned Sharon the honor of being the only living general whose maneuvers are studied at West Point. More importantly, it forced the late President Anwar Sadat to beg for a cease-fire and paved the way for his historic visit to Jerusalem four years later.

In addition, Sharon’s achievements extend into the political arena. After his retirement from the Israel Defense Force, it was Sharon who managed to cobble together the fractious right wing parties, founding what is today known as the Likud Party. As a cabinet minister in the government of the late premier, Menachem Begin, it was Sharon who made the fateful decision to dismantle the Jewish communities of Yamit in the Sinai Peninsula, paving the way for the first Camp David Accords with Egypt.

When former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu signed the Wye River Accords with Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, his foreign minister who participated in the negotiations was none other than — you guessed it — Ariel Sharon, that “enemy” of peace that the world loves to vilify. It bears repeating — Sharon has negotiated, signed and implemented agreements with his Arab enemies. In addition, he also formed personal friendships with Sadat, Jordan’s late King Hussein, and the Gemayel family in Lebanon.

This is the Sharon that his detractors — not least among them the European diplomats and Arafat-enablers at the United Nations — would like us to forget. Those same second-guessers, whose nations have never had to confront the threat facing the Jewish state and yet never hesitate to condemn Israel when it dares defend itself, did not lift a finger in protest when Egypt and Syria executed their surprise attack on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

There were no camera crews from CNN or the BBC to report on this act of aggression, no investigations by Amnesty International or other so-called “human rights” organizations, no condemning resolutions from the United Nations. The Jews would be alone to fend for themselves and fight off the deathblow that their enemies have yearned to deal them for 100 years.

What relevance does this have to the current Palestinian war against Israel? Once the Palestinians decide that killing Jews is not in their best interests, they will find a serious Israeli leader with whom they can negotiate, not the bloodthirsty monster that the Arab propaganda machine and leftist politicians have portrayed. They will find a man who eats, sleeps and breathes security; a man whose yearning for true peace — not the swindle known as the Oslo Accords — is as deep as his knowledge of West Bank terrain.

Since taking office, Sharon has dispatched his son, Omri, to personally plead with Arafat to rein in the suicide bombers, to no avail. After the gruesome attack on a Tel Aviv disco by a Palestinian Muslim fanatic, Sharon refrained from retaliation in order to give diplomacy yet another opportunity. After the unspeakable Passover eve massacre at a hotel in Netanya, he responded with force, as any other leader of a sovereign nation would have.

It is necessary to point out that since becoming prime minister, Ariel Sharon has acted responsibly in the face of endless provocations — from the Syrians, who continue to unleash their Lebanese proxy, the Hezbollah, to bleed Israel’s northern border, to the Iranians, Iraqis and Libyans, who are well on their way to owning nuclear weapons as well as the capability to deliver them.

Israel is a wounded nation. Arab hostility toward her very existence shows little sign of ending soon. The Palestinian terror war is putting a drain on her economy, with unemployment climbing to record highs and the value of Israel’s currency falling.

Diplomatically, the Europeans and Muslim dictatorships that dominate the United Nations are once again isolating the Jewish State. The Jewish communities of Europe are reeling and demoralized from the continent’s prevalent anti-Jewish sentiment, which is manifest in vitriolic treatment of Israel in the press, acts of vandalism against synagogues, and destruction of Jewish shops and cemeteries.

In light of these grim developments, it is comforting that a man of Ariel Sharon’s stature is occupying the prime minister’s office. What is needed now is his leadership, the wealth of experience that he brings to the political arena and the patience that is needed to guide the state through this most difficult hour. Just as he did almost 30 years ago, Ariel Sharon hopes to turn the tide and bring honor and victory back to the Jewish people. Should he succeed, all of the Middle East, Arab and Jew alike, will benefit.