Israelis pay last respects to warrior-statesman Sharon
JERUSALEM January 12, 2014 (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's body lay in state on Sunday outside parliament in Jerusalem, where thousands of Israelis waited to bid farewell to the maverick warrior-statesman who reshaped the Middle East.
Sharon died at the age of 85 on Saturday after eight years in a coma caused by a stroke he suffered at the pinnacle of his political power. He will be buried on Monday in a military funeral on his farm in southern Israel.
"They say old soldiers do not die, they fade away. Arik Sharon faded away eight years ago, and now we truly say goodbye to him," Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, using Sharon's nickname, wrote in a tribute on Sunday.
Sharon was one of Israel's finest military strategists and most powerful political figures, spearheading military invasion, Jewish settlement-building on land the Palestinians want for a They say old soldiers do not die, they fade away. Arik Sharon faded away eight years ago, and now we truly say goodbye to him state, and making the shock decision to withdraw from one of those territories, the Gaza Strip.
Prime minister from 2001 to 2006, Sharon's stroke happened shortly after he quit the rightwing Likud party and founded a centrist faction to advance peace with the Palestinians, whose 2000-2005 "Intifada" uprising he had battled as prime minister. In parliament's main plaza, Israelis filed past Sharon's coffin, which was draped in the blue-and-white national flag.