John Barton is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by James Thornton. The actor was asked to audition for the part and he called it the "most frightening audition" he had ever done. Thornton won the role of John, who was introduced to Emmerdale along with his family as part of an overhaul of the show by the series producer Gavin Blyth. The Barton family took over the running of Butler's Farm and they were described as being "sexy, modern and contemporary". Thornton made his debut screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 17 July 2009. The following year, he signed a one-year extension to his contract. In November 2011, Thornton revealed that he was to leave Emmerdale after three years and he departed on 16 February 2012.

Shortly before he arrived on-screen, Blyth described John as being "a very charismatic and modern farmer." He was a family man, who was honest and hard-working. Kate Woodward of Inside Soap called him "ruggedly handsome" and said he had a heart of gold. Thornton called his character a "proper bloke", who was quite moral. John and his family moved to the village to make Butler's Farm a success. John was good at business and employed a modern approach to farming. He and his wife, Moira (Natalie J. Robb), were childhood sweethearts and their marriage was initially solid. However, John shared a kiss with Eve Jenson (Suzanne Shaw) and two years later Moira had an affair with Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley). John struggled to forgive Moira for her infidelity, but eventually realised that he could not be without her.

Creation and casting
On 22 May 2009, it was announced a new farming family called the Bartons would be introduced to Emmerdale in July. Kris Green of Digital Spy reported the show's series producer, Gavin Blyth was introducing the new family as part of an ongoing reinvention of the soap. The family, which consisted of five members – a mother, father, two daughters and a son – took over the running of Butler's Farm. Of the family, Blyth said "I don't want to make Emmerdale a show about teenagers and young people, it's about family values. The Bartons are sexy, modern and contemporary. They're almost happy – and in soapland that's quite strange!" Natalie J. Robb was cast in the role of Moira Barton and Adam Thomas, Sophie Powles and Grace Cassidy were cast as teenagers Adam, Holly and Hannah respectively.

Former HolbyBlue actor James Thornton was cast in the role of Moira's husband, John. Thornton was asked to audition for Emmerdale when the role came through to his agent. He auditioned alongside Robb and they read scenes together. Thornton said "I thought I was just coming up for a chat so when we went on set it was mental. It's the most frightening audition I've ever done, but it must have gone well!" The actor said he had grown up with the show and was brought up twenty minutes from where it is filmed. He said his character appealed to him as he believed he would be fun to play, and there would be opportunities for him to film comedy and drama storylines. In September 2010, it was announced Thornton had signed a one-year extension to his contract.

Development

Characterisation

Upon announcement of his casting, John was described as being a principled, ambitious farmer, who is trying to run a business and keep an eye on his family at the same time. Blyth quipped that John was "a very charismatic and modern farmer who's actually a success." The series producer said the character would be seen taking farming forward in Emmerdale. Thornton told a Yorkshire Post reporter that while John was a "laid-back family man", viewers could expect fireworks and feuds from him. He said "There are definitely going to be confrontations with the Dingles. John will enjoy that battle and give as good as he gets." John and his family also sparked a volatile relationship with the Wylde family. A writer for What's on TV said John was a successful, honest and hard-working farmer, who stood up for his himself and his family. While Kate Woodward of Inside Soap branded him "ruggedly handsome" and said he wanted to create a happy home for his family. Woodward added that John had a heart of gold and wanted to have fun, though he was not a push over.

Thornton told Amanda Killelea of the Daily Mirror that his character was a "proper bloke", who was quite moral. John and his family moved to the village to make a go of Butlers Farm, which John had big plans for. Thornton stated that John was good at business and he had a modern approach to farming. He was hands on and knew how to make money. When asked to describe John's approach to his work and family, Thornton said "Even though he's a business guy, he's not just about the money. He likes working hard and obviously cares about his family first and foremost. He's a genuine, grounded bloke and at the moment things are going really well for him." The actor revealed he did have some personal experience of farming as he used to help out on a farm near to where he grew up. For the role of John, Thornton had to take tractor lessons.

Marriage to Moira Barton
In their fictional backstory, John and Moira were childhood sweethearts, with the spark between them "instantaneous". It was love at first sight for the both of them and Robb commented that the couple had a "great chemistry" together. Following several dates, John and Moira married and had their three children. Robb stated that John and Moira had a lot of affection for each other, while a writer for ITV branded them a "striking yet down-to-earth couple". During an interview with Kris Green of Digital Spy, Thornton said John and Moira had a lot of fun in their youth and there had often been hints about their party lifestyle on screen. When asked if they were enough for each other, Thornton quipped "Yeah, definitely. What I love about their relationship is that she's a strong woman – she doesn't take any prisoners. She's the boss of the house and he respects that. She calls the shots!" He added that while no one knows much about the Barton's backstory, they were aware that John and Moira had a solid marriage. The actor thought John and Moira must have had their children when they were around eighteen as their family unit was quite young. During a feature of soap opera's longest marriages in 2010, Kate Woodward and Sarah Ellis stated that John and Moira had been married for twenty years. The writers added that as a couple, John and Moira had been solid and showed an easy attitude to keeping their family on an even keel.

When asked what kind of man it would take for Moira to cheat on John, Robb opined the man would have similar values to John and she thought Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) would be a safe bet as he is loyal and trustworthy. Thornton said he was worried the writers were going to break John and Moira up and Robb said if the characters were to split, they would find it hard to live without each other. In late 2011, John and Moira's marriage goes through a rough patch because of problems at the farm. Thornton opined that John is not giving Moira any attention because he is overworked. Moira becomes fed up of John not listening to her and the lack of communication and the distance between the couple becomes worse. Moira then begins an affair with Cain Dingle. Of why Moira puts her marriage in jeopardy, Robb revealed "She still loves John, but she feels isolated and neglected because he's stopped including her in the finances of the new business. He's changed the dynamic of their relationship." Cain later tells John what has been going on between him and Moira by dropping hints about their affair. John initially believes Cain is winding him up, but paranoia set in and he confronts his wife in a bid to get the truth. Speaking to Anne Richardson of Inside Soap, Thornton said John is shocked and heartbroken when Moira confirms she did have an affair. The situation is made worse because Moira cheated with Cain, a man hated by most residents.

John struggles to forgive Moira for her infidelity and Thornton said he makes the decision that their marriage is over and she has to go. He then asks his wife to leave their home. Allison Jones, writing for Inside Soap said John does not allow Moira to wallow in self-pity and he reminds her she was the one who threw their marriage away. The couple keep their children in the dark and Moira goes quietly. When Adam, Hannah and Holly do find out what has happened, Holly is firmly on John's side. John later has a fight with Cain in The Woolpack. On 17 November 2011, it was announced a major storyline would see Cain attacked by a mystery person and left for dead. John was named as one of six official suspects, along with Moira. Of John's motive Inside Soap's Kate White said "John's family is in ruins thank to Cain's affair with his wife, Moira. Violence erupts as the men have a vicious fight this fortnight – and when John is discovered fleeing from the crime scene with blood on his hands, it looks like an open-and-shut case!" Digital Spy conducted a poll asking viewers to select which suspect they thought had carried out the attack and John received 26.3% of the vote, placing him first in the poll.

Eve Jenson
In May 2010, John kissed Eve Jenson (Suzanne Shaw). Prior to the kiss, John had spent weeks trying to fend off Eve's advances. In an interview with What's on TV, Shaw said Eve developed a big crush on John and because they had a few things in common, it made her hopeful that he was interested in her. Both Moira and Adam noticed Eve flirting with John in The Woolpack, but they just teased him about it. Shaw revealed the attention from Eve was just a bit of fun for John, as he had some problems at home and used it as a way of escaping. Thornton told Inside Soap's Katy Moon that John was so secure in his relationship with Moira that he felt Eve was not a threat, so he did not put up any barriers. He thought Eve was "a nice girl" with nothing malicious about her, which left him open to her charms. Eve was given a job at Butler's Farm and she used that as an opportunity to flirt with John. Moira noticed and eventually warned her off when she thought Eve was getting too familiar with John. Thornton stated "I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of Moira! Her fiery nature begins to show, but John assures her that Eve is just a tease and nothing more. John and Moira have quite an open relationship anyway, and they're both aware of their flirtatious natures in any case."

Moon quipped that John crossed a line when he confided in Eve about Holly's drug problem. Thornton agreed and said it was a stupid thing that men tend to do, he cannot keep his mouth shut despite the problem being a family secret. Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) later winds John up about working with Eve on the farm and does not fix his land rover properly as a joke. John refused to pay the garage bill and Thornton said despite John being warned about getting on the wrong side of Cain, he did not care. John and Eve share a kiss and Thornton explained that John gave in to Eve because he was flattered by her interest in him. John told Eve that their kiss was a mistake and she insisted that it be kept between the two of them. However, Cain saw everything and he blackmailed John into paying the outstanding garage bill. Cain later told Moira that he saw John and Eve kissing. Robb deemed John Moira's soulmate and said even though she knew he looked at other woman, she did not think he would ever act upon it. The actress added that Moira had sensed something before it happened, which made the situation worse.

Departure

On 28 November 2011, it was announced Thornton was to leave Emmerdale. Of his decision to exit the soap, Thornton said "I have had a fantastic time playing John for the past three years, but it's the longest I have ever played one part and the time now feels right to move on. I have decided to leave on a high with a big exit storyline in 2012, which I'm really excited about. I will miss all my colleagues at Emmerdale and have many very fond memories of my time in the Dales." Series producer, Stuart Blackburn said Thornton had created a "truly memorable character in John" and that he would be missed. Thornton later told Daniel Kilkelly from Digital Spy that it had been a difficult decision to leave the serial, but he had decided at the beginning he would just do three years. He revealed that he was really sad about going and would miss his co-stars more than anything else. The actor said that Blackburn had been "absolutely brilliant and really understanding" about his departure.

On-screen John started to rebuild his relationship with Moira, following her affair with Cain. The couple decided to go and spend the night at a hotel together, but their car hit a patch of ice and crashed. The vehicle then slipped and fell off a ravine. Thornton revealed that he thought the storyline was "brilliant" and stated "As I learned more, I discovered that the scale of John's departure was going to be huge, and that the amount of money they were spending was massive. So I was really, really pleased. As an actor, you always want to do something that's going to grab the audience's attention." The actor explained that the crew spent three nights shooting the stunt and he was allowed to do as many of his own stunts as possible. Thornton commented that things would become "tricky" for the Barton family without John, but thought his exit would open up "brilliant opportunities" for Moira. He added "In a way, the Barton family have been quite isolated up on the farm. They have their own little world away from the village, but now it opens it all up." Thornton made his on-screen exit on 16 February 2012.

Storylines
John and his family arrive in the village and move into Butler's Farm. When Rodney Blackstock (Patrick Mower) accidentally leaves his van's brakes off, it begins rolling through the village towards the shop. John tries to help Aaron Livesy (Danny Miller) stop it, but it crashes into the shop trapping three of the village residents. John then helps pull the van out of the debris using his tractor, so the villagers can be rescued. When John catches Aaron playing with a lighter in one of his barns, he hits him and locks him inside. After being released, Aaron reports John to the police and he is arrested. Moira goes to Aaron's family and begs them to get Aaron to drop the charges, and he does. John becomes worried when his lambs starting dying on the farm. When Adam confesses that there has been a chemical spill, John is furious as it incident could threaten the future of the farm and their business. Eve Jenson begins working on the farm and starts flirting with John. He ends up telling her about Holly's drug problems and when he gives her a lift home, John and Eve share a kiss, which Cain Dingle witnesses. He begins blackmailing John into paying an outstanding garage bill and later tells Moira what happened. She asks John to leave the farm, but she eventually forgives him and he returns.

John and Moira discover Holly has been thrown out of college for drug dealing and they make her work on the farm. When Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) reveals that some ketamine has gone missing from her bag, John accuses Holly of taking it, but fails to find anything during a search of her room. Holly's drug problem becomes worse, but when she refuses to stop, John disowns her and she goes missing. John and Moira eventually find Holly and John tries to force her into his car, but she runs off. She eventually returns home and John and Moira decide to lock Holly her in her room, to stop her taking anymore drugs. The situation begins to affect the whole family and Moira goes out and buys some heroin to give to Holly, so she can be weaned off slowly. John becomes frustrated with the situation and when he threatens to try heroin unless she stops, Holly agrees to fight her addiction. Declan Macey (Jason Merrells) announces that he wants to sell the farm, but John refuses to leave and vows to make it into a profitable business so that he can buy it from Declan instead. The pressure of the business causes John and Moira's marriage to suffer. Cain later reveals that he has been having an affair with Moira and John tells her to leave their house.

Cain goads John into a fight and Adam later finds John walking down the road with blood on his hands. When Cain is found to have been attacked, John becomes a suspect and is arrested. He is later released due to a lack of evidence. John begins flirting with Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter), which causes a fight between Aaron and Adam. Moira is also unhappy that John is seeing Chas and the two women fight. John later informs Moira that he wants a divorce. When John and Chas go to have sex, John realises that he cannot go through with it and decides that he cannot live without Moira. He and Moira talk about their issues and reconcile. They tell Adam, Holly and Hannah that they are back together and they book a hotel room for them. John borrows Andy Sugden's (Kelvin Fletcher) Land Rover and he and Moira make their way to the hotel. However, John loses control of the Land Rover on some black ice and it crashes down a hillside. John and Moira are both trapped in the vehicle when Declan and Katie Sugden (Sammy Winward) discover them. Declan manages to get Moira out, before the Land Rover falls over a cliff. John is rescued and taken to the hospital, where he undergoes surgery for an aortic rupture which although was successful doctors warns the family that he still in a critical condition and that there was a risk of bleeding later on. Shortly after Moira tells him she loves him, John goes into cardiac arrest and despite doctors efforts to perform emergency surgery for another bleed, he dies.

Reception
Thornton received a nomination for Sexiest Male at the 2010 British Soap Awards. In 2012, he earned a nomination for Best Exit and won Spectacular Scene of the Year for John and Moira's car accident. Of the John and Eve storyline, Inside Soap's Kate Woodward and Sarah Ellis commented "For some reason, John's head is being turned by foxy farmhand Eve. We think he needs that head read". Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror stated life was unfair when "lovely, gorgeous John" died. All About Soap's Laura Morgan called John "the fit farmer" and said "our hearts are broken" at his death. Of his final scene, Morgan explained "We couldn't hold back the tears as Moira stood over his hospital bed tenderly stroking his face, and John said they made the perfect team. And with those words he slipped away, watched by his devastated family."

References

External links
 John Barton at itv.com
 John Barton at What's on TV
 John Barton at the Internet Movie Database

Emmerdale characters
Fictional farmers
British male characters in television
Television characters introduced in 2009
Barton family (Emmerdale)

John Barton (Emmerdale)


James Bell Klock (October 5, 1856 – June 14, 1927) was a Canadian politician. He represented the riding of Nipissing in the House of Commons of Canada from 1896 to 1900. He was a member of the Conservative Party.

Klock was born in Aylmer, Canada East, the son of Robert H. Klock, an early lumberman in the Ottawa Valley, and was educated in Aylmer and Berthier. Before entering politics, he was a farmer. In 1883, Klock married Alice, daughter of judge William McDougall. He was involved in the timber trade and also raised livestock. Klock took over the lumber company established by his father at Klock's Mills south of Mattawa. He was also a director of the Crystal Gold Mining Company and president of the Quinze Electric Power Company. Klock served as reeve of Cameron Township. He later married a Miss Patterson. He died in Preston, Ontario at the age of 70.

References

1856 births
1927 deaths
Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario

James Klock


Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.

Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestine to Russian Jewish immigrants, he rose in the ranks of the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948, participating in the 1948 Palestine war as platoon commander of the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in several battles. Sharon became an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101 and the reprisal operations, including the 1953 Qibya massacre, as well as in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. Yitzhak Rabin called Sharon "the greatest field commander in our history". Upon leaving the military, Sharon entered politics, joining the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–92 and 1996–99. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the  Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, for which he became known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs. He was subsequently removed as defense minister.

From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 1999, and in 2000, amid campaigning for the 2001 prime ministerial election, made a controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa complex on the Temple Mount, triggering the Second Intifada. He subsequently defeated Ehud Barak in the election and served as Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006. As Prime Minister, Sharon orchestrated the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier in 2002–03 and Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Facing stiff opposition to the latter policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals. Following a stroke on 4 January 2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death in 2014.

Sharon remains a highly polarizing figure in Middle Eastern history. Israelis almost universally revere Sharon as a war hero and statesman, whereas Palestinians and Human Rights Watch have criticized him as a war criminal, with the latter lamenting that he was never held accountable.

Early life and education

Ariel (Arik) Scheinerman (later Sharon) was born in Kfar Malal, an agricultural moshav, then in Mandatory Palestine, to Shmuel Scheinerman (1896–1956) of Brest-Litovsk and Vera (née Schneirov) Scheinerman (1900–1988) of Mogilev. His parents met while at university in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia), where Sharon's father was studying agronomy and his mother was studying medicine. They immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1922 in the wake of the Russian Communist government's growing persecution of Jews in the region. In Palestine, Vera Scheinerman went by the name Dvora.

The family arrived with the Third Aliyah and settled in Kfar Malal, a socialist, secular community. (Ariel Sharon himself would remain proudly secular throughout his life.) Although his parents were Mapai supporters, they did not always accept communal consensus: "The Scheinermans' eventual ostracism ... followed the 1933 Arlozorov murder when Dvora and Shmuel refused to endorse the Labor movement's anti-Revisionist calumny and participate in Bolshevik-style public revilement rallies, then the order of the day. Retribution was quick to come. They were expelled from the local health-fund clinic and village synagogue. The cooperative's truck wouldn't make deliveries to their farm nor collect produce."

Sharon spoke both Hebrew and Russian.

Four years after their arrival at Kfar Malal, the Sheinermans had a daughter, Yehudit (Dita). Ariel was born two years later. At age 10, he joined the youth movement HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed. As a teenager, he began to take part in the armed night-patrols of his moshav. In 1942 at the age of 14, Sharon joined the Gadna, a paramilitary youth battalion, and later the Haganah, the underground paramilitary force and the Jewish military precursor to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Military career

Battle for Jerusalem and 1948 War

Sharon's unit of the Haganah became engaged in serious and continuous combat from the autumn of 1947, with the onset of the Battle for Jerusalem. Without the manpower to hold the roads, his unit took to making offensive hit-and-run raids on Arab forces in the vicinity of Kfar Malal. In units of thirty men, they would hit constantly at Arab villages, bridges and bases, as well as ambush the traffic between Arab villages and bases.

Sharon wrote in his autobiography: "We had become skilled at finding our way in the darkest nights and gradually we built up the strength and endurance these kind of operations required. Under the stress of constant combat we drew closer to one another and began to operate not just as a military unit but almost as a family. ... [W]e were in combat almost every day. Ambushes and battles followed each other until they all seemed to run together."

For his role in a night-raid on Iraqi forces at Bir Adas, Sharon was made a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. Following the Israeli Declaration of Independence and the onset of the War of Independence, his platoon fended off the Iraqi advance at Kalkiya. Sharon was regarded as a hardened and aggressive soldier, swiftly moving up the ranks during the war. He was shot in the groin, stomach and foot by the Jordanian Arab Legion in the First Battle of Latrun, an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the besieged Jewish community of Jerusalem. Sharon wrote of the casualties in the "horrible battle," and his brigade suffered 139 deaths.

Jordanian field marshal Habis Majali said that Sharon was among 6 Israeli soldiers captured by the Jordanian 4th battalion during the battle, and that Majali took them to a camp in Mafraq and the 6 were later traded back. Sharon denied the claims, but Majali was adamant. "Sharon is like a grizzly bear," he assured. "I captured him for 9 days, I healed his wounds and released him due to his insignificance." A few fellow high-ranking Jordanian officers testified in favour of his account." In 1994 and during the peace treaty signing ceremony with Jordan, Sharon wanted to get in touch with his former captor, but the latter determinedly refused to discuss the incident publicly.

After recovering from the wounds received at Latrun, he resumed command of his patrol unit. On 28 December 1948, his platoon attempted to break through an Egyptian stronghold in Iraq-El-Manshia. At about this time, Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion gave him the Hebraized name "Sharon". In September 1949, Sharon was promoted to company commander (of the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit) and in 1950 to intelligence officer for Central Command. He then took leave to begin studies in history and Middle Eastern culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Sharon's subsequent military career would be characterized by insubordination, aggression and disobedience, but also brilliance as a commander.

Unit 101
A year and a half later, on the direct orders of the Prime Minister, Sharon returned to active service in the rank of major, as the founder and commander of the new Unit 101, a special forces unit tasked with reprisal operations in response to Palestinian fedayeen attacks. The first Israeli commando unit, Unit 101 specialized in offensive guerrilla warfare in enemy countries. The unit consisted of 50 men, mostly former paratroopers and Unit 30 personnel. They were armed with non-standard weapons and tasked with carrying out special reprisals across the state's borders—mainly establishing small unit maneuvers, activation and insertion tactics. Training included engaging enemy forces across Israel's borders. Israeli historian Benny Morris describes Unit 101:

Unit 101 undertook a series of raids against Jordan, which then held the West Bank. The raids also helped bolster Israeli morale and convince Arab states that the fledgling nation was capable of long-range military action. Known for raids against Arab civilians and military targets, the unit is held responsible for the widely condemned Qibya massacre in the fall of 1953. After a group of Palestinians used Qibya as a staging point for a fedayeen attack in Yehud that killed a Jewish woman and her two children in Israel, Unit 101 retaliated on the village. By various accounts of the ensuing attack, 65 to 70 Palestinian civilians, half of them women and children, were killed when Sharon's troops dynamited 45 houses and a school.

Facing international condemnation for the attack, Ben-Gurion denied that the Israeli military was involved. In his memoir, Sharon wrote that the unit had checked all the houses before detonating the explosives and that he thought the houses were empty. Although he admitted the results were tragic, Sharon defended the attack, however: "Now people could feel that the terrorist gangs would think twice before striking, now that they knew for sure they would be hit back. Kibbya also put the Jordanian and Egyptian governments on notice that if Israel was vulnerable, so were they."

A few months after its founding, Unit 101 was merged with the 890 Paratroopers Battalion to create the Paratroopers Brigade, of which Sharon would also later become commander. Like Unit 101, it continued raids into Arab territory, culminating with the attack on the Qalqilyah police station in the autumn of 1956.

Leading up to the Suez War, the missions Sharon took part in included:
Operation Shoshana (now known as the Qibya massacre)
Operation Black Arrow
Operation Elkayam
Operation Egged
Operation Olive Leaves
Operation Volcano
Operation Gulliver (מבצע גוליבר)
Operation Lulav (מבצע לולב)

During a payback operation in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Sharon was again wounded by gunfire, this time in the leg. Incidents such as those involving Meir Har-Zion, along with many others, contributed to the tension between Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, who often opposed Sharon's raids, and Moshe Dayan, who had become increasingly ambivalent in his feelings towards Sharon. Later in the year, Sharon was investigated and tried by the Military Police for disciplining one of his subordinates. However, the charges were dismissed before the onset of the Suez War.

1956 Suez War

Sharon commanded Unit 202 (the Paratroopers Brigade) during the 1956 Suez War (the British "Operation Musketeer"), leading the troop to take the ground east of the Sinai's Mitla Pass and eventually the pass itself against the advice of superiors, suffering heavy Israeli casualties in the process. Having successfully carried out the first part of his mission (joining a battalion parachuted near Mitla with the rest of the brigade moving on ground), Sharon's unit was deployed near the pass. Neither reconnaissance aircraft nor scouts reported enemy forces inside the Mitla Pass. Sharon, whose forces were initially heading east, away from the pass, reported to his superiors that he was increasingly concerned with the possibility of an enemy thrust through the pass, which could attack his brigade from the flank or the rear.

Sharon asked for permission to attack the pass several times, but his requests were denied, though he was allowed to check its status so that if the pass was empty, he could receive permission to take it later. Sharon sent a small scout force, which was met with heavy fire and became bogged down due to vehicle malfunction in the middle of the pass. Sharon ordered the rest of his troops to attack to aid their comrades. Sharon was criticized by his superiors and was damaged by allegations several years later made by several former subordinates, who claimed that Sharon tried to provoke the Egyptians and sent out the scouts in bad faith, ensuring that a battle would ensue.

Sharon had assaulted Themed in a dawn attack, and had stormed the town with his armor through the Themed Gap. Sharon routed the Sudanese police company, and captured the settlement. On his way to the Nakla, Sharon's men came under attack from Egyptian MIG-15s. On the 30th, Sharon linked up with Eytan near Nakla. Dayan had no more plans for further advances beyond the passes, but Sharon nonetheless decided to attack the Egyptian positions at Jebel Heitan. Sharon sent his lightly armed paratroopers against dug-in Egyptians supported by aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery. Sharon's actions were in response to reports of the arrival of the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the 4th Egyptian Armored Division in the area, which Sharon believed would annihilate his forces if he did not seize the high ground. Sharon sent two infantry companies, a mortar battery and some AMX-13 tanks under the command of Mordechai Gur into the Heitan Defile on the afternoon of 31 October 1956. The Egyptian forces occupied strong defensive positions and brought down heavy anti-tank, mortar and machine gun fire on the IDF force. Gur's men were forced to retreat into the "Saucer", where they were surrounded and came under heavy fire. Hearing of this, Sharon sent in another task force while Gur's men used the cover of night to scale the walls of the Heitan Defile. During the ensuing action, the Egyptians were defeated and forced to retreat. A total of 260 Egyptian and 38 Israeli soldiers were killed during the battle at Mitla. Due to these deaths, Sharon's actions at Mitla were surrounded in controversy, with many within the IDF viewing the deaths as the result of unnecessary and unauthorized aggression.

Six-Day War, War of Attrition and Yom Kippur War

The Mitla incident hindered Sharon's military career for several years. In the meantime, he occupied the position of an infantry brigade commander and received a law degree from Tel Aviv University. However, when Yitzhak Rabin became Chief of Staff in 1964, Sharon again began to rise rapidly in the ranks, occupying the positions of Infantry School Commander and Head of Army Training Branch, eventually achieving the rank of Aluf (Major General).

In the Six-Day War, Sharon, in command of an armored division on the Sinai front, drew up his own complex offensive strategy that combined infantry troops, tanks and paratroopers from planes and helicopters to destroy the Egyptian forces Sharon's 38th Division faced when it broke through to the Kusseima-Abu-Ageila fortified area. Sharon's victories and offensive strategy in the Battle of Abu-Ageila led to international commendation by military strategists; he was judged to have inaugurated a new paradigm in operational command. Researchers at the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command studied Sharon's operational planning, concluding that it involved a number of unique innovations. It was a simultaneous attack by a multiplicity of small forces, each with a specific aim, attacking a particular unit in a synergistic Egyptian defense network. As a result, instead of supporting and covering each other as they were designed to do, each Egyptian unit was left fighting for its own life.

According to Sapir Handelman, after Sharon's assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli public nicknamed him "The King of Israel".

Sharon played a key role in the War of Attrition. In 1969, he was appointed the Head of IDF's Southern Command. As leader of the southern command, on 29 July Israeli frogmen stormed and destroyed Green Island, a fortress at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez whose radar and antiaircraft installations controlled that sector's airspace. On 9 September Sharon's forces carried out Operation Raviv, a large-scale raid along the western shore of the Gulf of Suez. Landing craft ferried across Russian-made tanks and armored personnel carriers that Israel had captured in 1967, and the small column harried the Egyptians for ten hours.

Following his appointment to the southern command, Sharon had no further promotions, and considered retiring. Sharon discussed the issue with Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who strongly advised him to remain at his post. Sharon remained in the military for another three years, before retiring in August 1973. Soon after, he helped found the Likud ("Unity") political party.

At the start of the Yom Kippur War on 6 October 1973, Sharon was called back to active duty along with his assigned reserve armored division. On his farm, before he left for the front line, the Reserve Commander, Zeev Amit, said to him, "How are we going to get out of this?" Sharon replied, "You don't know? We will cross the Suez Canal and the war will end over there." Sharon arrived at the front, to participate in his fourth war, in a civilian car. His forces did not engage the Egyptian Army immediately, despite his requests. Under cover of darkness, Sharon's forces moved to a point on the Suez Canal that had been prepared before the war. In a move that again thwarted the commands of his superiors, Sharon's division crossed the Suez, effectively winning the war for Israel. He then headed north towards Ismailia, intent on cutting the Egyptian second army's supply lines, but his division was halted south of the Fresh Water Canal.

Abraham Adan's division passed over the bridgehead into Africa, advancing to within 101 kilometers of Cairo. His division managed to encircle Suez, cutting off and encircling the Third Army. Tensions between the two generals followed Sharon's decision, but a military tribunal later found his action was militarily effective.

Sharon's complex ground maneuver is regarded as a decisive move in the Yom Kippur War, undermining the Egyptian Second Army and encircling the Egyptian Third Army. This move was regarded by many Israelis as the turning point of the war in the Sinai front. Thus, Sharon is widely viewed as the hero of the Yom Kippur War, responsible for Israel's ground victory in the Sinai in 1973. A photo of Sharon wearing a head bandage on the Suez Canal became a famous symbol of Israeli military prowess.

Sharon's political positions were controversial, and he was relieved of duty in February 1974.

Bar Lev Line

Following Israel's victory in the six-day war, the war of attrition at the Suez Canal began. The Egyptians began firing in provocation against the Israeli forces posted on the eastern part of the canal. Haim Bar Lev, Israel's chief of staff, suggested that Israel construct a border line to protect its southern border. A wall of sand and earth raised along almost the entire length of the Suez Canal would both allow observation of Egyptian forces and conceal the movements of Israeli troops on the eastern side. This line, named after the chief of staff Haim Bar Lev, became known as the Bar Lev Line. It included at least thirty strong points stretching over almost 200 kilometers.

Bar Lev suggested that such a line would defend against any major Egyptian assault across the canal, and was expected to function as a "graveyard for Egyptian troops". Moshe Dayan described it as "one of the best anti-tank ditches in the world." Sharon, and Israel Tal on the other hand, vigorously opposed the line. Sharon said that it would pin down large military formations that would be sitting ducks for deadly artillery attacks, and cited the opinion of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who explained him "the great military disaster such a line could bring." Notwithstanding, it was completed in spring 1970.

During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian forces successfully breached the Bar Lev Line in less than two hours at a cost of more than a thousand dead and some 5,000 wounded. Sharon would later recall that what Schneerson had told him was a tragedy, "but unfortunately, that happened."

Early political career, 1974–2001

Beginnings of political career
In the 1940s and 1950s, Sharon seemed to be personally devoted to the ideals of Mapai, the predecessor of the modern Labor Party. However, after retiring from military service, he joined the Liberal Party and was instrumental in establishing Likud in July 1973 by a merger of Herut, the Liberal Party and independent elements. Sharon became chairman of the campaign staff for that year's elections, which were scheduled for November. Two and a half weeks after the start of the election campaign, the Yom Kippur War erupted and Sharon was called back to reserve service. On the heels of being hailed as a war hero for crossing the Suez in the 1973 war, Sharon won a seat to the Knesset in the elections that year, but resigned a year later.

From June 1975 to March 1976, Sharon was a special aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He planned his return to politics for the 1977 elections; first, he tried to return to the Likud and replace Menachem Begin at the head of the party. He suggested to Simha Erlich, who headed the Liberal Party bloc in the Likud, that he was more able than Begin to win an election victory; he was rejected, however. He then tried to join the Labor Party and the centrist Democratic Movement for Change, but was rejected by those parties too. Only then did he form his own list, Shlomtzion, which won two Knesset seats in the subsequent elections. Immediately after the elections, he merged Shlomtzion with the Likud and became Minister of Agriculture.

When Sharon joined Begin's government, he had relatively little political experience. During this period, Sharon supported the Gush Emunim settlements movement and was viewed as the patron of the settlers' movement. He used his position to encourage the establishment of a network of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to prevent the possibility of Palestinian Arabs' return to these territories. Sharon doubled the number of Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip during his tenure.

After the 1981 elections, Begin rewarded Sharon for his important contribution to Likud's narrow win, by appointing him Minister of Defense.

Under Sharon, Israel continued to build upon the unprecedented coordination between the Israel Defense Forces and the South African Defence Force, with Israeli and South African generals giving each other unfettered access to each other's battlefields and military tactics, and Israel sharing with South Africa highly classified information about its missions, such as Operation Opera, which had previously only been reserved for the United States. In 1981, after visiting South African forces fighting in Namibia for 10 days, Sharon argued that South Africa needed more weapons to fight Soviet infiltration in the region. Sharon promised that the relationship between Israel and South Africa would continue to deepen as they work to "ensure the National Defense of both our countries". The collaboration in carrying out joint-nuclear tests, in planning counter-insurgency strategies in Namibia and in designing security fences helped to make Israel, South Africa's closest ally in this period.

1982 Lebanon War and Sabra and Shatila massacre

As Defense Minister, Sharon launched an invasion of Lebanon called Operation Peace for Galilee, later known as the 1982 Lebanon War, following the shooting of Israel's ambassador in London, Shlomo Argov. Although this attempted assassination was in fact perpetrated by the Abu Nidal Organization, possibly with Syrian or Iraqi involvement, the Israeli government justified the invasion by citing 270 terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Israel, the occupied territories, and the Jordanian and Lebanese border (in addition to 20 attacks on Israeli interests abroad). Sharon intended the operation to eradicate the PLO from its state within a state inside Lebanon, but the war is primarily remembered for the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

In a three-day massacre between 16 and 18 September, between 460 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp were killed by the Phalanges— Lebanese Maronite Christian militias. Shatila had previously been one of the PLO's three main training camps for foreign terrorists and the main training camp for European terrorists; the Israelis maintained that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists remained in the camps, but were unwilling to risk the lives of more of their soldiers after the Lebanese army repeatedly refused to "clear them out." The killings followed years of sectarian civil war in Lebanon that left 95,000 dead. The Lebanese army's chief prosecutor investigated the killings and counted 460 dead, Israeli intelligence estimated 700–800 dead, and the Palestinian Red Crescent claimed 2,000 dead. 1,200 death certificates were issued to anyone who produced three witnesses claiming a family member disappeared during the time of the massacre. Nearly all of the victims were men.

The Phalange militia went into the camps to clear out PLO fighters while Israeli forces surrounded the camps, blocking camp exits and providing logistical support. The killings led some to label Sharon "the Butcher of Beirut".

An Associated Press report on 15 September 1982 stated, "Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, in a statement, tied the killing of the Phalangist leader Bachir Gemayel to the PLO, saying 'it symbolises the terrorist murderousness of the PLO terrorist organisations and their supporters'." Habib Chartouni, a Lebanese Christian from the Syrian Socialist National Party confessed to the murder of Gemayel, and no Palestinians were involved.

Robert Maroun Hatem, Hobeika's bodyguard, stated in his book From Israel to Damascus that Phalangist commander Elie Hobeika ordered the massacre of civilians in defiance of Israeli instructions to behave like a "dignified" army. Hatem claimed "Sharon had given strict orders to Hobeika....to guard against any desperate move" and that Hobeika perpetrated the massacre "to tarnish Israel's reputation worldwide" for the benefit of Syria. Hobeika subsequently joined the Syrian occupation government and lived as a prosperous businessman under Syrian protection; further massacres in Sabra and Shatilla occurred with Syrian support in 1985.

The massacre followed intense Israeli bombings of Beirut that had seen heavy civilian casualties, testing Israel's relationship with the United States in the process. America sent troops to help negotiate the PLO's exit from Lebanon, withdrawing them after negotiating a ceasefire that ostensibly protected Palestinian civilians.

Legal findings
After 400,000 Peace Now protesters rallied in Tel Aviv to demand an official government inquiry into the massacres, the official Israeli government investigation into the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, the Kahan Commission (1982), was conducted. The inquiry found that the Israeli Defense Forces were indirectly responsible for the massacre since IDF troops held the area. The commission determined that the killings were carried out by a Phalangist unit acting on its own, but its entry was known to Israel and approved by Sharon. Prime Minister Begin was also found responsible for not exercising greater involvement and awareness in the matter of introducing the Phalangists into the camps.

The commission also concluded that Sharon bore personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge [and] not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed". It said Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a dereliction of duty of the minister. In early 1983, the commission recommended the removal of Sharon from his post as defense minister and stated:

We have found ... that the Minister of Defense [Ariel Sharon] bears personal responsibility. In our opinion, it is fitting that the Minister of Defense draw the appropriate personal conclusions arising out of the defects revealed with regard to the manner in which he discharged the duties of his office—and if necessary, that the Prime Minister consider whether he should exercise his authority ... to ... remove [him] from office.

Sharon initially refused to resign as defense minister, and Begin refused to fire him. After a grenade was thrown into a dispersing crowd at an Israeli Peace Now march, killing Emil Grunzweig and injuring 10 others, a compromise was reached: Sharon agreed to forfeit the post of defense minister but stayed in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio.

Sharon's resignation as defense minister is listed as one of the important events of the Tenth Knesset.

In its 21 February 1983 issue, Time published an article implying that Sharon was directly responsible for the massacres. Sharon sued Time for libel in American and Israeli courts. Although the jury concluded that the Time article included false allegations, they found that the magazine had not acted with actual malice and so was not guilty of libel.

On 18 June 2001, relatives of the victims of the Sabra massacre began proceedings in Belgium to have Sharon indicted on alleged war crimes charges. Elie Hobeika, the leader of the Phalange militia who carried out the massacres, was assassinated in January 2002, several months before he was scheduled to testify trial. Prior to his assassination, he had "specifically stated that he did not plan to identify Sharon as being responsible for Sabra and Shatila."

Political downturn and recovery

After his dismissal from the Defense Ministry post, Sharon remained in successive governments as a minister without portfolio (1983–1984), Minister for Trade and Industry (1984–1990), and Minister of Housing Construction (1990–1992). In the Knesset, he was member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense committee (1990–1992) and chairman of the committee overseeing Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union. During this period he was a rival to then prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, but failed in various bids to replace him as chairman of Likud. Their rivalry reached a head in February 1990, when Sharon grabbed the microphone from Shamir, who was addressing the Likud central committee, and famously exclaimed: "Who's for wiping out terrorism?" The incident was widely viewed as an apparent coup attempt against Shamir's leadership of the party.

Sharon unsuccessfully challenged Shamir in the 1984 Herut leadership election and the 1992 Likud leadership election.

In Benjamin Netanyahu's 1996–1999 government, Sharon was Minister of National Infrastructure (1996–98), and Foreign Minister (1998–99). Upon the election of the Barak Labor government, Sharon became the interim leader of the Likud party and subsequently won the September 1999 Likud leadership election.

Opposition to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
Ariel Sharon criticised the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 as an act of "brutal interventionism". Sharon said both Serbia and Kosovo have been victims of violence. He said prior to the current Yugoslav campaign against Kosovo Albanians, Serbians were the targets of attacks in the Kosovo province. "Israel has a clear policy. We are against aggressive actions. We are against hurting innocent people. I hope that the sides will return to the negotiating table as soon as possible." During the crisis, Elyakim Haetzni said the Serbs should be the first to receive Israeli aid. "There are our traditional friends," he told Israel Radio." It was suggested that Sharon may have supported the Yugoslav position because of the Serbian population's history of saving Jews during the holocaust. On Sharon's death, Serbian minister Aleksandar Vulin stated: The Serbian people will remember Sharon for opposing the 1999 NATO bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia and advocating respect for sovereignty of other nations and a policy of not interfering with their internal affairs.

Campaign for Prime Minister, 2000–2001
On 28 September 2000, Sharon and an escort of over 1,000 Israeli police officers visited the Temple Mount complex, site of the Dome of the Rock and Qibli Mosque, the holiest place in the world to Jews and the third holiest site in Islam. Sharon declared that the complex would remain under perpetual Israeli control. Palestinian commentators accused Sharon of purposely inflaming emotions with the event to provoke a violent response and obstruct success of delicate ongoing peace talks. On the following day, a large number of Palestinian demonstrators and an Israeli police contingent confronted each other at the site. According to the U.S. State Department, "Palestinians held large demonstrations and threw stones at police in the vicinity of the Western Wall. Police used rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, killing 4 persons and injuring about 200." According to the government of Israel, 14 policemen were injured.

Sharon's visit, a few months before his election as Prime Minister, came after archeologists claimed that extensive building operations at the site were destroying priceless antiquities. Sharon's supporters claim that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian National Authority planned the Second Intifada months prior to Sharon's visit. They state that Palestinian security chief Jabril Rajoub provided assurances that if Sharon did not enter the mosques, no problems would arise. They also often quote statements by Palestinian Authority officials, particularly Imad Falouji, the P.A. Communications Minister, who admitted months after Sharon's visit that the violence had been planned in July, far in advance of Sharon's visit, stating the intifada "was carefully planned since the return of (Palestinian President) Yasser Arafat from Camp David negotiations rejecting the U.S. conditions". According to the Mitchell Report,

The Mitchell Report found that

In addition, the report stated,

The Or Commission, an Israeli panel of inquiry appointed to investigate the October 2000 events,

Prime Minister (2001–2006)

After the collapse of Barak's government, Sharon was elected Prime Minister on 6 February 2001, defeating Barak 62 percent to 38 percent. Sharon's senior adviser was Raanan Gissin. In his first act as prime minister, Sharon invited the Labor Party to join in a coalition with Likud. After Israel was struck by a wave of suicide bombings in 2002, Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield and led the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier. A survey conducted by Tel Aviv University's Jaffe Center in May 2004 found that 80% of Jewish Israelis believed that the Israel Defense Forces had succeeded in militarily countering the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

The election of the more pro-Russian Sharon, as well as the more pro-Israel Vladimir Putin, led to an improvement in Israel–Russia relations.

In September 2003, Sharon became the first prime minister of Israel to visit India, saying that Israel regarded India as one of the most important countries in the world. Some analysts speculated on the development of a three-way military axis of New Delhi, Washington, D.C., and Jerusalem.

On 20 July 2004, Sharon called on French Jews to emigrate from France to Israel immediately, in light of an increase in antisemitism in France (94 antisemitic assaults were reported in the first six months of 2004, compared to 47 in 2003). France has the third-largest Jewish population in the world (about 600,000 people). Sharon observed that an "unfettered anti-Semitism" reigned in France. The French government responded by describing his comments as "unacceptable", as did the French representative Jewish organization CRIF, which denied Sharon's claim of intense anti-Semitism in French society. An Israeli spokesperson later claimed that Sharon had been misunderstood. France then postponed a visit by Sharon. Upon his visit, both Sharon and French President Jacques Chirac were described as showing a willingness to put the issue behind them.

Unilateral disengagement

In September 2001, Sharon stated for the first time that Palestinians should have the right to establish their own land west of the Jordan River. In May 2003, Sharon endorsed the Road Map for Peace put forth by the United States, the European Union and Russia, which opened a dialogue with Mahmud Abbas, and stated his commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state in the future.

He embarked on a course of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while maintaining control of its coastline and airspace. Sharon's plan was welcomed by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel's left wing as a step towards a final peace settlement. However, it was greeted with opposition from within his own Likud party and from other right wing Israelis, on national security, military, and religious grounds.

Disengagement from Gaza
On 1 December 2004, Sharon dismissed five ministers from the Shinui party for voting against the government's 2005 budget. In January 2005, Sharon formed a national unity government that included representatives of Likud, Labor, and Meimad and Degel HaTorah as "out-of-government" supporters without any seats in the government (United Torah Judaism parties usually reject having ministerial offices as a policy). Between 16 and 30 August 2005, Sharon controversially expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank. Once it became clear that the evictions were definitely going ahead, a group of conservative Rabbis, led by Yosef Dayan, placed an ancient curse on Sharon known as the Pulsa diNura, calling on the Angel of Death to intervene and kill him. After Israeli soldiers bulldozed every settlement structure except for several former synagogues, Israeli soldiers formally left Gaza on 11 September 2005 and closed the border fence at Kissufim. While his decision to withdraw from Gaza sparked bitter protests from members of the Likud party and the settler movement, opinion polls showed that it was a popular move among most of the Israeli electorate, with more than 80 percent of Israelis backing the plans. On 27 September 2005, Sharon narrowly defeated a leadership challenge by a 52–48 percent vote. The move was initiated within the central committee of the governing Likud party by Sharon's main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, who had left the cabinet to protest Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. The measure was an attempt by Netanyahu to call an early primary in November 2005 to choose the party's leader.

Founding of Kadima
On 21 November 2005, Sharon resigned as head of Likud, and dissolved parliament to form a new centrist party called Kadima ("Forward"). November polls indicated that Sharon was likely to be returned to the prime ministership. On 20 December 2005, Sharon's longtime rival Netanyahu was elected his successor as leader of Likud. Following Sharon's incapacitation, Ehud Olmert replaced Sharon as Kadima's leader, for the nearing general elections. Likud, along with the Labor Party, were Kadimas chief rivals in the March 2006 elections.

Sharon's stroke occurred a few months before he had been expected to win a new election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals.

In the elections, which saw Israel's lowest-ever voter turnout of 64 percent (the number usually averages on the high 70%), Kadima, headed by Olmert, received the most Knesset seats, followed by Labor. The new governing coalition installed in May 2006 included Kadima, with Olmert as Prime Minister, Labor (including Amir Peretz as Defense Minister), the Pensioners' Party (Gil), the Shas religious party, and Israel Beytenu.

Alleged fundraising irregularities and Greek island affair
During the latter part of his career, Sharon was investigated for alleged involvement in a number of financial scandals, in particular, the Greek island affair and irregularities of fundraising during the 1999 election campaign. In the Greek island affair, Sharon was accused of promising (during his term as Foreign Minister) to help Israeli businessman David Appel in his development project on a Greek island in exchange for large consultancy payments to Sharon's son Gilad. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence. In the 1999 election fundraising scandal, Sharon was not charged with any wrongdoing, but his son Omri, a Knesset member at the time, was charged and sentenced in 2006 to nine months in prison.

To avoid a potential conflict of interest in relation to these investigations, Sharon was not involved in the confirmation of the appointment of a new attorney general, Menahem Mazuz, in 2005.

On 10 December 2005, Israeli police raided Martin Schlaff's apartment in Jerusalem. Another suspect in the case was Robert Nowikovsky, an Austrian involved in Russian state-owned company Gazprom's business activities in Europe.

According to Haaretz, "The $3 million that parachuted into Gilad and Omri Sharon's bank account toward the end of 2002 was transferred there in the context of a consultancy contract for development of kolkhozes (collective farms) in Russia. Gilad Sharon was brought into the campaign to make the wilderness bloom in Russia by Getex, a large Russian-based exporter of seeds (peas, millet, wheat) from Eastern Europe. Getex also has ties with Israeli firms involved in exporting wheat from Ukraine, for example. The company owns farms in Eastern Europe and is considered large and prominent in its field. It has its Vienna offices in the same building as Jurimex, which was behind the $1-million guarantee to the Yisrael Beiteinu party."

On 17 December, police found evidence of a $3 million bribe paid to Sharon's sons. Shortly afterwards, Sharon had a stroke.

Illness, incapacitation and death (2006–2014)

Sharon had been obese since the 1980s, and also had suspected chronic high blood pressure and high cholesterol – at  tall, he was reputed to weigh . Stories of Sharon's appetite and obesity were legendary in Israel. He would often joke about his love of food and expansive girth. His staff car would reportedly be stocked with snacks, vodka, and caviar. In October 2004 when asked why he did not wear a bulletproof vest despite frequent death threats, Sharon smiled and replied, "There is none that fits my size". He was a daily consumer of cigars and luxury foods. Numerous attempts by doctors, friends, and staff to impose a balanced diet on Sharon were unsuccessful.

Sharon was hospitalized on 18 December 2005, following a minor ischemic stroke. During his hospital stay, doctors discovered a heart defect requiring surgery and ordered bed rest pending a cardiac catheterization scheduled for 5 January 2006. Instead, Sharon immediately returned to work and had a hemorrhagic stroke on 4 January. He was rushed to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. After two surgeries lasting 7 and 14 hours, doctors stopped the bleeding in Sharon's brain, but were unable to prevent him from entering into a coma. Subsequent media reports indicated that Sharon had been diagnosed with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) during his December hospitalisation. Hadassah Hospital Director Shlomo Mor-Yosef declined to respond to comments that the combination of CAA and blood thinners after Sharon's December stroke might have caused his more serious subsequent stroke.

Ehud Olmert became Acting Prime Minister the night of Sharon's second stroke, while Sharon officially remained in office. Knesset elections followed in March, with Olmert and Sharon's Kadima party winning a plurality. The next month, the Israeli Cabinet declared Sharon permanently incapacitated and Olmert became Interim Prime Minister on 14 April 2006 and Prime Minister in his own right on 4 May.

Sharon underwent a series of subsequent surgeries related to his state. In May 2006, he was transferred to a long-term care facility in Sheba Medical Center. In July of that year, he was briefly taken to the hospital's intensive care unit to be treated for bacteria in his blood, before returning to the long-term care facility on 6 November 2006. Sharon would remain at Sheba Medical Center until his death. Medical experts indicated that his cognitive abilities had likely been destroyed by the stroke. His condition worsened from late 2013, and Sharon suffered from renal failure on 1 January 2014.

After spending eight years in a coma, Sharon died at 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC) on 11 January 2014. Sharon's state funeral was held on 13 January in accordance with Jewish burial customs, which require that interment take place as soon after death as possible. His body lay in state in the Knesset Plaza from 12 January until the official ceremony, followed by a funeral held at the family's ranch in the Negev Desert. Sharon was buried beside his wife, Lily.

Personal life

Sharon was married twice, to two sisters, Margalit and Lily Zimmerman, who were from Romania. Sharon met Margalit in 1947 when she was 16, while she was tending a vegetable field, and married her in 1953, shortly after becoming a military instructor. Margalit was a supervisory psychiatric nurse. They had one son, Gur. Margalit died in a car accident in May 1962 and Gur died in October 1967, aged 11, after a friend accidentally shot him while the two children were playing with a rifle at the Sharon family home. After Margalit's death, Sharon married her younger sister, Lily. They had two sons, Omri and Gilad, and six grandchildren. Lily Sharon died of lung cancer in 2000.

Sharon's sister, Yehudit, known as "Dita", married Shmuel Mandel. In the 1950s, the couple permanently left Israel and emigrated to the United States. This caused a permanent rift in the family. Shmuel and Vera Scheinerman were greatly hurt by their daughter's choice to leave Israel. As a result, Vera Scheinerman willed only a small part of her estate to Dita, an act which enraged her. At one point, Dita decided to return to Israel, but after Vera was informed by the Israel Lands Administration that it would not be legally possible to split the family property between Ariel and Dita, and informed her that she would not be able to build a home there, Dita, believing she was being lied to, cut her family in Israel off and refused to attend the funerals of her mother and sister-in-law. She reestablished contact with the family after Sharon's stroke. Sharon's sister has rarely been mentioned in biographies of him: he himself rarely acknowledged her and only mentioned her twice in his autobiography.

Legacy
A hugely consequential figure, Sharon remains a highly polarizing figure as well. While generally considered a great general and statesman among Israelis, Palestinians and numerous media and political sources revile Sharon as a war criminal. Human Rights Watch have contended that Sharon should have been held criminally accountable for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and other abuses.

The Ariel Sharon Park, an environmental park near Tel Aviv, is named for him.

In the Negev desert, the IDF is currently building its city of training bases, Camp Ariel Sharon. In total, a NIS 50 billion project, the city of bases is named after Ariel Sharon, the largest active construction project in Israel, it is to become the largest IDF base in Israel.

Overview of offices held
Sharon served as prime minister (Israel's head of government) from 7 March 2001 through 14 April 2006 (with Ehud Olmert serving as acting prime minister beginning 4 January 2006, after Sharon slipped into a coma). As prime minister he led the 12th government during the 15th Knesset and the 13th government during the 16th Knesset.

Sharon served in the Knesset, first for several months in 1973, and later from 1977 through 2006. Sharon. From July 1999 through July 2000, Sharon served as the unofficial/honorary Knesset's opposition leader. Thereafter, from July 2000 through March 2001, he served as the first official designated Knesset opposition leader.

Sharon was the leader of the Shlomtzion party from its 1976 founding until its 1977 merger into Likud. Sharon served as leader of the Likud party from 1999 through 2005, leaving to create Kadima which he led from 2005 through early 2006 (when he fell into a coma).

In addition to these positions and his ministerial roles, Sharon also served as a special aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin from June 1975 through March 1976.

Ministerial posts

Electoral history

2001 direct election for Prime Minister

Party leadership elections

References

Further reading

Ben Shaul, Moshe (editor); Generals of Israel, Tel-Aviv: Hadar Publishing House, Ltd., 1968.
Uri Dan; Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait, Palgrave Macmillan, October 2006, 320 pages. .
Ariel Sharon, with David Chanoff; Warrior: The Autobiography of Ariel Sharon, Simon & Schuster, 2001, .
Gilad Sharon, (translated by Mitch Ginsburg); Sharon: The Life of a Leader, HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, .
Nir Hefez, Gadi Bloom, (translated by Mitch Ginsburg); Ariel Sharon: A Life, Random House, October 2006, 512 pages, .
Freddy Eytan, (translated by Robert Davies); Ariel Sharon: A Life in Times of Turmoil, translation of Sharon: le bras de fer, Studio 8 Books and Music, 2006, .
Abraham Rabinovich; The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East, 2005, .
Ariel Sharon, official biography, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tzvi T. Avisar; Sharon: Five years forward, Publisher House, March 2011, 259 pages, Official website, .

External links

Three recordings from Sharon's Military Career, published by Israel State Archives:

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Liberal Christianity is a term which is used for several movements in Christianity. These movements formed between the 18th and 20th century. Their philosophical and theological ideas have been influenced by those of Enlightenment. They are not liberal in a political sense. They want to remain independent from dogmas defined by the different Christian Churches. When Liberal Christians interpret the Bible, they reject Biblical inerrancy and Papal authority. A Liberal Christian may have certain beliefs that are the same as those of more conservative Christians. Well known proponents include Hans Küng, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Albert Schweitzer.

Conservative theologians and scholars strongly criticize Liberal Christianity's rejection of orthodox doctrines and willingness to adapt to the modern era, claiming that it goes against traditional conceptions of Christian faith. Liberal Christianity has also been criticized for its  pluralistic and  relativistic leanings in theology. Modernism has been denounced by the Catholic Church as a heresy.

Related pages
Quaker
Episcopalian
Unitarian Universalism

References

Christian movements and denominational families

Liberal Christianity


Alvaro Soares da Cunha (c. 1466–1557) was the natural born son of Afonso V of Portugal, and Maria Soares da Cunha, the recently widowed daughter of Afonso's major valet, Fernão de Sá Alcoforado, and his wife Maria da Cunha.

Álvaro was born at the Quinta de Paço de Pombal in Vila Boa de Quires in the district of Porto to the widowed, 20-year-old Maria Soares da Cunha at her aunt's home. After the death of her aunt and uncle, Maria and Álvaro were later cared for by her cousin, Pedro da Cunha Coutinho in Celorico de Basto. Álvaro received recognition from King Afonso V in 1476 when he was visiting Vila Nova de Alvito when Álvaro was 10 years old.

Álvaro was made "Guarda-Mor de Peste" (Major Guard of Pestilence) within the city of Porto, Lord of the House of Quintães in the town of São Vicente de Pinheiro in the municipality of Penafiel in Porto, and a gentleman of the Royal House. He was listed as vereador (alderman) of the city of Porto in 1508.

Álvaro first married Maria Machado, without issue, and then Inês da Mota, with offspring.

References

1466 births
1557 deaths
Portuguese nobility
Alvaro
Illegitimate children of Portuguese monarchs
15th-century Portuguese people
16th-century Portuguese people

Álvaro Soares da Cunha


Dohrman Tract or Dohrman's Grant was a land tract in eastern Ohio granted by Congress to Arnold Henry Dohrman (1749–1813), who helped the American cause in the Revolutionary War.

At the beginning of the war, Dohrman, of the Netherlands, was a wealthy merchant in Lisbon, Portugal.  He supplied the United States with clothing and war material, and fed and looked after American seamen who the British had captured and released to his custody.  In June, 1780, the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Congress reported to that body on his humane acts.  A resolution was passed appointing him agent for the United States in the Kingdom of Portugal, an unpaid position.  They authorized him to extend relief to US citizens, and to bill them for his expenditures.  They assured they would refund him at their earliest opportunity.

Dohrman presented a bill on July 19, 1786 for $26,084.24.  He only had vouchers proving $5,806.80 in expenses.  Congress paid the smaller amount on October 1, 1787.  The $20,277.44 shortfall was not paid, but Congress paid him a salary of $1600 per year from the time he started his assistance, and allowed him to make a choice of any township of land out of the fifth through seventh ranges of the first seven ranges surveyed in Ohio.

Dohrman had not seen Ohio, and acted on the advice of others when he chose the thirteenth township of the seventh range, now half in Harrison County and half in Tuscarawas County.  President John Adams issued a patent for the land to Dohrman, or his legal representatives, on February 27, 1801.

Dohrman lived in New York City for many years, engaging in business.  Various misfortunes lead to him having to mortgage his land to his creditors, preventing him from subdividing and selling at a profit.  After his business failure, he moved to Steubenville, Ohio to be nearer his land.  He died there in 1813.  In 1817, Congress granted his widow, Rachel Dohrman, an annuity of $400 per year and $100 per year for each of his children until age 21.

The Grant in Modern Times

The grant consists of the a three-mile (5 km) wide by 1 ½ mile high
parcel in the southwest corner of Monroe Township, Harrison County, Ohio, a three-mile (5 km) wide by 4 ½ mile high western half of Franklin Township, Harrison County, Ohio, a three-mile (5 km) wide by four mile high strip on the east side of Mill Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and a three-mile (5 km) wide by two mile high strip on the east side of Rush Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio for a total of approximately .  The corners of the grant are at ,
,, .  The community of Stillwater and the dam and part of the reservoir of Tappan Lake are in the tract and Ohio State Route 800 and United States Highway 250 pass through.

See also
Ohio Lands
Historic regions of the United States

Notes

References

External links
Ohio History Central- Dohrman's Grant
Arnold Henry Dohrman. Papers, 1749-1813, housed in the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign's Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

Former regions and territories of the United States
Geography of Ohio
Pre-statehood history of Ohio
Dutch-American culture in Ohio
History of the Midwestern United States
1786 in the United States
Harrison County, Ohio
Tuscarawas County, Ohio
History of Ohio

Dohrman Tract


The DeploraBall was an unofficial inaugural ball event organized by GOTV group MAGA3X and held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on the evening of January 19, 2017, to celebrate the victory and inauguration of Donald Trump. The event was met with violent protests outside the venue while the event went on as scheduled inside. In addition to the MAGA3X event, the "DeploraBall" name has also been used to refer to additional events for Trump supporters in Washington, D.C., and other locations. The name is a play on Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment made during her 2016 presidential election campaign.

Background
"DeploraBall" was conceived in early November 2016 by a marketing team as a brand name for various parties and events celebrating the election of Donald Trump. Among the organizers were Jack Posobiec, Jeff Giesea, and Mike Cernovich. The loosely organized GOTV group MAGA3X became one of the first sponsors of a DeploraBall event, which MAGA3X originally announced would be held on January 19, 2017, (the night before the Trump inauguration) at the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington, Virginia. After MAGA3X had sold over 500 tickets, the Ballroom declined to host the event, stating that no event contract had been signed and that the venue had decided not to issue a contract "due to the suspicious actions of the organizers" in selling tickets before a contract was in place; however, event organizers alleged that the Ballroom had acquiesced to pressure from Hillary Clinton supporters. The Ballroom subsequently became "overwhelmed" with harassing phone calls and threats, although Arlington County police said there were no "credible" threats.

MAGA3X then announced that the event would move to the National Press Club. Following the change of venue, one of the original organizers, Tim Treadstone (known online as "Baked Alaska"), was reportedly banned from the DeploraBall by Cernovich and Giesea after posting "anti-Semitic and racist comments" on Twitter, sparking an online argument with Cernovich. White supremacist Richard Spencer, who had recently made news for leading a group Nazi salute during a pro-Trump conference at a restaurant, was also uninvited from the event. Cernovich subsequently told TMZ that racist gestures, such as the Nazi salute, were banned from the event. Images of Pepe the Frog were also banned. Other MAGA3X organizers also made statements disavowing any affiliation between the DeploraBall and white nationalism. The organizers' limitations on speech and banning of Treadstone and Spencer were criticized by some alt-right members as bowing to mainstream pressure. Both the outgoing and the incoming presidents of the National Press Club stated that the club would hold the private event in honor of the incoming President Trump "as we have for incoming presidents of both parties for decades", but would neither endorse nor sponsor the event.

Event
On the evening of January 19, 2017, the MAGA3X DeploraBall event was held at the National Press Building (the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the National Press Club). The event had sold out its 1000-ticket capacity in advance. Although journalist Milo Yiannopoulos had been invited, he did not attend. Political consultant Roger Stone arrived at the venue, but left without entering the event after learning the organizers had not provided sufficient tickets for his family members accompanying him. The event was broadcast live by Right Side Broadcasting Network. To mark the conclusion of DeploraBall, Scott LoBaido painted a "live-speed" portrait of Donald Trump.

A second Washington, D.C.-area inaugural ball dubbed "Gays for Trump DeploraBall Gala" was held at the Bolger Center Hotel in Potomac, Maryland, on the following evening, January 20, 2017. The event was attended by over 200 people. Another "Gays for Trump DeploraBall" was planned to be held on July 4, 2017; however, the event was renamed and pushed back to July 1. Additional inaugural events using the DeploraBall name took place in other US locales, including California, North Carolina, Arizona, and Ohio. According to the official DeploraBall marketing website, over 50 DeploraBall events were held nationwide and in three countries around the time of the Trump inauguration.

Attendees included Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, activist James O'Keefe, businessman Martin Shkreli, and social media personalities Mike Cernovich, Jim Hoft, and Gavin McInnes.

A similarly named inaugural celebration called the "Deplorables Inaugural Ball" was organized by Deplorables Nation and took place at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on the evening of January 19, 2017.

Protests
A few weeks before the DeploraBall, members of Project Veritas infiltrated meetings of the protest groups DisruptJ20 and the DC Antifascist Coalition, and filmed members discussing plans to disrupt and "crash" the DeploraBall. According to an affidavit released by police, three people associated with the protest groups plotted to get into the National Press Club and tamper with the sprinkler system to release butyric acid, acting as a stink bomb, over the DeploraBall attendees. At least one conspirator had purchased tickets to the event, which were cancelled by the organizers upon seeing the Veritas videos. After the videos became public, a spokesperson for the protest groups claimed that their members knew Veritas was monitoring them, and deliberately fabricated the alleged DeploraBall plot, which they did not intend to actually carry out, in order to distract the Veritas infiltrator from their real protest plans. The video led to the arrests of three men involved in the plot, all of whom later pled guilty to conspiracy charges.

During the evening of January 19, hundreds of anti-Trump protesters demonstrated outside the National Press Building. Protesters clashed with police in riot gear, who formed a human shield to protect DeploraBall attendees as they arrived and entered the building. Protesters also threw bottles at attendees who were leaving the venue. One Trump supporter suffered a head injury after being hit by a protester. Ellison Barber of local CBS affiliate WUSA-TV reported that she had seen "at least four fights" outside the venue. A young boy at the protest, later identified by TMZ as the 11-year-old son of actor Drew Carey, told a Fox News reporter at the scene that he had started a fire in the street near the venue. Police eventually used pepper spray to disperse the protesters.

References

External links

2017 in Washington, D.C.
Alt-right events
Inauguration of Donald Trump
January 2017 events in the United States
Reactions to the election of Donald Trump
Far-right politics in the United States
Balls in the United States
2010s political events

DeploraBall


Paonia State Park is a Colorado State Park located in Gunnison County east of Paonia,  Colorado.  The  park in a canyon surrounding Paonia Reservoir on the North Fork Gunnison River was established in 1964. Park facilities include campsites, picnic sites and a boat ramp. Geologic formations from the Cretaceous and Paleocene periods are visible in the park, along with fossilized palm fronds and leaf imprints.  Park uplands are gambel oak shrublands along with mixed conifer and aspen forests. Commonly seen wildlife include mule deer, elk, cottontail rabbit and marmot.

References

State parks of Colorado
Protected areas of Gunnison County, Colorado
Protected areas established in 1964

Paonia State Park


Der Alpen-Rap (The Alpine Rap) is a song by Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung.

It was released in 1983 and composed by Spitzer/Holm/Eberhartinger/Breit/Schönberger. The lyrics are written by Thomas Spitzer.

Der Alpen-Rap was released on 7 inch only in Austria, however a 7-inch and a 12-inch were released in Germany. The Austrian 7 inch was on catalogue number EMI Columbia 12C 006 33310. The German 7 inch was on catalogue number EMI Electrola 1333107 and the German 12 inch was released on catalogue number EMI Electrola 1333106. All three issues were in 1983. All three issues featured I hob des G'fühl as the B side, however the German 12 inch featured Alpen-Rap (Mega-Alm-Mix) instead of the original Alpen-Rap track.
A slight variation (in Swedish) of Der Alpen-Rap was released on 7 inch in Sweden in 1983 and it was called Alp-Rap. It was released on catalogue number EMI 1333227 and featured Tanz Tanz Tanz on the B side. In 1988 Alp-Rap got released on Kann den Schwachsinn Sünde sein.

The single reached number 6 in the Austrian singles chart and number 12 in the Swiss singles chart.

References

Culture of Austria
German songs
1983 singles
1983 songs

Der Alpen-Rap


Leif Albert Östling (born 25 September 1945) is a Swedish chief executive officer and former head of the Scania AB truck company, owned by the German Volkswagen Group. In spring 2016, he was appointed Chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, a post he left in advance in November 2017.

Östling has become known as a controversial political entrepreneur debater who makes bold statements. Over the years, he has separated politically from the time of youth when he belonged to the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League, SSU.

Education and working life

Östling was born in Luleå. After graduating with a Master of Engineering degree (MEng) from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and a Bachelor of Economics degree (BEcon) from Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law, he came in 1972 to the Scania AB division in Saab-Scania, where he advanced through a variety of positions. Among other things, he was responsible for long-term planning before he was appointed head of Scania AB in the Netherlands in 1983. In 1989 he was appointed head of the Scania and in 1994 when Scania broke out of the Saab Scania group and became an independent corporation, he was appointed CEO. Östling left his post as CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (which includes Scania AB) 2012 in connection with controversial statements that trade unions have no right of veto for a possible relocation of jobs. Östling continued on 1 September 2012 to a position in Volkswagen AG until September 2015.

When Scania's former main investor Investor AB in the year of 2000 agreed that Scania AB would merge with their biggest competitor Volvo Trucks, Östling opposed that merger, just as in the fall of 2006 he had opposed German MAN's plans to buy Scania AB. When the EU Commission, referring to the European Union competition law (Volvo Trucks / Scania AB would practically have a monopoly on the truck market in the Nordic countries), stopped the merger between Volvo Trucks and Scania AB, Östling won that battle and was able, with support from Scania's new owner Volkswagen, to remain in Scania as CEO. Also, the MAN SE bid for takeover was rejected by the main shareholders, and Östling could continue as CEO after the Annual general meeting in May 2007.

Controversies
In 2017 Östling participated in the SVT TV program Uppdrag granskning, which showed that he had placed money abroad to avoid Swedish taxation. Also his comment in connection with that, "Here you pay 20–30 million a year, what the hell do I get for the money?", was considered inappropriate from a chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. Östling commented later on the following discussion with "We have got a very narrow sense of corridor in Sweden if all political parties consider the political system to have unlimited taxation rights without the right of citizens to question how the money is used."

Östling has said that he believes it is "genetically conditioned" that so few women enter the engineering profession. He has also expressed his belief that the threat of global warming has been exaggerated and that the phenomenon is possibly caused by natural processes, which completely opposes the scientific consensus on climate change.

Prizes and awards
In 2003, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at KTH, Stockholm and at Luleå University of Technology, Luleå.
In 2004, he was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
In 2009, he was appointed by Veckans Affärer 2008 years social capitalist.
In 2012, he was awarded Gustaf Dalén Medal by "Chalmersska Ingenjörsföreningen".

References

1945 births
Living people
People from Luleå
Swedish engineers
20th-century Swedish businesspeople
Scania AB people
Academic staff of the Chalmers University of Technology
Chalmers University of Technology alumni
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences

Leif Östling


Barry Joseph Goldberg (born December 25, 1942) is an American blues and rock keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. Goldberg has co-produced albums by Percy Sledge, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, and the Textones, plus Bob Dylan's version of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready".

Career

1950s–1970s
As a teenager in Chicago, Goldberg sat in with Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Howlin' Wolf. He played keyboards with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band backing Bob Dylan during his 1965 newly 'electrified' appearance at the Newport Folk Festival.  He formed The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield in 1967, and formed the Barry Goldberg Reunion in 1968.

In 1965, after moving to Chicago to play the blues, Steve Miller and Goldberg founded the Goldberg-Miller Blues Band, along with bassist Roy Ruby, rhythm guitarist Craymore Stevens, and drummer Maurice McKinley. The band contracted to Epic Records and recorded a single, "The Mother Song", which they performed on Hullabaloo, before Miller left the group to go to San Francisco.

Goldberg's songs (some co-written with Gerry Goffin) have been recorded by many musicians, including Rod Stewart, Gladys Knight, Joe Cocker, Steve Miller, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Gram Parsons and B. J. Thomas.

Goldberg's first professional recording session was "Devil with the Blue Dress On"/"Good Golly Miss Molly" by Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. Among the albums he contributed to are Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, The Ramones' End of the Century, The Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin, and Super Session, which featured Michael Bloomfield, Stephen Stills, and Al Kooper.

Goldberg's self-titled album was released in 1974, and was produced by Bob Dylan and Jerry Wexler.

1990s–2000s
In 1992 he played keyboards with the Carla Olson & Mick Taylor band, which resulted in the live CD Too Hot for Snakes, featuring Ian McLagan, Jesse Sublett and John "Juke" Logan.

In 1994, Goldberg and Saul Davis produced Blue Night by Percy Sledge, which featured Bobby Womack, Steve Cropper, Mick Taylor, Greg Leisz, Bob Glaub, Ed Greene, and Mikael Rickfors, with songs written by Rickfors, Gregg Sutton, Pat Robinson, Carla Olson, the Bee Gees, Quinton Claunch, Fats Domino, and Otis Redding. The album was Grammy nominated and the WC Handy soul album of the year.

By 1999, Goldberg both wrote and performed the theme to the Disney Channel original movie Smart House, entitled "The House is Jumpin, with Phil Shenale and Sterling Smith, with vocals by Chan André. He wrote the song with Jill Wisoff and Joel Diamond.

In 2002, he was featured on the Bo Diddley tribute album Hey Bo Diddley – A Tribute!, playing piano on the songs "Pills", "I'm A Man" and "Before You Accuse Me" (produced by Carla Olson). Carla also produced Barry's Stoned Again album, which featured Denny Freeman, Mick Taylor and Ernie Watts.

In 2004, Shining Through The Rain by Percy Sledge was co-produced by Davis and Goldberg, featuring Larry Byrom, Denny Freeman, Clayton Ivey, Ed Greene, Phil Upchurch, Bob Glaub, the Waters, and Jakob Dylan, and songs by the Bee Gees, Mikael Rickfors, Carla Olson, Jackie Lomax, Earl Carson, Bobby Moore.

In 2005–2006, he toured with the Chicago Blues Reunion featuring Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Tracy Nelson and Corky Siegel. Their debut CD reached No. 2 on the Billboard Blues Chart and received a four-star review from Rolling Stone magazine's David Fricke.

2010 to present

In 2012, Stephen Stills recruited Goldberg in founding a new band dubbed the Rides, culling some of Stills's best work from the past, adding guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and session drummer Chris Layton. Goldberg co-wrote four songs on their first album, titled Can't Get Enough, released that year. The feature track is "Word Game". Much of the album reflects the work Stills did on the Super Session album with Mike Bloomfield in 1968. The album was nominated for a 2014 Blues Music Award for Best Rock Blues Album.

Goldberg appears on the Carla Olson album Have Harmony, Will Travel (released April 15, 2013, on Busted Flat Records) playing Hammond B3 organ on Del Shannon's "Keep Searchin sung by Carla and Peter Case, and piano and organ on the Little Steven song "All I Needed Was You", sung by Scott Kempner (The Del-Lords).

The Born in Chicago documenting Chicago blues was released in 2013, premiering at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Goldberg had been working on this project for a few years. It includes unique contributions by Bob Dylan, BB King, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Eric Burdon, and many others.

Goldberg produced three tracks on the 2013 EP (Drown in the Crimson Tide) by The Voice Season One semi-finalist Nakia with longtime friend Johnny Lee Schell.

In 2016, the Rides played with Neil Young at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles at the Light Up the Blues event. The band later the same year released their second album, Pierced Arrow.

Goldberg produced and composed additional musical score to the documentary feature film BANG! The Bert Berns Story, which premiered at SXSW in 2016 and was released theatrically in 2017.

His latest CD, In the Groove, was released on June 15, 2018 on Sunset Blvd Records. The album consists of new and classic instrumentals, and features Goldberg on Hammond B3 organ, piano and Wurlitzer piano. Among the featured musicians and guests is jazz pianist Les McCann. The album was produced by Carla Olson.

Goldberg appears on the RENEW / BMG album Americana Railroad, released November 26, 2021, backing Rocky Burnette and James Intveld.

Personal life
Goldberg is a nephew of Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg.

Barry's wife is named Gail and their son is Aram.

Discography

Albums
1966: Blowing My Mind (Epic LP: BN-26199)
1968: There's No Hole in My Soul (Buddah LP: BDS-5012)
1969: Two Jews Blues (Buddah LP: BDS-5029)
1969: Street Man (Buddah LP: BDS-5051)
1972: Barry Goldberg and Friends (Record Man/Cherry Red LP: CR-5015)
1974: Barry Goldberg (Atco LP: SD-7040)
1976: Barry Goldberg & Friends Recorded Live (Buddah LP: BDS-5684)
2002: Stoned Again (Antone's/Texas Music Group ANT-0058)
2018: In the Groove (Sunset Blvd Records SBR-7931)

Miscellaneous
Some 1960s session work appears on the re-release of John P. Hammond's So Many Roads
 1970: Ivar Avenue Reunion (RCA LP: LSP-4442)  as Ivar Avenue Reunion, with Neil Merryweather, Lynn Carey, Charlie Musselwhite
 1971: Blasts From My Past (Buddah LP: BDS-5081) compilation of There's No Hole in My Soul and Two Jews Blues
 2005: Chicago Blues Reunion: Buried Alive in the Blues (Out of the Box Records 3016) with Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Tracy Nelson, Sam Lay, Corky Siegel
 2006: Chicago Blues Reunion (Music Avenue 250151) reissue of the Barry Goldberg and Friends material
2008: Harvey Mandel and the Snake Crew (self release), as part of the Snake Crew

References

Sources
 Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness Publishing, 1992.
 Muirhead, Bert. The Record Producers File. A Directory of Rock Album Producers 1962–1984, Blandford Press, 1985.
 Wright, H. Stephen; Limbacher, James L. Keeping Score. Film and Television Music, 1980–1988, Scarecrow Press, 1991.

Interviews
2008 Barry Goldberg @The Cabana Club in Hollywood, CA Rehearsals with Barry Goldberg- Jeanie Cunningham of The Composers Corner is the host of this six-part video series.
"Barry Goldberg: Born and Raised to Play the Blues": Interview with Barry Goldberg (2012, Blues.gr)

1942 births
Living people
Musicians from Chicago
American blues musicians
20th-century American keyboardists
Jewish American songwriters
Songwriters from Illinois
Record producers from Illinois
Blues musicians from Illinois
The Electric Flag members
21st-century American keyboardists
21st-century American Jews
The Rides members

Barry Goldberg


(died 708) was the daughter of Emperor Tenmu of Japan. Her mother was Lady Higami (氷上娘), whose father was Fujiwara no Kamatari, who co-worked with Emperor Tenji when they slew Soga no Iruka in the Taika Reform in 645.

Marriage
Tajima was married to Prince Takechi by the Emperor's order, but she was not happy with him because he was much older than she was and looked like her father. She secretly loved her half-brother, Prince Hozumi. Some of her poems suggesting her love of him were collected in the Man'yōshū. One is about her longing for him, while another mentions the disapproval her affair with him caused when it became public knowledge. She died in 708, possibly suicide.  Her grave site is located on the hill of Ikai at Yonabari near Hatususe.

After her death in 708, he produced a lament poem on her, which was also collected in the Man'yōshū.

Notes

Sources

Japanese princesses
708 deaths
Year of birth unknown
People of Asuka-period Japan
7th-century Japanese women writers
7th-century Japanese poets
8th-century Japanese women writers
8th-century Japanese poets
Man'yō poets
Daughters of emperors

Princess Tajima