Hundreds of Israeli VIPs and international dignitaries attended a state memorial ceremony for the late Ariel Sharon on Monday, remembering the controversial former prime minister as a fearless warrior and bold leader who devoted his life to protecting his country’s security.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair headed the long list of visitors who gathered outside Israel’s parliament building for the ceremony.
Later Monday, Sharon’s body was to be taken from the Knesset to his farm in southern Israel for burial.
“Arik was a man of the land,” President Shimon Peres, a longtime friend and sometimes rival of Sharon, said in his eulogy.
“He defended this land like a lion and he taught its children to swing a scythe. He was a military legend in his lifetime and then turned his gaze to the day Israel would dwell in safety, when our children would return to our borders and peace would grace the Promised Land.”
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