The heavy scents of bougainvillaea and manure mingle in the hot afternoon air at Shikmim Farm. Ariel Sharon pulls down the brim of his black Australian bush hat--a Jewish Crocodile Dundee. On his thick fingers, he is counting off the names his political enemies hurl at him: "Hard-liner. Extremist. Rightist. War criminal." His 1,500 acres on the edge of the Negev Desert is one of the few private farms in Israel and a refuge from the controversy that has followed him through 55 years in the military and in politics. Sharon, 72, the leader of Israel's right-wing Likud Party, leans his...
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