We are glad to have you watching CNN STUDENTNEWS on this Monday, January 13.
First up today, Israel is holding a memorial servicefor a former prime minister.
Here are three things to know about Ariel Sharon.
One, he was a successful army general who later led the country from 2001 to 2006.
Much of his focus during that time was on the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
His actions included ordering air strikes on Palestinian security forces and later holding peacetalks with Palestinian leaders.
Two, Sharon had the reputation of being a fearless leader who could get things done.
To many Israelis he was a popular hero, to some in the Arab world he was a killer.
We'll have more on that in a moment.
Three, Sharon's leadership was cut short.
He had a major stroke in 2006 that affectively ended his service as prime minister.
He stayed in the coma until his death on Saturday, at age 85.
In a flag-draped casket Ariel Sharon enters the Israeli Knesset, the parliament for the very lasttime.
As the nation mourns the death of a man whose presence was felt for better or for worse inthe life of every Israeli.
He built Israel, he's Israel.
He was Israel. He was the health, the heart, everything.
Few knew that better than his old friend than his old friend and sometimes rival Shimon Peres,Israel's 90-year old president, who was the first to pay his respects.
Afterwards, thousands of well-wishers filed through to light candles, to take pictures, toponder what his passing meant.
Among them many who had fought in Israel's long succession of wars.
All his life he fight for Israel.
He was an exception in a way because he's known as the bulldozer, because he got his way.
And he made things happen.
And he was well respected for that.
But on the other side of this divided land, a mirror image.
In Gaza, which was under Sharon's iron-fisted control when he headed Israel SouthernCommand, one man's hero is another man's villain.
"He was a criminal and his hands are covered in blood," Mohamad tells us. He committed manywar crimes and massacres.
Was Ariel Sharon a brave warrior and a visionary statesman or a bulldozer and a butcher?
It all lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Jerusalem.
