The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arutz-7, Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz, was a long-time personal friend of Ariel Sharon. When Sharon served as Housing Minister in the Yitzchak Shamir government of 1990-92, Ketzaleh was his top aide and advisor, helping him build communities in and around Jerusalem, the Golan, Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
In light of Sharon's critical illness, Ketzaleh shared his feelings (in Hebrew) with IsraelNationalNews television:
"My connection with Arik goes back for decades. I volunteered and enlisted in the so-very difficult years of the war against terrorism, from 1969 until the Yom Kippur War in 1973, serving in the [elite] Shaked Unit, beginning as a simple soldier up to deputy company commander. During this war, in Gaza and throughout Sinai, I met with Arik very often; I worked under him, and he was the leader and director of the battle, especially in Gaza.
"During the Yom Kippur War, we were in a special force of officers, and at one point, we were 12 officers who fought face to face with 80 Egyptian commandos. I was critically wounded in this battle, and I can say that with G-d's help, and because of Sharon's decision and intervention - the commander told him over the radio, 'If you don't want a dead officer here, then you better get a helicopter over here fast' - and Sharon agreed to send a helicopter into the battleground and get me out of there, and because of that, I can now sit with my family and my grandchildren and enjoy the fruits - both physical and spiritual - of this beautiful settlement enterprise. Therefore, without a doubt, I owe him a debt of gratitude.
"At this point, with him very sick, since it does not look like he will return to public life - we wish him a full recovery and that he return to his farm in the best possible condition - now is the time to say about him only good things. I can say that what he built in the course of the past many years throughout the Land of Israel, and what he built militarily, and his strategic and tactical views in many areas of national development, are all very unique and will certainly be remembered in his favor.
"To my great sorrow, his actions of the past few years, will cloud, not insignificantly, over his image in Jewish history - but I think G-d did him a favor by preventing him, even when he recovers, from doing further damage to the Nation of Israel, and in the final balance, perhaps his positive actions will outweigh the negative.
"As I said, I personally owe him a large debt. Even Moses: When G-d commanded him to strike the Nile River and turn it to blood, he asked Aaron to do it, because he owed a debt of gratitude to the Nile for having protected him when his mother set him afloat. But undoubtedly, the last years have very gravely clouded over the close ties I used to have with Arik - the abandonment of the nation to terrorism, and to the idea that the nation is under this pressure and could be expelled, with Arik himself leading this process, against - I am certain - his inner position, but only because he was pressured into it.
"All this has made it very difficult not only for me, but for many of his other friends who were also close to him. In the last ten years we have had no connection; he cut off ties because he felt awkward, he couldn't look me in the eyes knowing that we worked together for 25 years, and that I know his positions and opinions and thoughts on everything, and it would be hard for him to know that I, Ketzaleh, am seeing him do things that opposed [everything he thought] in so many areas - regarding the Americans and the other countries, and his caving-in towards the Arabs and towards terrorism, and his display of cowardice towards the terror attacks and the Kassam rockets, and the expulsion of the Jews - all this is not easy for those who were close to him. At the same time, I have in my heart a deep love for the man that cannot be erased, and great admiration and gratefulness that cannot be erased.
"I miss the old Arik - a man with great charisma, a man who fills the room with his presence, full of sense of humor, full of joy, a great conversationalist, deep, original, a great lover of the Land of Israel, one who knows every place in the Land and knows the history of the People of Israel. I have stories from here until tomorrow about the old Arik. In the past years, however, he is an Arik that has been under the thumb of cold and intellectual advisors who have everything except for love of the Land, Nation and history of Israel. All they care about is self-fulfillment and reaching their goals as quickly as possible, even at the expense of the People and Land of Israel and the future of the State of Israel."
In light of Sharon's critical illness, Ketzaleh shared his feelings (in Hebrew) with IsraelNationalNews television:
"My connection with Arik goes back for decades. I volunteered and enlisted in the so-very difficult years of the war against terrorism, from 1969 until the Yom Kippur War in 1973, serving in the [elite] Shaked Unit, beginning as a simple soldier up to deputy company commander. During this war, in Gaza and throughout Sinai, I met with Arik very often; I worked under him, and he was the leader and director of the battle, especially in Gaza.
"During the Yom Kippur War, we were in a special force of officers, and at one point, we were 12 officers who fought face to face with 80 Egyptian commandos. I was critically wounded in this battle, and I can say that with G-d's help, and because of Sharon's decision and intervention - the commander told him over the radio, 'If you don't want a dead officer here, then you better get a helicopter over here fast' - and Sharon agreed to send a helicopter into the battleground and get me out of there, and because of that, I can now sit with my family and my grandchildren and enjoy the fruits - both physical and spiritual - of this beautiful settlement enterprise. Therefore, without a doubt, I owe him a debt of gratitude.
"At this point, with him very sick, since it does not look like he will return to public life - we wish him a full recovery and that he return to his farm in the best possible condition - now is the time to say about him only good things. I can say that what he built in the course of the past many years throughout the Land of Israel, and what he built militarily, and his strategic and tactical views in many areas of national development, are all very unique and will certainly be remembered in his favor.
"To my great sorrow, his actions of the past few years, will cloud, not insignificantly, over his image in Jewish history - but I think G-d did him a favor by preventing him, even when he recovers, from doing further damage to the Nation of Israel, and in the final balance, perhaps his positive actions will outweigh the negative.
"As I said, I personally owe him a large debt. Even Moses: When G-d commanded him to strike the Nile River and turn it to blood, he asked Aaron to do it, because he owed a debt of gratitude to the Nile for having protected him when his mother set him afloat. But undoubtedly, the last years have very gravely clouded over the close ties I used to have with Arik - the abandonment of the nation to terrorism, and to the idea that the nation is under this pressure and could be expelled, with Arik himself leading this process, against - I am certain - his inner position, but only because he was pressured into it.
"All this has made it very difficult not only for me, but for many of his other friends who were also close to him. In the last ten years we have had no connection; he cut off ties because he felt awkward, he couldn't look me in the eyes knowing that we worked together for 25 years, and that I know his positions and opinions and thoughts on everything, and it would be hard for him to know that I, Ketzaleh, am seeing him do things that opposed [everything he thought] in so many areas - regarding the Americans and the other countries, and his caving-in towards the Arabs and towards terrorism, and his display of cowardice towards the terror attacks and the Kassam rockets, and the expulsion of the Jews - all this is not easy for those who were close to him. At the same time, I have in my heart a deep love for the man that cannot be erased, and great admiration and gratefulness that cannot be erased.
"I miss the old Arik - a man with great charisma, a man who fills the room with his presence, full of sense of humor, full of joy, a great conversationalist, deep, original, a great lover of the Land of Israel, one who knows every place in the Land and knows the history of the People of Israel. I have stories from here until tomorrow about the old Arik. In the past years, however, he is an Arik that has been under the thumb of cold and intellectual advisors who have everything except for love of the Land, Nation and history of Israel. All they care about is self-fulfillment and reaching their goals as quickly as possible, even at the expense of the People and Land of Israel and the future of the State of Israel."