Ariel Sharon began life as a warrior in defense of Palestine. He spent most of it in defense of Israel against the Palestinians. Then, overnight, he was fighting for his own life as the best bet the Palestinians have for a state, and Israel for peace.

He was a slim kid of 20 when he fought in the Haganah against the British empire, which was determined to take the dream of a Jewish state away from the Holocaust victims. The Jews were called Palestinians then under the United Nations mandate. Today’s Jerusalem Post was then the Palestine Post.

When the British were driven out of the Holy Land in 1948, the Arab armies attacked the Jews and lost, and there was young Arik Sharon, a favorite of Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, helping the new Israeli nation to survive and flourish.

Now he stands atop his nation as a man unparalleled in his determination to protect the Jewish people and make peace with their neighbors.

To call his career controversial diminishes him. No figure in Israeli history has been so hated by his enemies and so loved by his friends.

His enemies were not only the Arabs. The Israeli peaceniks slandered him for most of his life — until he pulled out of Gaza. They derided him as a killer and a Jewish chauvinist who was dedicated only to the destruction of Palestinians.

His friends loved him for the same reason.

Across the years, the enemies and friends stayed that way. Indeed, even when Sharon saved Israel from almost certain defeat by crossing the Suez Canal and defeating the Egyptians in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, his left-wing Israeli enemies were intractable.

Sure, he won, they admitted, but here he was creating the right-wing Likud Party, which brought their hated opponent Menachem Begin to power.

And it got worse, far worse, when Sharon, as Begin’s defense minister, went to war against Lebanon.

This war did him in. He was run out of the government because he was “indirectly responsible” for the massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese nationals in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps.

It was his low point. The world was sure he was through forever. But I spent a week with him then and thought: No. This guy won’t quit.

He could always beat his enemies.

This time, though, he’s in the hands of God.