It must have been hard for Ariel Sharon to imagine, back when he joined the pre-state Israeli army known as the Haganah at age 14, that one day, more than 60 years later, much of the Western World and the vast majority of the Israeli public would be praying for his health. Or that they would be doing that for him as the elected prime minister of Israel, a man who represents the best hope of peace and security of a Jewish state that has progressed from its founders’ dream into an economic and military powerhouse and a key ally of America that shares our nation’s values of freedom and democracy.

Mr. Sharon’s life has been the history of Israel. He was born in British-controlled Palestine in 1928 as Ariel Scheinermann to a German-Polish father and a Russian mother. In the 1948 War of Independence, at age 20, he commanded an infantry company and was wounded in the battle of Latrun. In the 1967 Six-Day War he commanded an armored division. In 1973 he led Israeli troops across the Suez Canal into Egypt and was wounded again. In 1982, as Israel’s defense minister, Mr. Sharon was criticized in connection with the massacre by Lebanese Christians of Palestinian Arabs. But rather than retiring in shame, Mr. Sharon wrote his biography – “Warrior” – and launched a political comeback that culminated in his election in 2001 as Israel’s prime minister.

One of our memorable glimpses of him came shortly before he acceded as premier, when he was the guest at The New York Sun’s first editorial board meeting, which was held jointly with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. He began, as he often did, with a review of the order of battle in the war against Israel. When he spoke, as he often did, about his own identity, he began, “First, I am a Jew.” We remember thinking as the meal began that he seemed incredibly tired but remember also our amazement as his strength seemed to grow as the meal progressed and he began warming to the points he had made hundreds of times to groups large and intimate.

It is an astounding fact that Jews today are under attack for living as Jews in Israel just as they were in the 1940s,and the Saudis and Iranians are spreading among Palestinian Arabs anti-Semitic propaganda that is just as vile as what existed during the era when the grand mufti of Jerusalem was in Hitler’s Berlin. Today as then Israel had to fight for its existence. Only weeks after our first editorial sitting, Mr. Sharon was elected premier, remarking in his victory speech, “Since my youth, I have devoted myself entirely to the country, to consolidating and building its security.”

Mr. Sharon devoted considerable time last year to marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Yitzhak Rabin, another member of Israel’s founding generation who went from warrior to peacemaker and who died in office before he was able to realize his dream of peace and security. Mr. Sharon’s words delivered at Rabin’s grave in November are worth recalling to day as Israel prepares to choose a new leader: “the citizens of Israel assigned us – Yitzhak Rabin then and me today, the scepter of fateful responsibility, not in order to remain stagnant. On the contrary, this deposit is an asset of faith and credit from the people, to act, navigate, lead and show initiative in order to realize the Zionist vision; in order to make every possible effort to end the bloody conflict between our neighbors and ourselves; in order to sustain a Jewish and democratic State of Israel within secure borders and a united Jerusalem as its eternal capital . . .”

In respect of whether Mr. Sharon always navigated correctly, there will be plenty of time to debate. But it is hard to think of a leader in all the history who fought any harder, who took any greater personal or political risks, than the man who is prostrate now, surrounded by doctors and family and friends, with thousands standing by to lend a hand, and millions, no, hundreds of millions around the world praying for his health, talking to their children about him, and wondering who will be able to act with the authority he brought to the Jewish State that he has made his life’s work.