In honor of Ariel Sharon, I present pictures of my father Dr. Samuel I. Cohen, ztl, and Sharon.

On Feb. 21, 1983, Time magazine suggested that Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon had encouraged Lebanese Christian forces to take "revenge" the previous September against Palestinian refugee camps for the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's newly elected president. Sharon sued Time for (blood) libel. The jury in that case found that Time had not acted out of "actual malice," a necessary intention under the law to prove libel. But in a non-binding further finding, jurors held that Time had acted "negligently and carelessly" in its reporting about Sharon's role in the Sabra and Chatilla killings. Those few words from the jury were a "vindication" of Sharon, and became the justification for the Lebanon war, for Sharon's role in that war and indeed of his entire military and political career.  It became the subject of an outstanding book by my good friend and colleague Rabbi Dov Fischer - formerly known as Dov Aharoni (below) General Sharon's War Against Time Magazine (the courtroom sketch is below) in Manhattan.

My father, Dr. Samuel I. Cohen, ztl, was the Executive Vice President of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) of North America at the time of the trial, and he was absolutely fascinated with the twists and turns of the case, fascinated with Ariel Sharon and of his trial lawyers. My father told me that he was in awe of General Sharon's leadership qualities, of his bulldog tenacity, and of his blood and guts demeanor. When I drove my father to work in the morning from Lawrence Long Island to Manhattan, he would read to me the New York Times updates of the Sharon vs. Time civil trial to me and we spoke extensively about it and he used this opportunity to encourage me to become an attorney.  This was a formative time for me - transitioning from graduating from Queens College and the Chofetz Chaim Yeshivah in Queens, about to go to law school. In my mind, I credit in part my legal career and my obsession with being a trial attorney to these priceless moments between father and son about our hero.  In honor of Ariel Sharon, I present pictures of my father and Sharon.