Ariel Sharon is a farmer-turned-soldier, a war hero-turned-politician, a hard-charging Israeli who built Jewish settlements on war-won land but didn’t shy away from destroying them when they collided with his bigger design.

Israel is building a wartime command centre under the hills outside Jerusalem that will be able to withstand nuclear, biological or chemical attacks, officials said today.

YASSER ARAFAT swore in new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and a skeleton emergency cabinet yesterday in a move likely to make it more difficult for Israel to carry out its threat to “remove” the Palestinian leader.