Maybe it's because Israel and the US are so close politically. 

Or it could be because the Middle East has been a national security threat since the Oil Embargo of 1973.

My point is that Israeli political figures have been part of our conversation for 40 years. Who doesn't remember Golda Meir? Rabin?  Begin? Or the incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu?

The late Ariel Sharon was one of those legendary political figures that left his mark in world politics:

"Sharon was one of Israel's legendary politicians and military leaders. He played an instrumental role in IDF victories in the Sinai desert in both the 1967 Six Day War and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. His victories on the battlefield, immortalized by the image of him in an IDF uniform with a white bandage wrapped around his wounded forehead, earned him the title, "Arik, King of Israel." 

He was equally fearless in the political arena, where he was the father of two parties, Likud and Kadima. As defense minister in 1982, he oversaw the Lebanon War before he was ousted from office in 1983 as a result of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre for which the Kahn Commission of Inquiry found him indirectly responsible. 

But he returned to politics. As construction and housing minister from 1990 to 1992, he was responsible for a massive building effort of 144,000 apartments to house the flood of Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union bloc. As the father of the settlement movement, he was also instrumental in building thousands of homes in Judea and Samaria and is famous for urging right-wing activists "to run for the hilltops." 

He rose to the post of foreign minister in 1998. In September 2000, as the head of the Likud party, his walk on the Temple Mount was cited by Palestinians as the trigger for the second intifada. 

He was elected prime minister in 2001 and under his leadership Israel began to build its security barrier in the West Bank.  

He was famous for the slogan "The fate of Netzarim [a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip] is the fate of Tel Aviv." But as prime minister, he formulated and executed the disengagement, in which Israel evacuated 21 Gaza settlements along with another four in northern Samaria. In 2005, he left the Likud in anger, choosing to create Kadima with Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert and Livni.   

After his stroke, Kadima went on to win the 2006 election under Olmert's leadership."

RIP PM Sharon. You left your mark.

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.