Sharon was never a statesman until his last couple of sentient years. He was the anti-statesman if there ever was one.
Legend has it the before W was elected, he visited Israel. Sharon and W went up in a helicopter and flew to the spot where the old green line / '49 armistice line / pre-67 border is closest to the Mediterranean. ~10km. Once he saw that, W never was going to push for a return to the 67 borders. He basically gave Sharon cart blanche early in his premiership to do what was Sharon thought was needed for security.
Sharon always thought like a military man. He came to realize the demography meant that continued occupation would overstretch Israel's resources. That's when he became the statesman and withdrew from Gaza and turned over administration of much of Judea and Samaria / the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, after he started the border fencing first.
