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Yitzhak Shamir-underground
leader, spymaster, parliamentarian and the seventh Prime Minister of
the State of Israel. Was born Yizhak Yzemitzky in Ruzinoy, Polan in
1915. He attended Bialystok Hebrew secondary school and at age 14
joined the Betar Youth movement. In 1935 he left Warsaw, where he was
studying law, moved to Palestine and enrolled at the Hebrew University.
In
1937, opposing the mainstream Zionist policy of restraint vis-à-vis the
British Mandatory administration, Shamir joined the Irgun Tzeva'i
Le'umi (Etzel) - the Revisionist
underground organization - and in 1940 became a member of the small,
but more militant, faction led by Avraham Stern, the Lehi
(Lohamei
Herut Israel - Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), that
broke away from the larger body. There, as part of the leadership
troika, he coordinated organizational and operational activities.
Twice
arrested by the British - during and after World War II - Shamir
escaped both times, the second time in 1947 from the British prison
camp in Eritrea to neighboring French Djibouti. Granted political
asylum in France, he returned to Palestine in 1948 and resumed command
of the Lehi until it was disbanded following the establishment of the
State of Israel.
After
several years during which he managed commercial enterprises, Shamir
joined Israel's security services in the mid-1950s and held senior
positions in the Mossad. He returned to private commercial
activity in the mid-1960s and became involved in the struggle to free
Soviet Jewry. In 1970 he joined Menachem Begin's opposition Herut party and
became a member of its Executive. In 1973 he was elected a Member of
Knesset for the Likud party - a position he held for the next 23 years.
During his first decade as a parliamentarian, Shamir was a member of
the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and, in 1977, became Speaker
of the Knesset. In this capacity he presided over the historic
appearance of Egyptian President Sadat in the Knesset and the debate
over ratifying the Camp David
Accords two years later. He abstained in the vote on the
Accords, primarily because of the requirement to dismantle settlements.
Yitzhak Shamir served as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1980 and
1983. Among his achievements were closer ties with Washington -
reflected in the Memorandum of Understanding on strategic cooperation
with the United States and the agreement in principle on free trade
between the two nations. Shamir also initiated diplomatic contacts with
many African countries which had severed diplomatic ties during the
1973 oil crisis. After the 1982 "Operation Peace
for Galilee," Yitzhak Shamir directed negotiations with
Lebanon which led to the 1983 peace agreement (which was, however,
never ratified by the Lebanese government).
Following
the resignation of Menachem Begin
in October 1983, Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister until the general
elections in the fall of 1984. During this year, Shamir concentrated on
economic matters - the economy was suffering from hyper-inflation -
while also nurturing closer strategic ties with the United States.
Indecisive
results in the 1984 general elections led to the formation of a
National Unity Government based on a rotation agreement between Shamir
and Labor leader Shimon Peres.
Shamir served as Vice-Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs for two
years, while Shimon Peres was Prime Minister. Subsequently, Shamir
served for six years as Prime Minister - from 1986 to 1992 - first
heading a National Unity Government, and then as head of a narrow
coalition government.
Yitzhak
Shamir's second term as Prime Minister was marked by two major events:
the 1991 Gulf War,
in which Shamir - despite Iraqi missile attacks on Israel's civilian
population - chose a policy of restraint; and the October 1991 Middle East
Peace Conference in Madrid that inaugurated direct talks
between Israel and the neighboring Arab states as well as multilateral
regional talks. Two momentous events overshadowed other issues on the
public agenda. The first, beginning in 1989, was the victory in the
long struggle for Jewish
emigration from the USSR, which brought 450,000 immigrants
to Israel in the next two years; the second was "Operation
Solomon," in May 1991, in which 15,000 Ethiopian Jews were
rescued and brought to Israel in a massive airlift.
After his party
lost the 1992 elections, Shamir stepped down from the party leadership
and in 1996 also retired from the Knesset.
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