Yitzhak Shamir

{{Audio|He-Yitzhak_Shamir.ogg|Yitzhak Shamir}} (Hebrew יִצְחָק שָׁמִיר) (born October 15, 1915) was Prime Minister of Israel from 1983 to 1984 and again from 1986 to 1992.

Related Topics:
Hebrew - October 15 - 1915 - Prime Minister - Israel - 1983 - 1984 - 1986 - 1992

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Shamir was born in Ró?ana, Poland (now Ruzhany, Belarus), under the name of Icchak Jaziernicki. He moved to Warsaw where he graduated from the law faculty of the Warsaw University. He also joined the Betar organization. In 1935 he came to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1935 and changed his family name to Shamir.

Related Topics:
Ró?ana - Poland - Warsaw - Warsaw University - Betar - 1935 - British Mandate of Palestine

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Shamir joined the Irgun Zvai Leumi, one of the underground Jewish organizations directed against the British control of Mandate Palestine. When the Irgun split in 1940, Shamir sided with the most militant faction, headed by Avraham Stern. The group offered to open up a military front against the British in the Middle East in return for the expulsion of the Jewish population of Europe to Palestine (see Lehi (group), Revisionist Zionism; Heller, 1995, pp. 85-86). In 1941 Shamir was imprisoned by British authorities. After Stern was killed by the British in 1942, Shamir escaped from the detention camp and became one of the three leaders of the group in 1943, reforming it as "Lehi". During his tenure, the Lehi was responsible for the 1944 assassination of Britain's minister of state for the Middle East, Lord Moyne; an assassination attempt against Harold MacMichael, the High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine in the same year (Kushner, 2002, p. 348), and in 1948 the assassination of the United Nations representative in the Middle East, Count Folke Bernadotte who, although he had secured the release of 21,000 prisoners headed for Nazi extermination camps during World War II, was seen by Shamir and his collaborators as an anti-Zionist and "an obvious agent of the British enemy" (Gazi, 2002, p. 32).

Related Topics:
Irgun Zvai Leumi - 1940 - Avraham Stern - Lehi (group) - Revisionist Zionism - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - Harold MacMichael - High Commissioner - British Mandate of Palestine - 1948 - Folke Bernadotte

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After the successful battle for independence, Shamir joined the secret intelligence service (Mossad) (1955-1965) and was first elected to the Knesset in 1973. He became chairman of the Knesset in 1977, and foreign minister in 1980, before succeeding Menachem Begin as prime minister in 1983.

Related Topics:
Mossad - 1955 - 1965 - Knesset - 1973 - 1980 - Menachem Begin - 1983

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Although Shamir had a reputation as a Likud hard-liner, in 1977 he presided at the visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the peace talks; in 1981 and 1982 he guided negotiations with Egypt to normalize relations after the treaty and directed negotiations which led to the 1983 agreement with Lebanon (never ratified by the Lebanese government).

Related Topics:
1977 - Anwar Sadat - 1981 - 1982 - Egypt - 1983 - Lebanon

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His failure to stabilize Israel's inflationary economy led to an indecisive election in 1984, after which a coalition was formed between his Likud Party and the Labor Party, led by Shimon Peres. Peres agreed to be prime minister until September 1986, when Shamir took over.

Related Topics:
1984 - Likud - Labor Party - Shimon Peres - Prime minister - September - 1986

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As he prepared to reclaim the office of prime minister, which he had held previously from October 1983 to September 1984, Shamir's hard-line image appeared to moderate. Reelected in 1988, Shamir and Peres formed a new coalition government until 1990, when the Labor party left the government, leaving Shamir with a narrow coalition. However, it was during the elections of 1988, that Shamir was being challenged by the ever-emerging leader of Kach, Rabbi Meir Kahane, as the leader of the Revisionist Zionist and National camps, where Kach became the main challenger to the Likud party in that election for power in the Knesset.

Related Topics:
October - 1983 - September - 1984 - 1988 - 1990 - Kach

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In 1991 the Shamir government took part in the Madrid peace talks and ordered the rescue of thousands of Ethiopian Jews, the Operation Solomon. The Shamir government also decided not to retaliate after the unprovoked Iraqi Scud missile volleys (many of which struck Israeli population centers) during the First Gulf War. The United States urged restraint, saying Israeli attacks would jeopardize the delicate Arab-Western coalition assembled against Iraq. Although long a hard-liner, Shamir left office in 1992, after his government fell amid charges that Likud—by taking part in the Madrid Peace Conference—had effectively agreed to enter negotiations over the West Bank and Gaza.

Related Topics:
1991 - Madrid peace talks - Ethiopia - Operation Solomon - Gulf War - United States - Iraq - 1992 - West Bank - Gaza

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Shamir and many other Israelis consider the territories as an integral part of the land of Israel, and reject the notion of an independent Arab state in this territory. Israeli opponents of this view contend that it will lead to continued repression of the Palestinian Arabs and demographic catastrophe (with Arab population growth rates being much higher than that of the Israelis), possibly ending with a dual nationality state replacing the current character of Israel as a Jewish democracy.

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Shamir never properly answered these issues. Some opinions suggest that he contended to wait for a suitable time and circumstances politically fruitful for transferring Arab population abroad.

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Nevertheless, only a staunch minority in Israel advocate the forceful removal of Arab inhabitants or even Israeli annexation of the West bank and Gaza territories, and Shamir has shown some pragmatism by refusing, as Prime Minister, to promote such an annexation, and in his support of Israeli participation in the Madrid Peace Conference, although without making any major ideological concessions.

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Upon Shamir's election defeat he made his passionate views on the Gaza Strip and West Bank (Judea and Samaria) clear in an interview he gave to the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv in which he discussed the Likud Party's commitment to the ideology of "the Land of Israel," which included the territories and his commitment to expanding the Israeli settlements in these areas in an effort to incorporate the region into the State of Israel. "Shamir's interview was widely reported in the media and caused outrage among Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians alike."

Related Topics:
Judea and Samaria - Ma'ariv

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Shamir stepped down from Likud leadership in March, 1993. For some time, he was a critic of his Likud successor, Benjamin Netanyahu, as being too indecisive in dealing with the Arabs. Later he disappeared from Israel's public agenda.

Related Topics:
March - 1993 - Benjamin Netanyahu

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Shamir's name reemerged in the Israeli news in 2004 when his family's request for special state funding for his hospitalization in a nursing home was turned down. Treasury officials were concerned of a precedent that would carry too heavy consequences for Israel's weak economy. Also, they suggested, that his state pension should be used for his treatment.

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