Ehud Barak

Lt. Gen. (res.) Ehud Barak  Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, former IDF Chief of General Staff. Joined the IDF in 1959 and served as the commander of an elite unit, and then in a series of command and general staff positions. Previous military positions included Armored Brigade Commander, Armored Division Commander, Head of the Intelligence Directorate, Head of the Planning Directorate, Deputy Commander of the Israeli Force in Lebanon, GOC Central Command and Deputy Chief of Staff. Elected to the Knesset in 1996, and served as Minister of the Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Labor Party. Formed the One Israel Party from the Labor, Gesher and Meimad factions. Recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal and four other citations for courage and operational excellence. Holds an M.Sc. in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University.

Click here for the speech of Mr. Ehud Barak in Herzliya Conference

Born 1942 in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon.
Barak completed a first degree in Physics and Mathematics at the Hebrew University in Jersualem in 1968, and a second degree in Systems Analysis at Stanford University in California in 1987.

Military Career
Barak enlisted to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in 1959. He began his military services in the armored unit. During the Six Day War (1967), he fought as the commander of the reconnaissance staff. In May 1972, Barak commanded the operation to rescue the hostages of the Sabena aircraft hijacked by members of the Black September terrorist group. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, he commanded a unit of tanks on the southern front in Sinai.

In June 1976, Barak was one of the planners of the Entebbe rescue operation during which Air France passengers were hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda. Barak was later promoted to the rank of major-general and appointed head of the Planning Division of the General Staff. During the Operation for Peace in the Galilee, he served as deputy commander of the force that operated in the Lebanese Valley. Barak's appointment as head of the Intelligence Branch came in April 1983, and his appointment as head of the Central Command came in 1986. In 1987 he was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff, and then in 1991 he became Chief of Staff of the IDF. During his military career, Barak earned the largest number of decorations in the history of the IDF.

As Chief of Staff, Barak was informed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin about the Oslo peace talks. Following the signing with the Palestinians of the Declaration of Principles in September 1993, Barak implemented the security arrangements of the agreement and began the redeployment of troops in Gaza and Jericho which were handed to the Palestinians. Prior to his January 1, 1995 retirement from the armed forces, Barak met twice with his Syrian counterpart during bilateral talks with Syria in Washington.

Political Career
In July 1995, Barak joined the government of Yitzhak Rabin as Minister of the Interior. When the government voted to approve the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Taba Agreement, Oslo B), Barak abstained because of technical reservations.

Following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995, Barak became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government under Shimon Peres.

In the elections for the 14th Knesset, Barak was elected Knesset member on the Labor Party list on which he was ranked third. When Shimon Peres lost the elections for prime minister, Barak announced that he would run for the position as head and Prime Ministerial candidate of the Labor Party. On June 4, 1997, Barak was elected from among four candidates by a 50.33% majority. Subsequently, Barak stated that he is not interested in joining the government under Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the elections for the Prime Minister and fifteenth Knesset on May 17, 1999, Barak, as head of the One Israel List, secured 56.08% of the votes and defeated Benjamin Netanyahu. On July 6th, Barak formed a coalition which included the One Israel, Shas, Meretz, Center, National Religious, and Yisrael Be'aliya parties.

Immediately upon taking his post as Prime Minister, Barak gave his word that within one year, he would withdraw the IDF from South Lebanon. On May 24, 2000, the IDF left South Lebanon.

Barak's attempts at achieving permanent-status agreements with Syria and the Palestinians reached a dead-end despite his willingness for far-reaching and controversial concessions. In the negotiations with the Syrians, Barak was prepared to withdraw from the Golan Heights to an international border, but not the one of June 4, 1967 when the Syrians were sitting on the shores of Lake Kinneret.

In the negotiations with the Palestinians, Barak agreed to recognize a Palestinian state and to discuss Jerusalem in the future with the possibility of dividing rule of the city. However, Barak was not willing to recognize Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount or the Palestinian refugee Right of Return to the State of Israel.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, much criticism was directed at Barak from within his party and on the political left for not doing enough to change the social and economic agendas of the state. The secular community also criticized Barak for not keeping to his stand against the exemption of Yeshiva students from military service.

Following the July 2000 Camp David talks between Barak and Arafat, initiated by US President Bill Clinton, Barak's coalition lost the Shas, National Religious, and Yisrael Be'aliya parties because of Barak's readiness for far-reaching concessions. Meretz had withdrawn from the coalition two weeks earlier because of irreconcilable differences with the Shas Party. The collapse of the Camp David talks, together with the prolongation of the Palestinian violence and the formation of a Knesset majority interested in ending the current government, led to Barak's announcement on December 5, 2000 that he supports the early disbanding of the Knesset. Five days later, Barak resigned as Prime Minister which forces a "special election" for prime minister only. That same day, he convened the Labor Party Center which reelected him to be the Labor Party's Prime Ministerial candidate.

from: http://www.knesset.gov.il/elections01/eindex.html

Tito said that a good military unit is a social cell where shame -- the fear of being kind of shamed by the rest of the group -- is stronger than the fear of death.

 

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