Ehud Barak
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| Ehud Barak אֵהוּד בָּרָק |
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| In office 6 July 1999 – 7 March 2001 |
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| Preceded by | Benjamin Netanyahu |
| Succeeded by | Ariel Sharon |
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| Born | February 12, 1942 Mishmar HaSharon, British Mandate of Palestine |
| Political party | Labor
religion:Judaism |
Ehud Barak (Hebrew: אֵהוּד בָּרָק, born Ehud Brog on 12 February 1942) is an Israeli politician, former Prime Minister, and current Minister of Defense, deputy prime minister and leader of Israel's Labor Party.
Barak served as the 10th Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001. After losing the 2001 election, Barak embarked on a business career. On June 12, 2007, he completed a political comeback by winning election to the Labor Party leadership. He was appointed as Minister of Defense, replacing outgoing party leader Amir Peretz.
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[edit] Biography
Ehud Barak was born on February 12, 1942 in kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in Mandatory Palestine. He is the eldest of four sons of Esther (née Godin) and Israel Brog. Ehud hebraized his family name from "Brog" to "Barak" in 1959, as he began his military service.
It was during his military service that he met his future wife, Naava. They had three daughters together. Ehud and Naava divorced on August 2003. On 30th July 2007 Ehud married his childhood sweetheart, Nili Priel, in a small ceremony at his private residence.
[edit] Education
Barak earned his bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1968, and his master's degree in engineering-economic systems in 1978 from Stanford University in Stanford, California.
[edit] Military service
Ehud Brog joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1959. At that time he decided to change his name to "Barak", which means "lightning" or "shine" in Hebrew. He served in the IDF for 35 years, rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of Rav Aluf, the highest in the Israeli military. As a Lt. Colonel Sgan Aluf, he commanded seven tanks during the attempted crossing of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War. This action was intended to relieve pressure on besieged paratroopers, but five tanks were knocked out by Sagger missiles, and the remaining two retreated.
During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal, Barak led several highly acclaimed operations, such as: "Operation Isotope", the rescue mission to free the hostages onboard Sabena Flight 572 at Lod Airport in 1972; the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization; Barak was also a key architect of the June 1976 Operation Entebbe, another rescue mission to free the hostages of the Air France aircraft hijacked by terrorists and forced to land at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. These highly acclaimed operations, along with Operation Bayonet led to the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist cell Black September and a decline in international terrorism for over 20 years[citation needed]. It has been alluded that Barak also masterminded the Tunis Raid in which PLO leader Abu Jihad was assassinated. Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four other citations for courage and operational excellence. These five decorations make him the most decorated soldier in Israeli history. Barak is also an expert in krav maga, the official martial art of the Israeli Defense Forces.
[edit] Political career
As a politician, Barak served as Minister of the Interior (1995) and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995-1996). He was elected to the Knesset in 1996, where he served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In 1996 Barak became the leader of the Labor Party.
Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel on May 17, 1999 and completed what is nominally a 4 year term on March 7, 2001 after his loss to Ariel Sharon in a special prime ministerial election in February 2001.
On the 12th of June, 2007, Barak won back the leadership of the Labor Party.
Ehud Barak is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
[edit] Coalition
When forming his coalition, Barak sparked controversy by deciding to form a coalition with the haredi party Shas who had received an unprecedented 17 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Shas grudgingly agreed to Barak's terms that they eject their leader Aryeh Deri, a convicted felon, and enact reform to "clean up" in-party corruption. Consequentially, the left wing Meretz party quit the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy-minister in the Ministry of Education.
[edit] Arab-Israeli Conflict
In 1999 Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel's 22-year long occupation of Southern Lebanon within a year. On May 24th, 2000 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. On October the 7th, 2000, three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and consequently murdered by Hezbollah. The bodies of these soldiers were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004. Barak inaugurated peace negotiations with the PLO, which ultimately proved fruitless. Barak also took part in the Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant to finally resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, and US president Bill Clinton placed the blame on Yasser Arafat. Barak claimed he exposed "Arafat's true intentions"[citation needed]. Following the failure at Camp David, the Palestinian al-Aqsa Intifada erupted. Barak also allowed Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to attend the Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.
[edit] Domestic Issues
Barak was in power during the passing of the controversial Tal Law which gave a legal statute for haredi Jews' exemption from military service. Riots in October 2000 led to the killing of 12 Israeli-Arabs and 1 Palestinian by Israel Police and one Israeli-Jewish civilian by Israeli Arabs.
[edit] Post-Prime ministerial career
[edit] Business career
After losing the 2001 elections to Ariel Sharon's Likud party by a landslide, Barak left Israel to work as a senior advisor with U.S.-based Electronic Data Systems. He also partnered with a private equity company focused on "security-related" work.
In 2005, following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labor party, Barak became a partner of the investment company SCP Private Equity Partners, Pennsylvania. He established a company "Ehud Barak Limited" which is thought to have made over NIS30 million. [1]
[edit] Public speaking
Barak went on a public speaking tour of American colleges, expressing his view on the Middle East. During this tour in 2006, he said that “[Iraq] gradually deteriorates to civil war [and] the US presence is more and more a part of the problem and not the solution."[2]
[edit] Return to politics
In 2005, Barak announced his return to Israeli politics, and ran for leadership of the Labor party in November. However, in light of his weak poll showings, Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman Shimon Peres.
After Peres lost the race to Amir Peretz and left the Labor party, Barak announced he would stay at the party, despite his shaky relationship with its newly elected leader. He declared, however, that he would not run for a spot on the Labor party's Knesset list for the March 2006 elections.
In January 2007, Barak launched a bid to recaputure the leadership of the Labor party in a letter acknowledging "mistakes" and "inexperience" during his tenure as Prime Minister.[3] In early March of 2007, a poll of Labor Party primary voters put Barak ahead of all other opponents, including current leader Amir Peretz. [4] In the first round of voting, on 28 May, 2007, he gained 39% of the votes, which is more than his two closest rivals, although failed to gain the 40% needed to win the election.[5]
As a result, Barak faced a runoff against the second-place finisher, Ami Ayalon, on June 12, 2007, which he won by a narrow margin.[6]
[edit] Back in Government
After winning back the leadership of the Labor party, Barak was sworn in as Minister of Defense on June 18, 2007, as part of Prime Minister Olmert's cabinet reshuffle. However on July 1, 2007, Barak led a successful effort in the Labor central committee to stipulate that Labor will leave the government coalition if Olmert does not resign by September or October 2007. At that time the Winograd Commission will publish its final report on the performance of the Israel Defense Forces and its civilian leadership. The preliminary Winograd report released earlier this year laid most of the blame on Olmert for poorly planning, executing, and reviewing war strategies in the 2006 conflict against Hezbollah.[citation needed]
[edit] References in popular culture
- The film Munich includes a scene depicting Operation Spring of Youth where Ehud Barak is mentioned by name and is seen dressed a brunette, reflecting his real-life experience as leader of a Sayeret Matkal unit during that event.[7]
- Barak also appears as a military advisor to a fictitious Israeli Prime Minister in the Frederick Forsyth novel The Devil's Alternative.
[edit] Quotations
- "Two Egyptian divisions were already deployed deep into the Sinai desert very close to the Israeli border. Israel had a very small regular standing army, and it had to deploy immediately along the border to avoid a surprise attack."
- "On the battlefield itself, no one will move if you are not moving. It's a swift decision."
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ehud Barak - official site (in Hebrew)
- Bregman, Ahron Elusive Peace: How the Holy Land Defeated America.
- Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
- Dromi, Uri (Nov. 5, 2005). "Still craving peace 10 years after Rabin". New Straits Times, p. 20.
- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15501 Volume 49, Number 10 · June 13, 2002 Email to a friend Exchange Camp David and After: An Exchange (1. An Interview with Ehud Barak)
- Ehud Barak profile, Israel lexicon, Ynet News
- Lying is cultural trait of Arabs, says Barak
- "Building a Wall Against Terror", by Ehud Barak, The New York Times May 24, 2001
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ehud Barak Ltd Haaretz
- ^ Ehud Barak’s Speech at IU from CampusJ
- ^ New York Times. Former Israeli PM Barak in New Leadership Bid (January 7, 2007). nytimes.com.
- ^ Ha'aretz. "Poll: Barak, Ayalon lead Peretz in the Labor leadership primaries" (March 3, 2007) >.
- ^ Peretz loses Israeli party vote. BBC News. Retrieved on 2007-05-30.
- ^ "Barak wins Labor Party primary election: party officials", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), June 12, 2007.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla. "An Action Film About the Need to Talk", The New York Times, 2005-12-23. Retrieved on 2007-04-30.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by David Livay |
Interior Minister of Israel 1995 |
Succeeded by Haim Ramon |
| Preceded by Shimon Peres |
Leader of the Labor Party 1999–2001 |
Succeeded by Benjamin Ben-Eliezer |
| Preceded by Amir Peretz |
Leader of the Labor Party 2007– |
Succeeded by incumbent |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by Yehoshua Saguy |
Director of Aman 1983–1985 |
Succeeded by Amnon Lipkin-Shahak |
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| Yaakov Dori (1947-49) | Yigael Yadin (1949-52) | Mordechai Maklef (1952-53) | Moshe Dayan (1953-58) | Haim Laskov (1958-61) | Tzvi Tzur (1961-64) | Yitzhak Rabin (1964-68) | Haim Bar-Lev (1968-72) | David Elazar (1972-74) | Mordechai Gur (1974-78) | Rafael Eitan (1978-83) | Moshe Levi (1983-87) | Dan Shomron (1987-91) | Ehud Barak (1991-95) | Amnon Lipkin-Shahak (1995-98) | Shaul Mofaz (1998-2002) | Moshe Ya'alon (2002-05) | Dan Halutz (2005-07) | Gabi Ashkenazi (2007-present) |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Barak, Ehud |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brog, Ehud |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Prime Minister of Israel |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mishmar HaSharon, British Mandate of Palestine |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
