1.
Prime Minister of Israel
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The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful figure in Israeli politics. Although the President of Israel is the head of state, his powers are largely ceremonial. The official residence of the minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem. The current prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, the person to hold the position. Following an election, the president nominates a member of the Knesset to become prime minister after asking party leaders whom they support for the position, the nominee then presents a government platform and must receive a vote of confidence in order to become prime minister. In practice, the minister is usually the leader of the largest party in the governing coalition. Between 1996 and 2001, the minister was directly elected. The office of prime minister came into existence on 14 May 1948, the date of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, david Ben-Gurion, leader of Mapai and head of the Jewish Agency became Israels first prime minister. The position became permanent on 8 March 1949, when the first government was formed, Ben-Gurion retained his role until late 1953, when he resigned in order to settle in the Kibbutz of Sde Boker. He was replaced by Moshe Sharett, however, Ben-Gurion returned in a little under two years to reclaim his position. He resigned for a time in 1963, breaking away from Mapai to form Rafi. Levi Eshkol took over as head of Mapai and prime minister and he became the first prime minister to head the country under the banner of two parties when Mapai formed the Alignment with Ahdut HaAvoda in 1965. In 1968 he also became the party leader to command an absolute majority in the Knesset, after Mapam and Rafi merged into the Alignment. On 26 February 1969, Eshkol became the first prime minister to die in office, however, Allons stint lasted less than a month, as the party persuaded Golda Meir to return to political life and become prime minister in March 1969. Meir was Israels first woman minister, and the third in the world. Meir resigned in 1974 after the Agranat Commission published its findings on the Yom Kippur War, Yitzhak Rabin took over, though he also resigned towards the end of the eighth Knessets term following a series of scandals. Rabins wife, Leah, was found to have had an overseas bank account. Menachem Begin became the first right-wing prime minister when his Likud won the 1977 elections and he resigned in 1983 for health reasons, passing the reins of power to Yitzhak Shamir
2.
Ezer Weizman
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Ezer Weizman listen was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force, Weizman was born in Tel Aviv in the British Mandate of Palestine on 15 June 1924. His father, Yechiel, was an agronomist, Weizman was a nephew of Israels first president, Chaim Weizmann. He grew up in Haifa, and attended the Hebrew Reali School and he married Reuma Schwartz, sister of Ruth Dayan, wife of Moshe Dayan, and they had two children, Shaul and Michal. He received his training in the British Army in which he enlisted in 1942 during World War II and he served as a truck driver in the Western Desert campaigns in Egypt and Libya. In 1943, he joined the British Royal Air Force and attended school in Rhodesia. He served with the RAF in India in early 1944, Weizman ended his service in the RAF as a sergeant pilot. Between 1944 and 1946, he was a member of the Irgun underground in Mandatory Palestine, between 1946 and 1947, he studied aeronautics in England. After the establishment of the State of Israel, Weizman was a pilot for the Haganah in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and he was the commander of the Negev Air Squadron near Nir-Am. An RAF Hawker Tempest was shot down by the IAF, resulting in the death of the pilot, due to a failure by ground crewmen, most of the RAF aircraft were not armed. Weizman joined the Israel Defense Forces and served as the Chief of Operations on the General Staff, in 1951 he attended the RAF Staff College, Andover in England. Upon his return he became commander of Ramat David and he served as the commander of the Israeli Air Force between 1958 and 1966, and later served as deputy Chief of the General Staff. A total of 400 enemy planes were destroyed by the Israeli Air Force on the 1st day of the 6 Day War, in 1966, he oversaw the defection of an Iraqi fighter pilot and his MiG fighter which gave Israel vital intelligence information. Although he became the IDFs Deputy Chief of Staff in 1966, upon retiring from the military, Weizman joined the right-wing Gahal party. He served as Minister of Transportation in Levi Eshkols national unity government until Gahal left the coalition in 1970, Weizman quit Gahal in 1972, but returned in 1976, by which time it had become Likud. In 1977, he became Defense Minister under Menachem Begin, during his term, Israel developed the IAI Lavi fighter and launched the Litani Operation against the PLO in south Lebanon. During this operation his own son, Saul, suffered an injury from a snipers bullet which left him in a vegetive state. When the commission confirmed that the Beit Jala story was true he fired the military Governor of the West Bank, Brigadier General David Hagoel, over time, Weizmans views became more dovish
3.
Moshe Katsav
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Moshe Katsav is an Iranian-born Israeli former politician who was the eighth President of Israel from 2000 to 2007. He was also a leading Likud member of the Israeli Knesset and he is of Iranian Jewish ancestry. The end of his presidency was marked by controversy, stemming from allegations of rape of one female subordinate, Katsav resigned the presidency in 2007 as part of a plea bargain. Katsav later rejected the deal with prosecutors and vowed he would prove his innocence in court, in an unprecedented case, on 30 December 2010, Katsav was convicted of two counts of rape, obstruction of justice and other charges. On 22 March 2011, in a ruling, Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison. Katsav appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court of Israel, on 10 November 2011, the Supreme Court affirmed Katsavs conviction and punishment. On 7 December 2011, Katsav arrived at Maasiyahu Prison in Ramla to begin serving his seven-year sentence, Katsav was released from prison on December 21,2016, after the parole board next to the Prison Service decided to shorten his sentence. Katsav was born 5 December,1945 in Yazd, Iran and his family moved to Tehran when he was a baby, and they emigrated to Israel in 1951. They lived in a tent camp for recent immigrants for several years before the area was developed into the city of Kiryat Malakhi, Katsav graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and history in 1971. He married Gila Katsav in 1969 and they have five children and two grandchildren. Katsav joined the Likud Party, and was elected mayor of his town of Kiryat Malakhi in 1969. He was elected to the Knesset in 1977, Katsav was deputy Minister of Construction and Housing from 1981 to 1983 and Minister of Labor and Welfare from 1984 to 1988. He was Transportation Minister from 1988 to 1992 and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism from 1996 to 1999, after serving as Deputy Prime Minister in Netanyahus government, Katsav vied for the position of President, running as the opposition candidate against Shimon Peres. In a surprising upset, he defeated Peres to become the president of Israel and he took 63 votes, two more than the required majority of 61, and was sworn in on 1 August. He was the first President of Israel to have sworn in for a seven-year term. Katsavs victory was attributed in part to evidence that Peres planned to use the position to support the increasingly unpopular peace processes of the government of Ehud Barak, the office of the Israeli President is largely ceremonial, with no executive powers save pardoning prisoners and commuting sentences. Nevertheless, each president emphasizes different aspects of the role during his tenure, in 2003, on a visit to Italy, he demanded that the Vatican restore treasures allegedly brought to Rome after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Katsav told the press that he shook Khatamis hand and spoke to him in Persian, in July 2006, Katsav complained to the Attorney General of Israel, Menahem Mazuz, that he was being blackmailed by a female employee
4.
Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
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Deputy leaders in Israel fall into three categories, Acting Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Vice Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister and Vice Prime Minister are honorary rather than official executive positions, Acting Prime Ministers take the place of the Prime Minister if he or she is temporarily incapacitated, while the incumbent is still in office. If the Prime Minister is removed by impeachment, dies, or becomes permanently incapacitated, the designated Acting Prime Minister takes the role of Prime Minister as Acting Prime Minister, for up to 100 consecutive days, if the incumbent is temporarily incapacitated. The incumbent minister must be also a Knesset member to be eligible for this role, in the recently installed government of Benjamin Netanyahu, there is no designated Acting Prime Minister. There can be one designated minister appointed to such position. However, the holder of this position can hold other ministerial position, as the most recent designated Acting Prime Minister. Confusingly, the term is referred to as Vice Prime Minister, though a separate. If the Prime Minister is abroad, the designated minister summons the government to cabinet meetings, if there is no such designated minister, in such event, the government will vote for one. If the Prime Minister wants to replace the designated Acting Prime Minister, he needs the approval vote of the government. However, the Prime Minister may fire the designated Acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, after standing-in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting Prime Minister, did not automatically assume office as an Interim Prime Minister. The deal was continued into the 12th Knesset, but collapsed in 1990, the role of the designated Acting Prime Minister was limited and unattractive for any chairman of major party aspiring to get the top job. The position was resurrected in 2003, with Ariel Sharon appointing Ehud Olmert to the post, Tzipi Livni then was appointed to the post, in Olmerts Government. One of the Ministers who is a member of Knesset may be designated as Acting Prime Minister, should the Prime Minister be absent from Israel, meetings of the Government will be convened and conducted by the designated Acting Prime Minister. Should the Prime Minister be temporarily unable to discharge his duties, after the passage of 100 days upon which the Prime Minister does not resume his duties, the Prime Minister will be deemed permanently unable to exercise his office. Should the Prime Minister be permanently incapacitated, the Government shall be deemed to have resigned on the 101st day during which the Acting Prime Minister served in his place. The interim prime minister is appointed by the government if the incumbent is dead or permanently incapacitated, while the acting prime minister must be a Knesset member to meet the requirements, the interim prime minister must be a member of the prime ministers party as well. Until the 2001 basic law, the government, both the acting and interim prime ministers were required to be a Knesset member in addition to being a member of the Government. In 2006, Ehud Olmert, after standing in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting prime minister, did not automatically assume office as an interim prime minister
5.
Yitzhak Mordechai
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Yitzhak Mordechai is an Israeli former general and politician. He served as a member of the Knesset between 1996 and 2001, and as Minister of Defense and Minister of Transport and he retired from political life after being indicted for sexual assaults during his military service and later periods. Mordechai was born in Akre or Aqrah Iraqi Kurdistan, and made aliyah to Israel in 1949 and he holds a BA in history from Tel Aviv University and an MA in Political Science from the University of Haifa. In 1962 he enlisted to the Combat Engineering Corps of the IDF, in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he was battalion commander in the Battle of the Chinese Farm in Sinai, and was decorated with the Medal of Courage. In 1984, in became known as the Kav 300 affair, Mordechai. Mordechai was tried, and acquitted when the became known. He was promoted to the rank of Major-General in 1986, and became known as the General of the Three Commands, the First Intifada broke out in December 1987, when Mordechai was commander of the Southern Command. As commander of the Northern Command he commanded over Operation Accountability in 1993, Mordechai retired from active service in 1995 after 33 years of service, when new Chief of General Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak did not appoint him as his deputy. In 1995 Mordechai joined Likud and was on the partys list for the elections the following year, after Binyamin Netanyahu won the election for Prime Minister, he appointed Mordechai as Defense Minister, where he became Lipkin-Shahaks boss. In 1999, a rift occurred between Mordechai and Netanyahu because of political rivalry and difference of opinion regarding the negotiations with Palestinians. Netanyahu dismissed Mordechai shortly before Mordechai would have reportedly resigned, on 23 February 1999 Mordechai left Likud along with several other members to establish the new Israel in the Centre party. However, despite strong initial poll results, the party fared badly in the 1999 elections, nevertheless, the party joined Ehud Baraks new Labor-led government and Mordechai became Minister of Transport. Mordechai resigned from his position in 2000 after being indicted for sexual misconduct during his military service. In March 2001 he was convicted of harassing and sexually assaulting two women, receiving an 18-month suspended sentence. After his conviction, he resigned from the Knesset, list of Israeli public officials convicted of crimes or misdemeanors Yitzhak Mordechai on the Knesset website
6.
David Levy (Israeli politician)
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Although most of his time as a Knesset member was spent with Likud, he also led the breakaway Gesher faction, which formed part of Ehud Baraks Labor-led government between 1999 and 2001. Levy was born in Rabat, Morocco and emigrated to Israel in 1957 and he began working in construction and became a leader of Beit Sheans working-class population, composed of many fellow Jews of North African descent. Levy headed the opposition Blue-White faction, before 1969 he also served a term as mayor of Beit Shean. Levy distinguished himself as the first of many young members of the party from a Mizrahi background. Until then Herut and the Liberals had been dominated by right-wing upper-class or upper-middle-class intellectuals, businessmen, agriculturalists, or lawyers. Levys rise expressed the surging power of the new rebellion of the Mizrahi Israeli, in 1977, Levy became one of the most strident campaigners in Likud leader Menachem Begins triumphant campaign that overturned the 30 year domination of Israeli elections by parties of the left. From 1977 until 1981, Levy was Minister of Immigrant Absorption in the first two Begin governments, Levy was not as active in the latter effort as much as Defence Minister Ezer Weizman his successor, while the former continued to drag on with very little results. As such, Levys holding that portfolio was unremarkable, Levys more important role in government began during the formation of Begins rightist government when the Democratic Movement for Change resigned. On 15 January 1979 he was given the Ministry of Housing and Construction, Levy held the ministry until 1990, and his policies are controversial for their repeated concessions to the settler movements, which the opposition Labour Party branded pure politicking. The favours that Levy helped organize for the settlers helped pave the way for a construction boom in the West Bank. On the positive side, Levy was able to make housing for most of his thirteen years as more affordable. Through the governments of Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, and Shimon Peres he was able to remain untouchable, as a senior Likud figure, Levy, a construction worker with an eighth grade education, was able to enter doors closed to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. These included Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a powerful Sephardic rabbi with inclinations towards Shamirs nemesis, Labour leader Peres, Levy helped Likud court Shas into the Shamir government, until that party pulled out in 1990. In the Likud Central Committee, Levy commanded a portion of the members. In 1987, he met Benjamin Netanyahu, then the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, the meeting, in a New York hotel, was an attempt by Levy to lure Netanyahu into his camp in preparation for the 1988 Knesset elections. Levy viewed Netanyahu as a spokesman for him in the Knesset, as he was viewed as a master at rhetoric. Netanyahu turned down Levys offer and became an ally of then-Defense Minister Moshe Arens. This created an enmity between the two, one that would lead to the decline of Levys influence in the Likud
7.
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
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Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer was an Iraqi-born Israeli politician and general. He served as a member of the Knesset between 1984 and 2014, and held ministerial posts, including Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour, Minister of Defense. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was born in Basra in southern Iraq, son of Saleh and he immigrated to Israel in 1950. He was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1954 and became a career soldier and he lived in Rishon LeZion and was married with five children. Some of his granddaughters live in the United States and he was fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Ben-Eliezer was drafted into the IDF in 1954 and served in the Golani Brigade and he served in the Brigade as a soldier and as a squad leader. In 1956 he became an officer after completing Officer Candidate School and return to the Golani Brigade. Ben-Eliezer served as a Commander of sayerert shaked in the Six-Day War and was wounded in the War of Attrition, in the Yom Kippur War he served as a brigade Executive officer. In 1977, he was appointed First Commanding Officer in Southern Lebanon and he was Military Governor of Judea and Samaria and was Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories from 1983 until 1984. He completed his service with the rank of Brigadier General. After retiring from the army, Ben-Eliezer was briefly a member of the Tami Party, Ben-Eliezer was first elected to the Knesset in 1984 on the Yahad list, which merged into the Alignment during his first term. He was re-elected in 1988 and 1992, by time the Alignment had become the Labor Party. In July 1992 he was appointed Minister of Housing and Construction in Yitzhak Rabins government and he retained his seat in the 1996 elections, but lost his place in the cabinet as Labor went into opposition. Following Ehud Baraks victory in the 1999 Prime Minister election, Ben-Eliezer returned to the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications, from October 2000 to 3 March 2001, he also served as Minister of Housing and Construction. He left the post on 2 October 2002 when Labor withdrew from the coalition, re-elected again in 2003, Ben-Eliezer served as Minister of National Infrastructure from 10 January 2005 until 23 November, when Labor left the government. In the Labor Party leadership election on 9 November 2005, he came third with 16. 8% of the vote, behind Amir Peretz and he retained his seat again in the 2006 elections, and was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure in Ehud Olmerts government. However, the allegations are disputed by both Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and the documentary film-maker Ran Edelist, placed eighth on the partys list, he was re-elected again in the 2009 elections and appointed Minister of Industry, Trade and Labour. He resigned from the cabinet after Ehud Barak left the Labor Party to establish Independence in January 2011 and he contracted pneumonia in March 2011 and was put into a medically induced coma, eventually making a full recovery
8.
Benjamin Netanyahu
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Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. Netanyahu also currently serves as a member of the Knesset and Chairman of the Likud party, born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister born in Israel after the establishment of the state. Netanyahu joined the Israel Defense Forces shortly after the Six-Day War in 1967, Netanyahu took part in many missions, including Operation Inferno, Operation Gift and Operation Isotope, during which he was shot in the shoulder. Netanyahu achieved the rank of captain before being discharged, after graduating from MIT with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees, Netanyahu was recruited as an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. Netanyahu returned to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute, named after his brother Yonatan Netanyahu, Netanyahu served as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988. Netanyahu became the leader of Likud in 1993, Netanyahu won the 1996 elections, becoming Israels youngest ever Prime Minister, serving his first term from June 1996 to July 1999. Netanyahu moved from the arena to the private sector after being defeated in the 1999 election for prime minister by Ehud Barak. As Minister of Finance, Netanyahu engaged in a reform of the Israeli economy. Netanyahu retook the Likud leadership in December 2005, after Sharon left to form a new party, in December 2006, Netanyahu became the official Leader of the Opposition in the Knesset and Chairman of Likud. Following the 2009 parliamentary election, in which Likud placed second and right-wing parties won a majority, after the victory in the 2013 elections, he became the second person to be elected to the position of Prime Minister for a third term, after Israels founder David Ben-Gurion. In March 2015, Netanyahu was elected to his term as prime minister. Netanyahu has been elected Prime Minister of Israel four times, matching David Ben-Gurions record, Netanyahu is the only prime minister in Israels history to have been elected three times in a row. Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel, to an Israeli mother, Tzila Segal and a Warsaw-born father, Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, Netanyahu is of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewish heritage. He was initially raised and educated in Jerusalem, where he attended Henrietta Szold Elementary School, to this day, he speaks fluent English, with a noticeable Philadelphia accent. After graduating from school in 1967, Netanyahu returned to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a soldier and served for five years in an elite special forces unit of the IDF. He took part in numerous cross-border assault raids during the 1967–70 War of Attrition and he was wounded in combat on multiple occasions. He was involved in other missions, including Operation Inferno
9.
Ariel Sharon
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Ariel Sharon was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Sharon was incapacitated by a stroke in January 2006, Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War, Sharon was considered the greatest field commander in Israels history, and one of the countrys greatest military strategists and tacticians. After his assault of the Sinai in the Six-Day War and his encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army in the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli public nicknamed him The King of Israel. Upon retirement from the military, Sharon entered politics, joining the Likud and he became the leader of the Likud in 2000, and served as Israels prime minister from 2001 to 2006. From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, however, as Prime Minister, in 2004–05 Sharon orchestrated Israels unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima. He had been expected to win the election and was widely interpreted as planning on clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank. After suffering a stroke on January 4,2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death in January 2014. Sharon was born on February 26,1928 in Kfar Malal and his mother, Vera, was from a family of Russian Subbotnik Jewish origin. His parents met while at university in Tiflis, where Sharons father was studying agronomy and they immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1922 in the wake of the Russian Communist governments growing persecution of Jews in the region. The family arrived with the Third Aliyah and settled in Kfar Malal, although his parents were Mapai supporters, they did not always accept communal consensus, The Scheinermans eventual ostracism. They were expelled from the local clinic and village synagogue. The cooperatives truck wouldnt make deliveries to their farm nor collect produce, Sharon grew up to be bilingual in both Hebrew and Russian languages. Four years after their arrival at Kfar Malal, the Sheinermans had a daughter, Ariel was born two years later. At age 10, he joined the youth movement HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed, as a teenager, he began to take part in the armed night-patrols of his moshav. Sharons unit of the Haganah became engaged in serious and continuous combat from the autumn of 1947, without the manpower to hold the roads, his unit took to making offensive hit-and-run raids on Arab forces in the vicinity of Kfar Malal. In units of thirty men, they would hit constantly at Arab villages, bridges and bases, Sharon wrote in his autobiography, We had become skilled at finding our way in the darkest nights and gradually we built up the strength and endurance these kind of operations required
10.
Ministry of Defense (Israel)
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The Ministry of Defense of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Israel from internal and external military threats. Its political head is the Defense Minister of Israel, and its offices are located in HaKirya, the Ministry of Defense oversees most of the Israeli security forces, including the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Military Industries, and Israel Aerospace Industries. The MOD was established when the British Mandate of Palestine ended, and the British Army departed Palestine and this ended the rag-tag militia units during British rule and gave way to the formal defense of the Jewish state. The Defense Minister of Israel heads the ministry, the post is considered to be the second most important position in the Israeli cabinet, and usually has a Deputy Minister. The Defense Minister is also a permanent member of the Security Cabinet, avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu was sworn in on 31 March,2016 as Israels new Minister of Defense. Five of them are also former Chiefs of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, amongst the duties of the post, Defense Ministers can request administrative detention
11.
Ehud Olmert
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Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009 and before that as a minister from 1988 to 1992. Between his first and second stints as a member, he served as mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003. In 2003 Olmert was re-elected to the Knesset, and became a cabinet minister, on 4 January 2006, after Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke, Olmert began exercising the powers of the office of Prime Minister. Olmert led Kadima to a victory in the March 2006 elections, on 14 April, two weeks after the election, Sharon was declared permanently incapacitated, allowing Olmert to legally become Interim Prime Minister. Less than a later, on 4 May, Olmert and his new, post-election government were approved by the Knesset. Olmert and his government enjoyed healthy relations with the Fatah-led Palestinian National Authority, however, during his tenure as prime minister, there were major military conflicts with both Hezbollah and Hamas. Olmert and Minister of Defense Amir Peretz were heavily criticized for their handling of the 2006 Lebanon War, in late 2008, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel ended, which led to the 2008 Israel-Gaza conflict. Olmert declared that the Israeli Defense Force would target the Hamas leadership, throughout his premiership, Olmert was accused of corruption. Livni won the contest and sought to form a new government in September of that year, however, Livnis attempts at forming a new government were unsuccessful, and instead an election was scheduled for February 2009. Netanyahu succeeded Olmert on 31 March 2009, on 30 August 2009, an indictment against Olmert was served at the Jerusalem District Court. The indictment included the five criminal counts, obtaining by fraud under aggravating circumstances, fraud, breach of trust, falsifying corporate documents. The indictment refers to three out of the four corruption-related cases outstanding against him, Rishon Tours, Talansky, in July 2012, he was convicted on one count of breach of trust and acquitted on two fraud counts. In March 2014, he was convicted of bribery, and in May, sentenced to six years imprisonment, in September 2014, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Olmert could stay out of jail, pending appeal. Ultimately, on 29 December 2015, his term was reduced by the Supreme Court to 18 months. That was extended by a due to charge of obstruction of justice. He began serving a 19-months sentence on February 16,2016 in Maasiyahu Prison, on September 28,2016, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected his appeal and added eight more months to his sentence. Olmert was born near Binyamina in the British Mandate of Palestine, according to Olmert, his parents, Bella and Mordechai Olmert, escaped persecution in Ukraine and Russia, and found sanctuary in Harbin, China
12.
Matan Vilnai
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Matan Vilnai is an Israeli politician and a former Major General in the Israel Defense Forces. A former Knesset member and government minister, he was appointed ambassador to China in 2012, Matan Vilnai was born in Jerusalem. His father was Prof. Zev Vilnay, a pioneer in the sphere of Israeli geography and Land of Israel studies, from whom he inherited a love of nature and hiking. Matan graduated from the Hebrew Reali School in 1962 and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, serving in the Paratroopers Brigade, Vilnai lives in Mevasseret Zion and is a married with three children. Vilnai led the team into the airport building, while another team secured the outside. As a major general, Vilnai was the head of the Manpower Directorate, in the run up to the 1999 elections Vilnai joined the Labor Party, and won a place on its Knesset list. Ehud Barak appointed him Minister of Science, Culture and Sport, Vilnai gave up his Knesset seat six months after the election, but remained a minister. After Ariel Sharon beat Barak in the 2001 election for Prime Minister and he re-entered the Knesset after the 2003 elections second on Labors list, but lost his ministerial post as Sharon formed a right-wing coalition that excluded Labor. However, when parties left the coalition in the face of the disengagement plan. Vilnai was initially appointed Minister in the Prime Ministers Office, in August 2005 he was appointed Acting Minister of Science and Technology, and the post was made permanent in November. In the run-up to the 2006 elections, Vilnai competed in the election for Labor Party leader alongside Shimon Peres and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, however, he did retain his Knesset seat in the elections, placing 11th on Labors list. After Barak won the party election in 2007 he appointed Vilnai as Deputy Minister of Defense. A spokesman for Vilnai said he used the word in the sense of disaster, Vilnai won sixth place on the Labor list for the 2009 elections, and retained his seat in the subsequent election. In February 2012 Vilnai was appointed Israels ambassador to China and his Knesset seat was taken by Shachiv Shnaan. Official website Matan Vilnai on the Knesset website
13.
Amir Peretz
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Amir Peretz is an Israeli politician who currently serves as a member of the Knesset for the Zionist Union. He previously served as Minister of Defence, leader of the Labor Party, Peretz is the former chairman of the Histadrut trade union federation and defeated Shimon Peres in the primary elections for the Labor leadership on 9 November 2005. He led the Labor Party to a place showing in the 2006 elections. He was defeated by Ehud Barak for the Labor leadership on 12 June 2007 and he joined the Hatnuah party in December 2012, before rejoining the Labor Party in September 2015. Peretz was born as Armand Peretz in Boujad, Morocco, on 9 March 1952 during French colonial rule and his father David was head of the Jewish community in Boujad. He worked as an accountant and at a petrol station, the family emigrated to Israel when Morocco won independence in 1956. They were settled in the development town of Sderot, where Peretz lived until the age of 18 and he went to high school in a nearby kibbutz. He served in the Israel Defense Forces as the ordnance officer of the 202nd paratroopers brigade. On 22 April 1974, Peretz was badly wounded as a result of an accident at the Mitla Pass and he spent a year in the hospital recuperating. After leaving the hospital, he bought a farm in the village of Nir Akiva, still in a wheelchair, he began growing vegetables and flowers for export. During this period he met his wife Ahlama and they married, in 1983, answering a call made by friends, Peretz ran for the office of mayor of Sderot, as candidate of the Israel Labor Party. At only 31 years of age he won a victory that ended a period of dominance of the towns politics by the right-wing Likud party. It was the first in a series of councils that passed back to Labor control in the late 1980s. As mayor, he emphasized education and worked to improve previously fractious relations with the kibbutzim in the area. In 1988 he was elected a member of the Knesset, in 1994, after failing in a previous bid for Histadrut leadership, Peretz joined forces with Haim Ramon to contest control of the then powerful trade union federation. They ran on an independent list against the candidate of then Labor leader Yitzhak Rabin. They won, and Peretz became Ramons deputy at the Histadrut and he became chairman of the Histadrut in December 1995, when Ramon reentered the cabinet following Rabins assassination. During his early years at the helm of the Histadrut, Peretz was regarded as a militant firebrand, sometimes the pretext for declaring a general strike would be an inopportune statement by the finance minister, as had been the case with Yaakov Neeman in 1996
14.
Moshe Ya'alon
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Moshe Bogie Yaalon is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who also served as Israels Defense Minister from 2013 until his resignation on 20 May 2016. Yaalon was born Moshe Smilansky, the son of David Smilansky and his father, a factory worker, had moved to Mandatory Palestine with his parents from Ukraine in 1925, and was a veteran of the Haganah and Jewish Brigade. His mother was a Holocaust survivor who had fought against the Nazis with partisans during World War II and she came to Palestine in 1946. Yaalon grew up in Kiryat Haim, a suburb of Haifa. He was active in the Labor Zionist youth movement HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed and joined a Nahal group named Yaalon and he later moved to kibbutz Grofit, in the Arava region near Eilat. In 1968, he was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces and he served as a soldier and a squad leader in the Brigades 50 battalion and fought in the War of Attrition. In 1973, Yaalon was called up as a reservist during the Yom Kippur War, on 15 October 1973, his unit, the 55th Paratroopers Brigade, became the first IDF unit to cross the Suez Canal into Egypt. He continued fighting as part of the Israeli drive into the Egyptian mainland, following the war, he rejoined the IDF as a career soldier, and became an as an infantry officer after completing Officer Candidate School. He then returned to the Paratroopers Brigade as a platoon leader, later on he served as a company commander in the Brigades 50 battalion and led the Brigades Reconnaissance company in several special operations and during Operation Litani. During the 1982 Lebanon War, Yaalon joined the Sayeret Matkal commando unit as a commander and he then rejoined the Paratroopers Brigade and was appointed as the commander of its 890 Efe paratroop battalion. During this time, he was wounded in the leg while leading a pursuit of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, Yaalon took a sabbatical to the United Kingdom to study at the British Armys Camberley Staff College. Upon his return to Israel, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel, Yaalon led it to many notable achievements, for which the unit received four recommendations of honor. After his tenure as commander was finished, Yaalon studied at the University of Haifa, obtaining a BA in Political Science, in 1990, Yaalon was appointed commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, and two years later, became commander of the Judea and Samaria Division. On 10 December 1992, Yaalon killed a militant from the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine with a grenade after the militant had shot dead a Yamam operative attempting to arrest him. In 1993, he was appointed commander of an IDF training base, in 1995, Yaalon was promoted to Major General and appointed head of Military Intelligence. In 1998, he was appointed commanding officer of Israels Central Command and he was serving in this position when the Second Intifada was launched in September 2000. Yaalon was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces on 9 July 2002, the major focus throughout his tenure as Chief of Staff was the armys effort to quell the Second Intifada. Under his watch, the IDF conducted Operation Defensive Shield, in February 2005, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided not to prolong Yaalons service as Chief of Staff for another year
15.
Efraim Sneh
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Efraim Sneh is an Israeli politician, physician, and a retired Brigadier General in the Israel Defense Forces. He was a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party between 1992 and 2008 and served in ministerial posts. He currently heads the Yisrael Hazaka party, which he established in May 2008, born in Tel Aviv in 1944, Sneh is the son of Moshe Sneh, who was one of the heads of the Haganah. His father was elected to the first Knesset as a representative of Mapam, before defecting to Maki, Sneh served in the Nahal infantry battalion from 1962 to 1964. He studied medicine at Tel Aviv University and specialized in internal medicine, once he finished his studies he returned to military service as a battalion doctor, then as a brigade doctor for the Paratroopers Brigade. In the Yom Kippur War he commanded a unit of the brigade in the Battle of The Chinese Farm. Sneh also commanded the unit at Operation Entebbe, and Yonatan Netanyahu died in his arms. Afterwards, he served as commander of the elite Unit 669 and his last role in the IDF was as head of the civilian administration of the West Bank. In December 1987, with his release from the army he joined the Labor Party, from 1988 to 1994 he served on many delegations, specifically dealing with the Palestinian leadership. In 1992 Sneh was elected to the Knesset, serving as Minister of Health from 1994 to 1996, in 1999 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense, and in 2001 he was appointed Minister of Transportation. Sneh stood out in his objection to the withdrawal from southern Lebanon, generally, Sneh is considered a hawk in the Labor Party. In the negotiations leading to the formation of the 31st Government under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, although not initially appointed to a position in the government, Sneh was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense on 30 October 2006. He served under Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who also was the Labor Party leader, on 25 May 2008 Sneh announced that he would be leaving the Labor Party and creating a new party, Yisrael Hazaka. He left the Knesset on 28 May and was replaced by Shakhiv Shanaan and he lives in Herzliya, and is married with two children. Efraim Sneh on the Knesset website Official website Sneh, Ephraim, theres nothing stronger than an idea whose time has come. Leon Charney interviews Efraim Sneh and Fredy Zach on The Leon Charney Report Head to Head, Yossi Beilin and Ephraim Sneh on the Iranian nuclear threat - Fathom Journal
16.
Moshe Arens
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Moshe Arens is an Israeli aeronautical engineer, researcher and former diplomat and Likud politician. A member of the Knesset between 1973 and 1992 and again from 1999 until 2003, he served as Minister of Defense three times and once as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Arens has also served as the Israeli ambassador to the U. S. and was professor at the Technion in Haifa, Moshe Arens was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, to a Jewish family. His father was an industrialist and his mother was a dentist, when he was a year old, his family moved to Riga, Latvia. In 1939, Arens and his family immigrated to the United States, the family settled in New York City, where Arens attended George Washington High School. As a youth, Arens was a leader in the Betar youth movement, during World War II, Arens served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a technical sergeant. Following the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, Arens moved to the new State of Israel and joined the Irgun and he was sent to North Africa and Europe to help local Jewish communities establish self-defense groups. In March 1949, he returned to Israel, and became a member of the Herut party. After being denied a job in Israels military industries, he working as an engineer for an American company dealing in designing water systems for Tel Aviv. He returned to Israel in 1957, and became professor of aeronautics at the Technion, from 1962 until 1971 he was a Deputy Director General at Israel Aircraft Industries, where he was in charge of most major development projects, including the Kfir fighter jet project. In 1971, he won the Israel Defense Prize, after the Yom Kippur War he entered politics and was elected to the Knesset as a member of Likud in the 1973 elections. After being re-elected in 1977, he became chairman of the Foreign Affairs and he voted against the Camp David Accords and the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. In 1980, Prime Minister Menachem Begin offered Arens the post of Minister of Defense, Arens did not oppose peace with Egypt, but was opposed to certain aspects of the treaty, and thus did not want to have to oversee Israels evacuation from the Sinai. He was re-elected again in 1981, but resigned from the Knesset on 19 January 1982 when appointed ambassador to the United States, at this point, he brought his young protégé, Benjamin Netanyahu, then 32, to work for him in Washington. He was re-elected in 1984, but was only appointed Minister without Portfolio, after another re-election in 1988 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in 1990 returned to the Defense portfolio. After Likud lost the 1992 elections, Arens retired from politics and he returned in 1999, however, to challenge Binyamin Netanyahu for the Likud leadership. Although he failed in his challenge, winning only 18% of the vote, Netanyahu appointed him Minister of Defense, replacing Yitzhak Mordechai, although Arens returned to the Knesset after the 1999 elections, Likud lost the elections and he left the cabinet. He lost his seat for the time in 2003
17.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel)
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The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministrys role is to implement Israels foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located in the government complex in Givat Ram, Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu currently holds the Foreign Ministry post, moshe Sharett, formerly head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, was placed in charge of foreign relations, with Walter Eytan as Director General. A new organization was founded, the Israeli Association for Diplomacy, in response to issues raised, MK Ronen Hoffman arranged for the Knesset to launch a caucus entitled the “Caucus for the strengthening of the foreign service and Israeli diplomacy” in December 2014. Joined by politicians across the spectrum, Hoffman said, “As long as the security establishment. A country whose foreign service doesn’t take a central position doesn’t act in the best national interest. ”Israel maintains diplomatic relations with 159 countries, in October 2000, Morocco, Tunisia and the Sultanate of Oman closed the Israeli offices in their countries and suspended relations with Israel. Niger, which renewed relations with Israel in November 1996, severed them in April 2002, venezuela and Bolivia severed diplomatic ties with Israel in January 2009, in the wake of the IDF operation against Hamas in Gaza. of Toronto. The building consists of three wings, One houses the offices of the Foreign Minister and director-general, another houses the diplomatic corps and the library, the outside walls of the reception hall incorporate onyx plates that diffuse an amber light. In June 2001, the won the prize for excellence from the Royal Institute of Architects of Canada. The building is described as an essay in the play between solid and void, mass and volume, and light and shadow. The Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The position is one of the most important in the Israeli cabinet after Prime Minister, Foreign relations of Israel Official website Official website Official website Official website All Ministers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Knesset website
18.
Shimon Peres
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Shimon Peres was an Israeli politician who served both as ninth President of Israel, and Prime Minister of Israel, as well as Interim Prime Minister. He was a member of twelve cabinets in a career spanning 70 years. At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was the worlds oldest head of state and he was considered the last link to Israels founding generation. From a young age, he was renowned for his oratorical brilliance and he began his political career in the late 1940s, holding several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. His first high-level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952 which he attained at the age of 28, in 1956, he took part in the historic negotiations on the Protocol of Sèvres described by British Prime Minister Anthony Eden as the highest form of statesmanship. In 1963, he held negotiations with U. S. President John F. Kennedy, which resulted in the sale of Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, the first sale of U. S. military equipment to Israel. On October 26,1994, Jordan and Israel signed the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords. During his career, he represented five political parties in the Knesset, Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labor and Kadima, and led Alignment and Labor. In July 2016, he founded the Israel innovation center in the Arab neighbourhood of Ajami, Jaffa, Peres was polyglot, speaking Polish, French, English, Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew, although he never lost his Polish accent when speaking in Hebrew. In his private life, he was a poet and songwriter, writing stanzas during cabinet meetings, as a result of his deep literary interests, he could quote from Hebrew prophets, French literature, and Chinese philosophy with equal ease. After suffering a stroke, Peres died on September 28,2016 near Tel Aviv, Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski, on August 2,1923, in Wiszniew, Poland, to Yitzhak and Sara Perski. The family spoke Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian at home, and he then learned to speak English and French. His father was a timber merchant, later branching out into other commodities. Peres had a brother, Gershon, and was a relative of American film star Lauren Bacall. Peres told Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson that he had been born as a result of a blessing his parents had received from a chassidic rebbe, Peres grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer, a grandson of Rabbi Chaim Volozhin, had a great impact on his life. In an interview, Peres said, As a child, I grew up in my grandfathers home, … My grandfather taught me Talmud. It was not as easy as it sounds and my home was not an observant one. My parents were not Orthodox but I was Haredi, at one point, I heard my parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath and I smashed it
19.
Chief of General Staff (Israel)
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The Chief of the General Staff, also known as the Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Defense Forces, is the supreme commander and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. At any given time, the Chief of Staff is the only active officer holding the IDFs highest rank, rav aluf, which is translated into English as lieutenant general. The Israel Defense Forces is a force, its ranks are the same in all services. It has a slightly compacted rank structure, for instance, the Chief of Staff is seemingly only equivalent to a lieutenant general in other militaries, rav aluf means arch-general, which would be equal to a field marshal or five star general in other armies and equivalent to OF-10. As of 16 February 2015, the Chief of General Staff is Gadi Eizenkot, given the importance of the IDF in Israeli society, the Chief of Staff is an important public figure in Israel. Former Chiefs of Staff often parlay the prominence of their position into political life, two Chiefs of Staff have become Prime Minister of Israel and nine others have served in the Knesset. Of these, only Tzur did not get appointed to the Cabinet, moshe Dayan served also as Foreign Minister. Soon after his discharge, Dan Halutz became the CEO of a prestigious car importer, ehud Barak took a hiatus from politics twice after defeats for re-election and pursued successful international business ventures
20.
Chaim Herzog
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Major-General Chaim Herzog was an Israeli politician, general, lawyer and author who served as the sixth President of Israel between 1983 and 1993. In the British Army during World War II, latterly as an officer and he retired from the Israel Defence Forces in 1962 with the rank of Major-General. After leaving the military, Herzog practised law, in 1972 he was a co-founder of Herzog, Fox & Neeman, which would become one of Israels largest law firms. Herzog entered politics in the 1981 elections, winning a Knesset seat as a member of the Alignment, two years later, in March 1983, he was elected to the largely ceremonial role of President. He served for two terms before retiring in 1993. He died four years later and was buried on Mount Herzl and his son Isaac Herzog has led the Israeli Labour Party and the parliamentary Opposition in the Knesset since 2013. Herzog was born on 17 September 1918 in Cliftonpark Avenue in Belfast, Ireland, the son of Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, who was Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919 to 1937, and his wife Sara. His father was born in Łomża, Poland, and his mother in Latvia, the family home from 1919 was at 33 Bloomfield Avenue, Portobello, Dublin. Herzogs father, a fluent speaker of the Irish language, was known as the Sinn Féin Rabbi for his support of the First Dáil and the Irish Republican cause during the Irish War of Independence. Herzog studied at Wesley College, Dublin and was involved with the Federation of Zionist Youth and Habonim Dror, the family emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935, Herzog subsequently served in the Jewish paramilitary group Haganah during the 1936–39 Arab revolt. He went on to earn a degree in law at University College London, Herzog joined the British Army during World War II, operating primarily in Germany as a tank commander in the Armoured Corps. There, he was given his nickname of Vivian because the British could not pronounce the name. A Jewish soldier had volunteered that Vivian was the English equivalent of Chaim and he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1943 and participated in the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps as well as identifying a captured German soldier as Heinrich Himmler. He left the army in 1947 with the rank of Major, immediately following the war, he returned to Palestine. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, from 1950 to 1954, he served as defence attaché at the Israeli Embassy in the United States. He retired from the IDF in 1962 with the rank of Major-General, after leaving the army, Herzog opened a private law practice. He returned to life in 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out. Following the capture of the West Bank, he was appointed Military Governor of East Jerusalem, in 1972, he went into partnership with Michael Fox and Yaakov Neeman, and established the law firm of Herzog, Fox & Neeman, one of the largest law firms in Israel
21.
Yitzhak Shamir
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Yitzhak Shamir was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–84 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Shamir was a leader of the Zionist paramilitary group Lehi, after the establishment of the State of Israel he served in the Mossad between 1955 and 1965, a Knesset Member, a Knesset Speaker and a Foreign Affairs Minister. Shamir was the countrys third longest-serving prime minister after David Ben-Gurion and those close to Shamir noted that he often recalls his childhood and youth in Belarus. Shamir later moved to Białystok, Poland and studied at a Hebrew high school network, as a youth he joined Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement. He studied law at the University of Warsaw, but cut his studies short to immigrate to what was then Mandatory Palestine, Shamir once stated that every Pole sucked anti-Semitism with his mothers milk. The comment caused controversy within Poland as being slanderous and libelous, the Polish writer and former resistance fighter Jan Nowak-Jeziorański commented, To conclude from the 1941 pogroms that the Holocaust was the common work of Poles and Germans is a libel. All who feel themselves to be Polish have the responsibility to defend themselves against such slander, the difference is that Poles were eyewitnesses, defenseless witnesses living in constant fear for their lives and the lives of their families. His parents and two died during the Holocaust. However this story has never confirmed by other sources. His mother and a sister died in the camps and another sister was shot dead. According to an obituary, he had dreamed of living in the Land of Israel since he was a boy, in 1935, Shamir emigrated to Palestine, where he worked in an accountants office. He later adopted as his surname the name he used on a forged underground identity card and he told his wife this was because Shamir means a thorn that stabs and a rock that can cut steel. In 1944 he married Shulamit, whom he met in a detention camp when she migrated to Mandate Palestine from Bulgaria by boat in 1941 and was incarcerated because she entered the territory illegally and they had two children, Yair and Gilada. Shulamit died on July 29,2011, Shamir joined the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Zionist paramilitary group that opposed British control of Palestine. When the Irgun split in 1940, Shamir joined the militant faction Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang. In 1941 Shamir was imprisoned by British authorities, Shamir, together with Giladi, Anshell Shpillman and Yehoshua Cohen, reorganized the movement into cells and trained its members. In 1943, he one of the three leaders of the group, serving with Nathan Yellin-Mor and Israel Eldad. Shamir sought to emulate the anti-British struggle of the Irish Republicans, Shamir plotted the 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne, British Minister for Middle East Affairs, and personally selected Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri to carry it out
22.
Yitzhak Rabin
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Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995, Rabin was born in Jerusalem to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants and was raised in a Labor Zionist household. He learned agriculture in school and excelled as a student and he led a 27-year career as a soldier. As a teenager he joined the Palmach, the force of the Yishuv. He eventually rose through its ranks to become its chief of operations during Israels War of Independence and he joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces in late 1948 and continued to rise as a promising officer. He helped shape the training doctrine of the IDF in the early 1950s and he was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1964 and oversaw Israels victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Rabin served as Israels ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973 and he was appointed Prime Minister of Israel in 1974, after the resignation of Golda Meir. In his first term, Rabin signed the Sinai Interim Agreement and he resigned in 1977 in the wake of a financial scandal. Rabin was Israels minister of defense for much of the 1980s, in 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres, Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. In November 1995, he was assassinated by an extremist named Yigal Amir, Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol. Rabin has become a symbol of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, Nehemiah Rubitzov was born in the shtetl Sydorovychi near Ivankiv in the southern Pale of Settlement. His father Menachem died when he was a boy, and Nehemiah worked to support his family from an early age, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the Poale Zion party and changed his surname to Rabin. In 1917, Nehemiah went to Mandatory Palestine with a group of volunteers from the Jewish Legion, yitzhaks mother, Rosa Cohen, was born in 1890 in Mogilev in Belarus. Her father, a rabbi, opposed the Zionist movement and sent Rosa to a Christian high school for girls in Gomel, early on, Rosa took an interest in political and social causes. In 1919, she traveled to the region on the steamship Ruslan, after working on a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, she moved to Jerusalem. Rabins parents met in Jerusalem during the 1920 Nebi Musa riots and they moved to Tel Avivs Chlenov Street near Jaffa in 1923
23.
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak
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Amnon Lipkin-Shahak was an Israeli military officer and politician. He served as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, as a Member of the Knesset, Lipkin-Shahak was married to journalist Tali Lipkin-Shahak and had five children. He earned a B. A. in general history from Tel Aviv University, in 1994, while serving as Deputy Chief of Staff, he said in an interview that four years earlier he was diagnosed with leukemia, but had since recovered. When it was discovered he had been serving as Director of Military Intelligence, on 19 December 2012, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak died in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, after a long battle with cancer. In 1965, he became a commander in the newly established 202nd battalion of the brigade. As a company commander, he participated in operations preceding the Six Day War. During the war, he served as acting deputy battalion commander, after the war, he took command of the Duchifat unit of the brigade and participated in Operation Inferno, where he was awarded the Medal of Courage for his leadership and courage under fire. After graduating from the Command and General Staff School in 1971, under his command, the battalion took part in many operations, mainly in the area of Lebanon. In April 1973, as a part of Operation Spring of Youth, he assaulted PFLP headquarters in Beirut, after the war, he was assigned as the operations officer for Central Command, and was sent to the U. S. Marines general staff course in the United States. In 1976, Lipkin-Shahak was promoted to Colonel and became head of the reservist Paratroopers Brigade, in 1977, he was appointed the head of the regular Paratroopers Brigade. During this period, the Brigade took part in operations along all of Israels borders, including extensive operations in Lebanon. After finishing his term as commander of the brigade, he was appointed as a commander of a reservist armored division, while serving as the Divisions commander, he served as the commander of the Beirut region after the First Lebanon War. In 1983, Lipkin-Shahak was appointed the Head of Central Command, from 1986 to 1991 he served as Head of Intelligence, and during those years, among other things, prepared the IDF during the developments that led to the Gulf War. In 1991, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, and during this role served as the commander of Operation Solomon, on January 1,1995, he became Chief of Staff of the IDF, succeeding Ehud Barak. Lipkin-Shahak retired from the IDF in 1998 and he was succeeded as Chief of Staff by Shaul Mofaz. After retiring from the army he expressed opinions and severely criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He called for the establishment of a centrist party that would include representatives of large parts of the public
24.
Dan Shomron
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Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron was the 13th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, from 1987 to 1991. During the Six-Day War he commanded a unit on the Egyptian front and was the first paratrooper to reach the Suez Canal and he was decorated with the Medal of Distinguished Service for this action. He also fought in the 1956 Sinai campaign, in 1974 he received the command over the Infantry and Paratroopers Branch of the Israeli army. He had planned and commanded the Entebbe rescue operation and he was acclaimed a hero but did not always seem comfortable with people viewing him as a hero. He said, “I also felt kind of envy from the military. Around the world, until today, they look at me like something from a different world, I don’t like that feeling of being an advertisement. That was a moment that I can’t forget. ”He was also in charge of the dismantling of Israeli settlements and army bases in the Sinai Peninsula. In 1983 he established the ground command and was its first commander. At the age of 50, in 1987 he became the 13th Chief Staff of the IDF and he held this position until 1991. After finishing his term, he served as the Chairman of the Israeli Military Industries and he died on February 26,2008, from complications of a brain aneurysm three weeks earlier, at the age of 70. He is survived by his wife and two children, Shomron was played by Charles Bronson in the film Raid on Entebbe. Shomron is considered by many Israelis to be one of the greatest commanders that Israel has ever had
25.
Mandatory Palestine
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Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I. British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948, further confusing the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, promising British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. At the wars end the British and French set up a joint Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in what had been Ottoman Syria, the British achieved legitimacy for their continued control by obtaining a mandate from the League of Nations in June 1922. The civil Mandate administration was formalized with the League of Nations consent in 1923 under the British Mandate for Palestine, the land west of the Jordan River, known as Palestine, was under direct British administration until 1948. The land east of the Jordan, a region known as Transjordan, under the rule of the Hashemite family from the Hijaz. The divergent tendencies regarding the nature and purpose of the mandate are visible already in the discussions concerning the name for this new entity. As a set-off to this, certain of the Arab politicians suggested that the country should be called Southern Syria in order to emphasise its close relation with another Arab State. During the British Mandate period the area experienced the ascent of two major nationalist movements, one among the Jews and the other among the Arabs, following its occupation by British troops in 1917–1918, Palestine was governed by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. In July 1920, the administration was replaced by a civilian administration headed by a High Commissioner. The first High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, a Zionist recent cabinet minister, arrived in Palestine on 20 June 1920, following the arrival of the British, Muslim-Christian Associations were established in all the major towns. In 1919 they joined to hold the first Palestine Arab Congress in Jerusalem and its main platforms were a call for representative government and opposition to the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist Commission was formed in March 1918 and was active in promoting Zionist objectives in Palestine, on 19 April 1920, elections were held for the Assembly of Representatives of the Palestinian Jewish community. The Zionist Commission received official recognition in 1922 as representative of the Palestinian Jewish community, Rutenberg soon established an electric company whose shareholders were Zionist organizations, investors, and philanthropists. Palestinian-Arabs saw it as proof that the British intended to favor Zionism, when Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Kamil al-Husayni died in March 1921, High Commissioner Samuel appointed his half-brother Mohammad Amin al-Husseini to the position. Amin al-Husseini, a member of the clan of Jerusalem, was an Arab nationalist. As Grand Mufti, as well as the influential positions that he held during this period. In 1922, al-Husseini was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council which had created by Samuel in December 1921. The Council controlled the Waqf funds, worth annually tens of thousands of pounds, in addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine
26.
Israeli Labor Party
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The Israeli Labor Party, commonly known as HaAvoda, is a social democratic and Zionist political party in Israel. The Israeli Labor Party was established in 1968 by a merger of Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda, until 1977, all Israeli Prime Ministers were affiliated with the Labor movement. The current party leader since 2013 is Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party is associated with supporting the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, pragmatic foreign affairs policies and social democratic economic policies. The party is a member of the Socialist International and Progressive Alliance, after the Six-Day War broke out, Rafi and Gahal joined the coalition. On 23 January 1968 Mapai, Ahdut HaAvoda and Rafi merged into one body, on 28 January 1969, the party allied itself with Mapam, the alliance becoming known as the Alignment. As the largest faction within the Alignment, Labor came to dominate it, Mapam left during the eighth Knesset, but rejoined shortly afterwards. In the 1977 elections, Labor for the first time ended up in opposition, in the 1984 elections, Labor joined a national unity government with Likud, with the post of Prime Minister rotating between the two parties. Mapam broke away again during the eleventh Knesset, angry at Shimon Peress decision to form a unity government with Likud. Although the Independent Liberals merged into the Alignment in the 1980s, on 7 October 1991 the Alignment ceased to exist, with all factions formally merged into the Labor Party. W. Led by Yitzhak Rabin, Labor won the 1992 elections and formed the government together with Meretz, in domestic policy, the Labor-led government introduced various measures to improve levels of social protection. Better provisions were introduced for single parents and people with disabilities, the 1994 Law to Reduce Poverty and Income Inequality increased income maintenance grants to needy families, particularly benefitting those sections of society most vulnerable to poverty. In 1995, a health insurance policy was implemented, making access to health care a right for all Israelis. Various measures were introduced to bring greater progressivity into the system of collection of national insurance contributions. A maternity grant for adopting mothers was introduced, together with insurance for housewives, a minimum unemployment allowance. The subsequent role of Labor became to a large extent tied to the Oslo Accords, the Oslo Accords led to a vote of confidence, which the Government won with a margin of 61–50. Several MKs from the Government parties declined to support the Government, but on the other hand, due to the lack of a constitution in Israel, the Government was able to implement the accords with a thin margin. Rabins decision to advance peace talks with the Palestinians to the point of signing the Oslo Accords led to his assassination by Yigal Amir in 1995, Peres decided to call early elections in 1996 to give him a mandate for advancing the peace process. However, his ploy failed, although Labor won the most seats in the Knesset election, Netanyahu and Likud were thus able to form the government
27.
Independence (Israeli political party)
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Independence is a political party in Israel. It was launched by Defense Minister Ehud Barak on 17 January 2011 after he, in the words of the announcement, the faction aims to be centrist, Zionist, and democratic and to establish itself as a separate political party. It was built on the vestiges of the Third Way party, nine days after Barak announced his retirement from politics, it was announced that Independence would not contest the 2013 Knesset elections. Splitting the Labour Party enabled Barak to keep a faction of Labour MKs loyal to him within Netanyahus coalition, as of 17 January 2011, the coalition has the support of 66 out of 120 MKs, as compared to 74 before that. Since Labour was often an unreliable coalition partner in Knesset voting, Netanyahu was singled out by analysts as the biggest winner from the split, and was reported to have been involved in the behind-the-scenes making of the political deal. Barak said that he was tired of infighting within Labour as he accused the rest of the Labour of moving too far to the end of the political spectrum. The more leftist faction was also wary of Baraks closeness to the Prime Minister Netanyahu, daniel Ben-Simon left the Labour party in protest against Baraks decision to stay with the government. However, the members of Labour condemned the move. Eitan Cabel said it would destroy the party, ” whilst Shelly Yachimovich called it a corrupt and opportunistic move and he has brought a catastrophe upon Labor. Daniel Ben-Simon had stated prior to the split that he would become an independent MK because of Labours continued position in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Avishai Braverman, Minister of Minorities, and Isaac Herzog, Minister of Social Affairs, in a move to avoid the months of bureaucracy involved in registering a new party, Barak negotiated a takeover of the Third Way with its leader Avigdor Kahalani. The Third Way had held seats in the Knesset between 1996 and 1999, and although had effectively ceased functioning after losing them in the 1999 elections, it had remained a registered party. The Knesset Committee approved the request of Independence to take over the Third Way party, the founding conference of the party was held in May 2011 with eighty members in attendance. The conference approved the statute and the appointment of Barak as chairman. In September 2011 the factions name was changed to The Independence Party through the national party registrar. In February 2012 Minister Matan Vilnai resigned his post in the cabinet and the Knesset for the post of being the Israeli Ambassador to China, without their party having the benefit of having participating in an election. Six people represented the party in the Knesset, Ehud Barak Matan Vilnai – resigned and replaced by Shachiv Shnaan Shalom Simhon Orit Noked Einat Wilf Official website Independence Knesset website
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Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
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Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israels second oldest university established in 1918,30 years before the State of Israel. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot, the worlds largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J. Safra Givat Ram campus. The university has 5 affiliated teaching hospitals including the Hadassah Medical Center,7 faculties, more than 100 research centers, a third of all the doctoral candidates in Israel are studying in the Hebrew University. The first Board of Governors included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, four of Israels prime ministers are alumni of the Hebrew University. In the last decade, eight researchers and alumni of the University received the Nobel Prize, one was awarded the Fields Medal, one of the visions of the Zionist movement was the establishment of a Jewish university in the Land of Israel. Founding a university was proposed as far back as 1884 in the Kattowitz conference of the Hovevei Zion society, the cornerstone for the university was laid on July 24,1918. The Universitys first Chancellor was Judah Magnes, by 1947, the University had become a large research and teaching institution. Plans for a school were approved in May 1949, and in November 1949. In 1952, it was announced that the institute founded by the University in 1940 would become a full-fledged faculty. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, attacks were carried out against convoys moving between the Israeli-controlled section of Jerusalem and the University. The leader of the Arab forces in Jerusalem, Abdul Kader Husseini, after the Hadassah medical convoy massacre, in which 79 Jews, including doctors and nurses, were slaughtered, the Mount Scopus campus was cut off from Jerusalem. British soldier Jack Churchill coordinated the evacuation of 700 Jewish doctors, when the Jordan government denied Israeli access to Mount Scopus, a new campus was built at Givat Ram in western Jerusalem and completed in 1958. In the interim, classes were held in 40 different buildings around the city, the Terra Santa building in Rehavia, rented from the Franciscan Custodians of the Latin Holy Places, was also used for this purpose. A few years later, together with the Hadassah Medical Organization, by the beginning of 1967, the students numbered 12,500, spread among the two campuses in Jerusalem and the agricultural faculty in Rehovot. After the unification of Jerusalem, following the Six-Day War of June 1967, the University was able to return to Mount Scopus, in 1981 the construction work was completed, and Mount Scopus again became the main campus of the University. On July 31,2002, a member of a terrorist cell detonated a bomb during lunch hour at the Universitys Frank Sinatra cafeteria when it was crowded with staff and students. Nine people — five Israelis, three Americans, and one dual French-American citizen — were murdered and more than 70 wounded, World leaders, including Kofi Annan, President Bush, and the President of the European Union issued statements of condemnation. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Rothberg International School, the Rothberg International School features secular studies and Jewish/Israeli studies
30.
Stanford University
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Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Its 8, 180-acre campus is one of the largest in the United States, Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere. The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Stanford was a former Governor of California and U. S. Senator, he made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students 125 years ago on October 1,1891, Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanfords death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the country. There are three schools that have both undergraduate and graduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. Stanford faculty and alumni have founded a number of companies that produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires,17 astronauts and it is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. Sixty Nobel laureates and seven Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanfords previous Palo Alto farm, despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I, the Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which was established in 1962, in 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Besides the central campus described below, the university also operates at more remote locations, some elsewhere on the main campus. Stanfords main campus includes a place within unincorporated Santa Clara County. The campus also includes land in unincorporated San Mateo County, as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park, Woodside. The academic central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard, the United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP codes,94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P. O. box mail
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Officer (armed forces)
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An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. In this sense, officers are not enlisted, but hold appointments from their government that typically remain in force indefinitely unless resigned, the proportion of officers varies greatly. Officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel, in 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13. 7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, historically, however, armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than 5% of British soldiers were officers, in the early twentieth century, the Spanish army had the highest proportion of officers of any European army, at 12. 5%. Within a nations armed forces, armies tend to have a proportion of officers. For example,13. 9% of British army personnel and 22. 2% of the RAF personnel were officers in 2013, having officers is one requirement for combatant status under the laws of war, though these officers need not have obtained an official commission or warrant. Commissioned officers are typically the only persons, in an armed forces environment, a superior officer is an officer with a higher rank than another officer, who is a subordinate officer relative to the superior. Non-commissioned officers in positions of authority can be said to have control or charge rather than command per se, many advanced militaries require university degrees as a prerequisite for commissioning, even from the enlisted ranks. In the Israel Defense Forces, a university degree is a requirement for an officer to advance to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the IDF often sponsors the studies for its majors, while aircrew and naval officers obtain academic degrees as a part of their training programmes. In the United Kingdom, there are three routes of entry for British Armed Forces officers, the first, and primary route are those who receive their commission directly into the officer grades following completion at their relevant military academy. The third route is similar to the second, in that they convert from an enlisted to a commission, but these are taken from the highest ranks of SNCOs. LE officers, whilst holding the same Queens Commission, generally work in different roles from the DE officers, in the infantry, a number of Warrant Officer Class 1s are commissioned as LE officers. For Royal Navy and Royal Air Force officer candidates, a 30-week period at Britannia Royal Naval College or a 30-week period at RAF College Cranwell, Royal Marines officers receive their training in the Command Wing of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines during a grueling 15-month course. The courses consist of not only tactical and combat training, but also leadership, management, etiquette, until the Cardwell Reforms of 1871, commissions in the British Army were purchased by officers. The Royal Navy, however, operated on a more meritocratic, or at least socially mobile, AOCS also also included the embedded Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate and Naval Aviation Cadet programs. NAVCADs were personnel who held associates degrees, but lacked bachelors degrees, nAVCADs would complete the entire AOCS program, but would not be commissioned until completion of flight training and receiving their wings. After their initial tour, they would be assigned to a college or university full-time for no more than two years in order to complete their bachelors degree
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Medal of Distinguished Service
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The Medal of Distinguished Service is an Israeli military decoration. The medal was instituted in 1970 by act of law in the Knesset, the medal is awarded for an act of exemplary bravery in the line of duty. To date,601 medals have been awarded, the last in 2015, five recipients have been awarded the medal twice. One unit, the battalion of the Givati Brigade was awarded the medal in 2005. The medal was designed by Dan Reisinger, its shape is circular, on the front of the medal is a sword with an olive branch, symbolizing controlled strength. The medal is attached to a ribbon, with two-time recipients of the medal wearing a small clasp in the form of the medal on its ribbon. The medal is minted by the Israel Government Coins and Medals Corporation, it is made from 25 gram silver/935, clarke, Gallantry Medals & Awards of the World, pp. 109-110
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Israeli military decorations
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The Israeli Military decorations are the decorations awarded to soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who exhibit extraordinary bravery and courage. Its decorations consist of the Medal of Valor, the Medal of Courage, and it also includes the Citations, which are awarded in four classes. Two soldiers share the title of being the most decorated soldier of the IDF, Captain Nechemya Cohen, campaign ribbons awarded for service during war. Citation is worn on the ribbon in times of war. Service ribbons awarded for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel, medals and Decorations of Israel Awards and Decorations of Israel
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Legion of Merit
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The Legion of Merit is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the seven uniformed services of the United States as well as to military and political figures of foreign governments. The Legion of Merit is one of only two United States military decorations to be issued as an order and the only United States military decoration which may be issued in award degrees. The Legion of Merit is sixth in the order of precedence of U. S. military awards and is worn after the Defense Superior Service Medal, in contemporary use in the U. S. S. However, this degree was awarded by President Roosevelt to some Allied World War II theater commanders, Commander, Equivalent of a U. S. military chief of staff or higher position, but not to a head of state. Legionnaire, All recipients not included above, when the Legion of Merit is awarded to members of the Uniformed Services of the United States, it is awarded without reference to degree. The performance must have such as to merit recognition of key individuals for service rendered in a clearly exceptional manner. Performance of duties normal to the grade, branch, specialty, or assignment, for service not related to actual war, the term key individual applies to a narrower range of positions than in time of war and requires evidence of significant achievement. In peacetime, service should be in the nature of a requirement or of an extremely difficult duty performed in an unprecedented. However, justification of the award may accrue by virtue of exceptionally meritorious service in a succession of important positions, the degrees and the design of the decoration were influenced by the French Legion of Honour. Although recommendations for creation of a Meritorious Service Medal were initiated as early as September 1937, no formal action was taken toward approval. Proposed designs prepared by Bailey, Banks and Biddle and the Office of the Quartermaster General were provided to Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel Colonel Heard) by the QMG on January 5,1942. The Assistant Chief of Staff, in a response to the QMG on April 3,1942, the design of the Legion of Merit would be ready for issue immediately after legislation authorizing it was enacted into law. The medal was announced in War Department Bulletin No, executive Order 9260, dated October 29,1942, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, established the rules for the Legion of Merit and required the Presidents approval for the award. The Legion of Merit is similar to the French Legion of Honor in both its design, a five armed cross, and in that it is awarded in multiple degrees, unlike the Legion of Honor, however, the Legion of Merit is only awarded to military personnel. Additionally, it is the award in the world with multiple degrees of which the higher degrees cannot be awarded to citizens of the country of the awards origin. She received the award for her service during the defense of the Philippines, LTJG Bernatitus was also the first recipient of the Legion of Merit authorized to wear a Combat V with the medal. General Eisenhower was presented the Legion of Merit by President Roosevelt, while he was en route to the Tehran Conference, in Cairo, in 1943, at the request of Army Chief of Staff General George C
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Israel Defense Forces
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The Israel Defense Forces, commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal, are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the forces, air force, and navy. It is the military wing of the Israeli security forces. The IDF is headed by its Chief of General Staff, the Ramatkal, subordinate to the Defense Minister of Israel, Lieutenant general Gadi Eizenkot has served as Chief of Staff since 2015. The number of wars and border conflicts in which the IDF has been involved in its history makes it one of the most battle-trained armed forces in the world. The Israel Defense Forces differs from most armed forces in the world in many ways, differences include the mandatory conscription of women and its structure, which emphasizes close relations between the army, navy, and air force. Since its founding, the IDF has been designed to match Israels unique security situation. The IDF is one of Israeli societys most prominent institutions, influencing the economy, culture. In 1965, the Israel Defense Forces was awarded the Israel Prize for its contribution to education, the Uzi submachine gun was invented in Israel and used by the IDF until December 2003, ending a service that began in 1954. The Israeli cabinet ratified the name Israel Defense Forces, Tzva HaHagana LeYisrael, literally army for the defense of Israel, the other main contender was Tzva Yisrael. The name was chosen because it conveyed the idea that the role was defense, and because it incorporated the name Haganah. Among the primary opponents of the name were Minister Haim-Moshe Shapira, the IDF traces its roots to Jewish paramilitary organizations in the New Yishuv, starting with the Second Aliyah. The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founded in September 1907 and it was converted to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920. Hashomer was an elitist organization with narrow scope, and was created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During World War I, the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were the Zion Mule Corps, after the Arab riots against Jews in April 1920, the Yishuvs leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defense organization, and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. The Haganah became a defense force after the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine with an organized structure. During World War II the successor to the Jewish Legion of World War I was the Jewish Brigade, the IDF was founded following the establishment of the State of Israel, after Defense Minister and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion issued an order on 26 May 1948. The order called for the establishment of the Israel Defense Forces, although Ben-Gurion had no legal authority to issue such an order, the order was made legal by the cabinet on 31 May
36.
Sayeret Matkal
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Sayeret Matkal is a special forces unit of the Israel Defense Forces. The unit is modeled after the British Armys Special Air Service, taking the units motto Who Dares, the unit is the Israeli equivalent of Delta Force of the United States and to the UKs Special Air Service. It is directly subordinate to the IDFs Directorate of Military Intelligence, in 1954 Israels first special operations unit—Unit 101—was disbanded following the outcry provoked by the Qibya massacre. This left the IDF without a dedicated special-forces unit other than the Navys Shayetet 13, arnans idea was to create a unit that would recruit only the best and the brightest of Israeli youth. Prospective fighters were to be hand-picked, being physically and intellectually the best soldiers available, originally part of Amans Unit 157, Sayeret Matkal began to operate independently a year later as the General Staffs special operations force, modeled after the British Special Air Service. Members of the unit were trained by Bedouin trackers in order to obtain an understanding of their adversaries. Arnans vision for Sayeret Matkal was of a unit that would carry out strategic intelligence-gathering and other operations, Sayeret Matkal would also evaluate new weapons and doctrines that could influence the entire IDF. Due to the training, planning and preparation that had to be undertaken before its missions. It was however engaged extensively in the following War of Attrition, beginning with Operation Isotope, the unit carried out several high-profile operations that thrust it into the limelight as an elite paratroopers unit. In 1972, before the Munich massacre, Sayeret Matkals operatives were sent to West Germany to cooperate with German authorities and, if necessary and their advice though, was not heeded. In the subsequent Operation Wrath of God, Sayeret Matkal struck the PLO in Beirut, the Yom Kippur War in 1973 brought a profound change to the unit. With Israel fighting on two fronts and the General Staff busy with managing the war, Sayeret Matkal found itself without missions to perform, the latter prevailed and Sayeret Matkal was tasked with operations on both fronts. A reserve company of Sayeret Matkal was also designated specifically for cooperation with the Israeli Air Force and this would later evolve into Shaldag Unit. In 1974 Sayeret Matkal suffered a blow when a failed rescue attempt resulted in the Maalot massacre. The debacle led to the creation of the Yamam to deal with domestic counter-terrorism/hostage-rescue missions, two years later came the most famous mission of the unit when it spearheaded Operation Entebbe to rescue hostages held in Uganda. The mission was a success, although there were 4 hostages killed as well as the commander of the Unit. Although a top-secret unit, Sayeret Matkal had tremendous influence on the IDF and it was the original developer of helicopter infiltration techniques in Israel. In addition, their use of the Uzi led them to convince Israel Military Industries to produce an Uzi with a folding stock for increased accuracy while maintaining its small frame
37.
Central Command (Israel)
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The Israeli Central Command, often abbreviated to Pakmaz, is a regional command of the Israel Defense Forces. It is responsible for the units and brigades located in the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Sharon, Gush Dan, the commander of the central command is the one who is authorized to declare new cities in the Judea and Samaria Area. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Central Command was in-charge of the war efforts against Jordan, particularly on the road to Jerusalem, occupying the Small Triangle, Lod, during the Six-Day War, the Command led the occupation of the West Bank from Jordan. As of the First Intifada, the Command primarily engages in security and counter-terrorism activities, as well as more conventional military measures, in the West Bank
38.
Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel)
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The Directorate of Military Intelligence, often abbreviated to Aman, is the central, overarching military intelligence body of the Israel Defense Forces. Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDFs General Staff, Aman is an independent service, and not part of the ground forces, Navy or the Air Force. It is one of the entities of the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Mossad. It is currently headed by Major General Herzi Halevi and it includes the special forces unit Sayeret Matkal, and the elite training course Havatzalot Program. The IDFs Intelligence Corps, abbreviated as Haman and headed by a general, has been detached from Aman since the Yom Kippur War. In April 2000, the newest IDF corps was founded, the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps and it was designed to fulfill some of Amans former combat intelligence functions, and is also headed by a Brigadier General. Although it falls under the jurisdiction of the GOC Army Headquarters it also falls under Amans professional jurisdiction. Field security at the level of the General Staff, and the training, direction and operation of the Collection Agencies. Drawing maps, providing the direction and supervision for the dissemination of maps, the development of special measures for intelligence work. The development of doctrine in the realms of research, collection. Staff responsibility for military attachés overseas, Yadlin, who had been serving as the IDFs military attaché in Washington, D. C. was a combat pilot, former head of the air forces Air Intelligence Directorate, and Halutzs deputy. Yadlin was appointed as Aman Director on January 5,2006, in November 2010 Yadlin was replaced by Major General Aviv Kochavi. org on Aman Israeli Intelligence in the 1967 War, By Doron Geller, JUICE, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Education Dept. Israeli Intelligence and the Yom Kippur War of 1973, By Doron Geller, JUICE, The Jewish Agency for Israel, the Yom Kippur War, the IDF version, by Amir Oren, for Haaretz Intelligence service under scrutiny, by Dan Baron, for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
39.
Six-Day War
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The Six-Day War, also known as the June War,1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10,1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Relations between Israel and its neighbours had never fully normalised following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the period leading up to June 1967, tensions became dangerously heightened. In reaction to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces along the Israeli border in the Sinai Peninsula, the Egyptians were caught by surprise, and nearly the entire Egyptian air force was destroyed with few Israeli losses, giving the Israelis air superiority. Simultaneously, the Israelis launched an offensive into the Gaza Strip and the Sinai. After some initial resistance, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the evacuation of the Sinai, Israeli forces rushed westward in pursuit of the Egyptians, inflicted heavy losses, and conquered the Sinai. Nasser induced Syria and Jordan to begin attacks on Israel by using the initially confused situation to claim that Egypt had defeated the Israeli air strike. Israeli counterattacks resulted in the seizure of East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank from the Jordanians, on June 11, a ceasefire was signed. Arab casualties were far heavier than those of Israel, fewer than a thousand Israelis had been killed compared to over 20,000 from the Arab forces. Israels military success was attributed to the element of surprise, an innovative and well-executed battle plan, Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israeli morale and international prestige was greatly increased by the outcome of the war, across the Arab world, Jewish minority communities were expelled, with refugees going to Israel or Europe. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egypt agreed to the stationing of a United Nations Emergency Force in the Sinai to ensure all parties would comply with the 1949 Armistice Agreements, in the following years there were numerous minor border clashes between Israel and its Arab neighbors, particularly Syria. In early November 1966, Syria signed a defense agreement with Egypt. Jordanian units that engaged the Israelis were quickly beaten back, King Hussein of Jordan criticized Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser for failing to come to Jordans aid, and hiding behind UNEF skirts. In May 1967, Nasser received false reports from the Soviet Union that Israel was massing on the Syrian border, the right of innocent, maritime passage must be preserved for all nations. On May 30, Jordan and Egypt signed a defense pact, the following day, at Jordans invitation, the Iraqi army began deploying troops and armoured units in Jordan. They were later reinforced by an Egyptian contingent, on June 1, Israel formed a National Unity Government by widening its cabinet, and on June 4 the decision was made to go to war. The next morning, Israel launched Operation Focus, a surprise air strike that was the opening of the Six-Day War. Before the war, Israeli pilots and ground crews had trained extensively in rapid refitting of aircraft returning from sorties and this has contributed to the Arab belief that the IAF was helped by foreign air forces
40.
Yom Kippur War
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The fighting mostly took place in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, territories that had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat wanted also to reopen the Suez Canal, neither specifically planned to destroy Israel, although the Israeli leaders could not be sure of that. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Sinai Peninsula, both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. The war began with a massive and successful Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal, after crossing the cease-fire lines, Egyptian forces advanced virtually unopposed into the Sinai Peninsula. After three days, Israel had mobilized most of its forces and halted the Egyptian offensive, resulting in a military stalemate, the Syrians coordinated their attack on the Golan Heights to coincide with the Egyptian offensive and initially made threatening gains into Israeli-held territory. Within three days, however, Israeli forces had pushed the Syrians back to the ceasefire lines. The Israel Defense Forces then launched a four-day counter-offensive deep into Syria, within a week, Israeli artillery began to shell the outskirts of Damascus. He therefore ordered the Egyptians to go back on the offensive, on October 22 a United Nations–brokered ceasefire quickly unraveled, with each side blaming the other for the breach. By October 24, the Israelis had improved their positions considerably and completed their encirclement of Egypts Third Army and this development led to tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As a result, a ceasefire was imposed cooperatively on October 25 to end the war. These changes paved the way for the subsequent peace process, the 1978 Camp David Accords that followed led to the return of the Sinai to Egypt and normalized relations—the first peaceful recognition of Israel by an Arab country. Egypt continued its drift away from the Soviet Union and left the Soviet sphere of influence entirely, the war was part of the Arab–Israeli conflict, an ongoing dispute that included many battles and wars since 1948, when the state of Israel was formed. During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel had captured Egypts Sinai Peninsula, roughly half of Syrias Golan Heights, and the territories of the West Bank which had been held by Jordan since 1948. On June 19,1967, shortly after the Six-Day War, the Israeli government voted to return the Sinai to Egypt, the Arab position, as it emerged in September 1967 at the Khartoum Arab Summit, was to reject any peaceful settlement with the state of Israel. Prior to that, King Hussein of Jordan had stated that he could not rule out a possibility of a real, permanent peace between Israel and the Arab states. Armed hostilities continued on a limited scale after the Six-Day War and escalated into the War of Attrition, a ceasefire was signed in August 1970. President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt died in September 1970 and he was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. A peace initiative led by both Sadat and UN intermediary Gunnar Jarring was tabled in 1971 and it resembled a proposal independently made by Moshe Dayan
41.
Operation Entebbe
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Operation Entebbe was a successful counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. The hijackers had the objective to free 40 Palestinian and affiliated militants imprisoned in Israel and 13 prisoners in four other countries in exchange for the hostages. The flight, which had originated in Tel Aviv with the destination of Paris, was diverted after a stopover in Athens via Benghazi to Entebbe, the Ugandan government supported the hijackers, and dictator Idi Amin personally welcomed them. Over the following two days,148 non-Israeli hostages were released and flown out to Paris, ninety-four, mainly Israeli, passengers along with the 12-member Air France crew, remained as hostages and were threatened with death. The IDF acted on information provided by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, the hijackers threatened to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met. This threat led to the planning of the rescue operation and these plans included preparation for armed resistance from Ugandan military troops. The operation took place at night, Israeli transport planes carried 100 commandos over 2,500 miles to Uganda for the rescue operation. The operation, which took a week of planning, lasted 90 minutes, of the remaining hostages,102 were rescued. Five Israeli commandos were wounded and one, the unit commander, All the hijackers, three hostages, and 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed, and thirty Soviet-built MiG-17s and MiG-21s of Ugandas air force were destroyed. Kenyan sources supported Israel, and in the aftermath of the operation Idi Amin issued orders to retaliate, Operation Entebbe, which had the military codename Operation Thunderbolt, is sometimes referred to retroactively as Operation Jonathan in memory of the units leader, Yonatan Netanyahu. He was the brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel. On 27 June 1976, Air France Flight 139, an Airbus A300B4-203, registration F-BVGG, departed from Tel Aviv, Israel, carrying 246 mainly Jewish and Israeli passengers and a crew of 12. The plane flew to Athens, Greece, where it picked up an additional 58 passengers and it departed for Paris at 12,30 pm. The hijackers diverted the flight to Benghazi, Libya, there it was held on the ground for seven hours for refuelling. During that time the hijackers released British-born Israeli citizen Patricia Martell who pretended to have a miscarriage, the plane left Benghazi, and at 3,15 pm on the 28th, more than 24 hours after the flights original departure, it arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. At Entebbe, the four hijackers were joined by at least four others, supported by the forces of Ugandas President, the hijackers transferred the passengers to the transit hall of the disused former airport terminal where they kept them under guard for the following days. Amin came to visit the hostages almost on a basis, updating them on developments. They threatened that if these demands were not met, they would begin to kill hostages on 1 July 1976, as they did so, a Holocaust survivor showed Böse a camp registration number tattooed on his arm
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Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
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Deputy leaders of Israel
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Deputy leaders in Israel fall into three categories, Acting Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Vice Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister and Vice Prime Minister are honorary rather than official executive positions, Acting Prime Ministers take the place of the Prime Minister if he or she is temporarily incapacitated, while the incumbent is still in office. If the Prime Minister is removed by impeachment, dies, or becomes permanently incapacitated, the designated Acting Prime Minister takes the role of Prime Minister as Acting Prime Minister, for up to 100 consecutive days, if the incumbent is temporarily incapacitated. The incumbent minister must be also a Knesset member to be eligible for this role, in the recently installed government of Benjamin Netanyahu, there is no designated Acting Prime Minister. There can be one designated minister appointed to such position. However, the holder of this position can hold other ministerial position, as the most recent designated Acting Prime Minister. Confusingly, the term is referred to as Vice Prime Minister, though a separate. If the Prime Minister is abroad, the designated minister summons the government to cabinet meetings, if there is no such designated minister, in such event, the government will vote for one. If the Prime Minister wants to replace the designated Acting Prime Minister, he needs the approval vote of the government. However, the Prime Minister may fire the designated Acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, after standing-in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting Prime Minister, did not automatically assume office as an Interim Prime Minister. The deal was continued into the 12th Knesset, but collapsed in 1990, the role of the designated Acting Prime Minister was limited and unattractive for any chairman of major party aspiring to get the top job. The position was resurrected in 2003, with Ariel Sharon appointing Ehud Olmert to the post, Tzipi Livni then was appointed to the post, in Olmerts Government. One of the Ministers who is a member of Knesset may be designated as Acting Prime Minister, should the Prime Minister be absent from Israel, meetings of the Government will be convened and conducted by the designated Acting Prime Minister. Should the Prime Minister be temporarily unable to discharge his duties, after the passage of 100 days upon which the Prime Minister does not resume his duties, the Prime Minister will be deemed permanently unable to exercise his office. Should the Prime Minister be permanently incapacitated, the Government shall be deemed to have resigned on the 101st day during which the Acting Prime Minister served in his place. The interim prime minister is appointed by the government if the incumbent is dead or permanently incapacitated, while the acting prime minister must be a Knesset member to meet the requirements, the interim prime minister must be a member of the prime ministers party as well. Until the 2001 basic law, the government, both the acting and interim prime ministers were required to be a Knesset member in addition to being a member of the Government. In 2006, Ehud Olmert, after standing in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting prime minister, did not automatically assume office as an interim prime minister
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Cabinet of Israel
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The Government of Israel exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister, the composition of the government must be approved by a vote of confidence in the Knesset. Under Israeli law, the minister may dismiss members of the government, but must do so in writing. Most ministers lead ministries, though some are ministers without portfolio, most ministers are members of the Knesset, though only the Prime Minister and the designated acting prime minister are required to be Knesset members. Some ministers are also called deputy and vice prime ministers, unlike the designated acting prime minister, these roles have no statutory meanings. The government operates in accordance with the Basic Law and it meets on Sundays weekly in Jerusalem. There may be additional meetings if circumstances require it, the prime minister convenes these meetings. The body discussed in this article is referred to in Israeli official documents as the Government of Israel and this is in accordance to the normal translation of its Hebrew name. Another term in use is the Kitchen Cabinet, a collection of senior officials and it was formed as the Peoples Administration on 12 April 1948, in preparation for independence just over a month later. All its thirteen members were taken from Moetzet HaAm, the legislative body set up at the same time. This government has 21 ministers and seven deputy ministers, deri resigned his post as economy minister reportedly in protest of a gas monopoly deal. Netanyahu took the portfolio himself and promised to speed up the deal, Basic Law, The Government List of female cabinet ministers of Israel Current and past cabinets—Knesset website Basic Law, The Government —Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Soldier
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A soldier is one who fights as part of an organised, land-based armed force. A soldier can be a person, a non-commissioned officer. The word soldier derives from the Middle English word soudeour, from Old French soudeer or soudeour, meaning mercenary, from soudee, meaning shillings worth or wage, from sou or soud, the word is also related to the Medieval Latin soldarius, meaning soldier. These words ultimately derive from the Late Latin word solidus, referring to an Ancient Roman coin used in the Byzantine Empire. In most armed forces use of the soldier has taken on a more general meaning due to the increasing specialization of military occupations that require different areas of knowledge. In many countries soldiers serving in specific occupations are referred to by other than their occupational name. For example, military personnel in the British Army are known as red caps because of the colour of their caps. Infantry are sometimes called grunts or squaddies, while US Army artillery crews, or gunners, are referred to as redlegs. U. S. soldiers are often called G. I. s, members of the Marine Corps are typically referred to as marines rather than soldiers. In the United States, the term warfighter is often used to refer collectively to all whose job it is to do the actual fighting, the army has not completely phased out this terminology and still uses warfighter in various contexts such as the Project Manager Warfighter Information Network-Tactical. French Marine Infantry are called marsouins because of their amphibious role, Military units in most armies have nicknames of this type, arising either from items of distinctive uniform, some historical connotation or rivalry between branches or regiments. Some soldiers, such as conscripts or draftees, serve a limited term. Others choose to serve until retirement, then receive a pension. In the United States, military members can retire after 20 years, in other countries, the term of service is 30 years, hence the term 30-year man. Airman Marine Military use of children Seaman Media related to Soldier at Wikimedia Commons
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Kibbutz
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A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania, today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism, in recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik, in 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel. Their factories and farms account for 9% of Israels industrial output, worth US$8 billion, some Kibbutzim had also developed substantial high-tech and military industries. For example, in 2010, Kibbutz Sasa, containing some 200 members, the kibbutzim were founded by members of the Bilu movement who emigrated to Palestine. The first kibbutz was Degania Alef, founded in 1909, joseph Baratz, one of the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, wrote a book about his experiences. We were happy enough working on the land, but we knew more and more certainly that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. This was not the way we hoped to settle the old way with Jews on top and Arabs working for them, anyway, we thought that there shouldnt be employers. There must be a better way, though Baratz and others wanted to farm the land themselves, becoming independent farmers was not a realistic option in 1909. Ottoman Palestine was a harsh environment, the Galilee was swampy, the Judaean Mountains rocky, and the south of the country, the Negev, was a desert. To make things more challenging, most of the settlers had no farming experience. The sanitary conditions were also poor, malaria, typhus and cholera were rampant. Bedouins would raid farms and settled areas, sabotage of irrigation canals and burning of crops were also common. Living collectively was simply the most logical way to be secure in an unwelcoming land, finally, the land had been purchased by the greater Jewish community. From around the world, Jews dropped coins into Jewish National Fund Blue Boxes for land purchases in Palestine, in 1909, Baratz, nine other men, and two women established themselves at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the Arab village of Umm Juni/Juniya. These teenagers had hitherto worked as day laborers converting wetlands for human development, as masons and their dream was now to work for themselves, building up the land. They called their community Kvutzat Degania, now Degania Alef, the founders of Degania endured backbreaking labor, The body is crushed, the legs fail, the head hurts, the sun burns and weakens, wrote one of the pioneers
אֵהוּד בָּרָק (help·info), born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli politician who served as the tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011,[1] he previously held the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Benjamin Netanyahu's second government from 2009 to 2013.
