1.
President of Israel
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The President of the State of Israel is the head of state of Israel. The position is largely a figurehead role, with executive power effectively being exercised by the prime minister. The current president is Reuven Rivlin, who took office on 24 July 2014, presidents are elected by the Knesset for a seven-year term and are limited to a single term. The president is elected by an majority in the Knesset. If no candidate has received a majority of votes by the first round of voting. When electing the president, Knesset members vote by secret ballot, the president is elected to a term of seven years, and cannot be re-elected. Until 2000, the president was elected for a five-year term, any Israeli citizen who is a resident of the State is eligible to run for president. The office falls vacant upon completion of a term, resignation, presidential tenure is not keyed to that of the Knesset in order to assure continuity in government and the nonpartisan character of the office. There is no vice president in the Israeli governmental system, if the president is temporarily incapacitated or leaves office, the speaker of the Knesset becomes acting president. The first presidential election took place on 16 February 1949, the second took place in 1951, as at the time presidential terms were linked to the length of the Knesset term. Another election took place the year after Weizmanns death. Since then, elections have been held in 1957,1962,1963,1968,1973,1978,1983,1988,1993,1998,2000,2007 and 2014, six elections have taken place with no opposition candidate, although a vote was still held. The Basic Law, The Government also includes sections on the powers of the president with reference to the government, the president signs every law and international or bilateral treaties approved by the Knesset. Presidential powers are usually exercised based on the recommendation of appropriate government ministers, the presidents most important role, in practice, is to help lead the process of forming a government. The president awards the Israel Prize on Yom Haatzmaut and the Wolf Prize, the president also serves as the main speaker at the opening ceremonies of the half-yearly Knesset conference, as well as at the annual official ceremonies for Yom Hazikaron and Yom HaShoah. Most Israeli presidents were involved in politics or Zionist activities before taking office. The first Israeli presidents were born in the former Russian Empire, the first native-born president, as well as the first with a Sephardi background, was Yitzhak Navon. The first president with a Western European background was Chaim Herzog, the first president with a Mizrahi background was Moshe Katsav, who was born in Iran
2.
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
3.
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
4.
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
5.
Ehud Barak
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Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and he previously held the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Benjamin Netanyahus second government from 2009 to 2013. He is the joint most highly decorated soldier in Israels history, having taken part in many battles and he is a graduate in physics, mathematics, and economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford University. He served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, following a highly decorated career, he was appointed Chief of General Staff in 1991, serving until 1995. On 26 November 2012 he announced that he would retire from politics after the election in January 2013. He was born on 12 February 1942 in kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in what was then Mandatory Palestine and he is the eldest of four sons of Esther and Yisrael Mendel Brog. His paternal grandparents, Frieda and Reuven Brog, were murdered in Pušalotas in the northern Lithuania in 1912, Baraks maternal grandparents, Elka and Shmuel Godin, died at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust. Ehud hebraized his family name from Brog to Barak in 1972 and it was during his military service that he met his future wife, Nava. They had three daughters together, Michal, Yael and Anat, Barak divorced Nava in August 2003. On 30 July 2007, Barak married Nili Priel in a ceremony in his private residence. In his spare time, Barak enjoys reading works by such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Barak joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959 and he served in the IDF for 35 years, rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of Rav Aluf, the highest in the Israeli military. These highly acclaimed operations, along with Operation Bayonet, led to the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist cell Black September and it has been alluded that Barak also masterminded the Tunis Raid on 16 April 1988, in which PLO leader Abu Jihad was killed. Later he served as head of Aman, the Military Intelligence Directorate, head of Central Command and he served as Chief of the General Staff between 1 April 1991 and 1 January 1995. During this period he implemented the first Oslo Accords and participated in the negotiations towards the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four Chief of Staff citations for courage and operational excellence. These five decorations make him the most decorated soldier in Israeli history, in 1992 he was awarded the Legion of Merit by the United States. In 2012, he was awarded by the United States with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. On 7 July 1995, Barak was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs by Yitzhak Rabin, when Shimon Peres formed a new government following Rabins assassination in November 1995, Barak was made Minister of Foreign Affairs
6.
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
7.
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
8.
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
9.
Menachem Begin
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Menachem Begin was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun and he proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. As head of the Irgun, he targeted the British in Palestine, later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. He remained in opposition in the eight elections, but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labor Party political dominance, Begin’s most significant achievement as Prime Minister was the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the wake of the Camp David Accords, the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, later, Begin’s government promoted the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin authorized the bombing of the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq, as IDF forces remained mired in Lebanon and the economy suffered from hyperinflation, the public pressure on Begin mounted. Depressed by the death of his wife Aliza in November 1982, he withdrew from public life. He was the youngest of three children, on his mothers side he was descended from distinguished rabbis. His father, a merchant, was a community leader, a passionate Zionist. The midwife who attended his birth was the grandmother of Ariel Sharon, after a year of a traditional cheder education Begin started studying at a Tachkemoni school, associated with the religious Zionist movement. In his childhood, Begin, like most Jewish children in his town, was a member of the Zionist scouts movement Hashomer Hatzair and he was a member of Hashomer Hatzair until the age of 13, and at 16, he joined Betar. At 14, he was sent to a Polish government school, Begin studied law at the University of Warsaw, where he learned the oratory and rhetoric skills that became his trademark as a politician, and viewed as demagogy by his critics. During his studies, he organized a group of Jewish students to counter harassment by anti-Semites on campus. He graduated in 1935, but never practiced law, at this time, he became a disciple of Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky, the founder of the nationalist Revisionist Zionism movement and its Betar youth wing. His rise within Betar was rapid, At 22, he shared the dais with his mentor at the Betar World Congress in Kraków, the pre-war Polish government actively supported Zionist youth and paramilitary movements. Begins leadership qualities were quickly recognised, in 1937 he was the active head of Betar in Czechoslovakia and became head of the largest branch, that of Poland. As head of Betars Polish branch, Begin traveled among regional branches to encourage supporters, to save money, he stayed at the homes of Betar members
10.
Tel Aviv
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Tel Aviv-Yafo is a major city in Israel, located on the countrys Mediterranean coastline. It is the center and the technology hub of Israel, with a population of 432,892. Tel Aviv is the largest city in the Gush Dan region of Israel, Tel Aviv is also a focal point in the high-tech concentration known as the Silicon Wadi. Tel Aviv is governed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, headed by Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv is a global city, and is the thirty eighth most important financial center in the world. Tel Aviv is known to have the third-largest economy of any city in the Middle East after Abu Dhabi and Kuwait City, the city receives over a million international visitors annually. Known as The City that Never Sleeps and a party capital, it has a lively nightlife, the city was founded in 1909 by Jewish immigrants on the outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa. It is named after the Hebrew translation of Theodor Herzls 1902 novel, Altneuland, the modern citys first neighbourhoods had already been established in 1886, the first being Neve Tzedek. Immigration by mostly Jewish refugees meant that the growth of Tel Aviv soon outpaced Jaffas, Tel Aviv and Jaffa were merged into a single municipality in 1950, two years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Avivs White City, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzls Altneuland, translated from German by Nahum Sokolow. The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including Herzliya and it was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for spring, symbolizing renewal, and tel is a man-made mound accumulating layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient. Although founded in 1909 as a settlement on the sand dunes North of Jaffa. The marketing pamphlets advocating for its establishment in 1906, wrote, In this city we will build the streets so they have roads and sidewalks and electric lights. Every house will have water wells that will flow through pipes as in every modern European city. Since 1886, Jewish settlers had founded new neighborhoods outside Jaffa on the current territory of Tel Aviv, the first was Neve Tzedek, built on lands owned by Aharon Chelouche and inhabited primarily by Mizrahi Jews. Other neighborhoods were Neve Shalom, Yafa Nof, Achva, Ohel Moshe, Kerem HaTeimanim, once Tel Aviv received city status in the 1920s, those neighborhoods joined the newly formed municipality, now becoming separated from Jaffa. The Second Aliyah led to further expansion, in 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Aryeh Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit society. The societys goal was to form a Hebrew urban centre in an environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics
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United Kingdom
Israel
British Army
Royal Air Force
Israeli Air Force
listen (help·info) (Hebrew: עֵזֶר וַיצְמָן Ezer Vaytsman; 15 June 1924 – 24 April 2005) 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 and Minister of Defense.
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