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Revision as of 21:53, 14 May 2005
Ehud Barak (Hebrew: אֵהוּד בָּרָק) (born February 12th, 1942) was the 10th Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001.
Barak joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959 and served for 35 years, rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of Lieutenant General, the highest in the Israeli military. During his service as a commando, Barak took part in a covert mission (Operation Spring of Youth, Beirut 1973) in which he was disguised as a woman in order to gain access to terrorists. Barak was awarded the "Distinguished Service Medal" and four other citations for courage and operational excellence. He is considered the most decorated soldier in IDF history. Meanwhile, Barak earned his bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1976, and his master's degree in Engineering-Economic Systems in 1978 from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, United States.
In politics, he served as Minister of the Interior (1995) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995-1996). He was elected to the Knesset in 1996, where he served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In 1996 Barak became the leader of the Labor Party.
Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel on May 17th, 1999 and completed his term on March 7th, 2001 after his loss to Ariel Sharon in a February special election for prime minister.
Barak's term as prime minister had several notable events, most of them controversial:
- Forming a coalition with the haredi party Shas, after Barak promised an end to "corruption" sponsored by religious parties.
- Meretz quits the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy-minister in the Ministry of Education.
- The withdrawal from south Lebanon.
- The kidnapping of the bodies of three killed Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, aided by local UN peacekeeping force.
- Peace negotiations with Syria.
- The passing of the Tal Law which gives a legal statute for haredi Jews' exemption from military service.
- The Camp David 2000 Summit which meant to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, and US president Bill Clinton put the blame on Yasser Arafat. Barak claimed he exposed "Arafat's true intentions". Later, Barak was blamed by Israeli left wing politicians that he killed the Israeli peace movement by presenting Arafat as a "peace refuser".
- The eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
- The killing of 13 Israeli-Arabs by police and one Jewish Israeli civilian by an Arab mob, in October 2000 Riots.
- The Taba Talks with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.
Quotes
"The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more."
"They are products of a culture in which to tell a lie creates no dissonance. They don't suffer from the problem of telling lies that exists in Judaeo-Christian culture."
""If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I'd eventually join one of the terrorist organizations."
| Preceded by : |
Prime Ministers of Israel | Succeeded by: Ariel Sharon |