Ehud Barak is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was the leader of the Labor Party until January 2011.
Background
Ehud Barak was born on 12 February 1942 in kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in what was then Mandatory Palestine. His paternal grandparents, Frieda and Reuven Brog, were murdered in Pušalotas in the northern Lithuania in 1912, leaving his father orphaned at the age of two. Barak's 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. He is married and the father of three children.
Education
Barak Ehud earned his bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968, and his master's degree in engineering-economic systems in 1978 from Stanford University, in California.
Career
Barak Ehud joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959 and served as a soldier and commander of an elite unit, and in various other command positions including Tank Brigade Commander and Armored Division Commander, and General Staff positions, including Head of the IDF Intelligence Branch. During the 1967 Six-Day War, Barak Ehud served as a reconnaissance group commander, and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a tank battalion commander on the southern front in Sinai. In January 1982, Barak Ehud was appointed Head of the IDF Planning Branch and promoted to Major General. During the 1982 "Peace for Galilee" operation, Major General Barak served as Deputy Commander of the Israeli force in Lebanon.
In April 1983, Major General Barak Ehud was appointed Head of the Intelligence Branch at the IDF General Headquarters. In January 1986, he was appointed Commander of the IDF Central Command, and in May 1987 was appointed Deputy Chief-of-Staff. In April 1991, he assumed the post of the 14th Chief of the General Staff and was promoted to the rank of Lt. General, the highest in the Israeli military. Following the May 1994 signing of the Gaza-Jericho agreement with the Palestinians, Lt. General Barak oversaw the IDF's redeployment in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. Barak Ehud played a central role in finalizing the peace treaty with Jordan, signed in 1994, and met with his Syrian counterpart as part of the Syrian-Israeli negotiations.
Barak Ehud served as Minister of the Interior from July-November 1995 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 1995 until June 1996. Elected to the Knesset in 1996, he served as a Member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In 1996 Barak was elected Chairman of the Labor Party and in 1999 formed the One Israel Party from the Labor, Gesher, and Meimad factions.
Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel in May 1999. He presented his government to the Knesset in July 1999, assuming office as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. He completed his term in March 2001, following his defeat by Ariel Sharon in the February special election for prime minister.
In June 2007, Ehud Barak was elected to head the Labor Party and was elected to the Knesset in February 2009, serving until March 2013. He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense in the Netanyahu government in March 2009, serving until March 2013. He left the Labor Party to head the Atzmaut party and was not reelected to the Knesset.
Politics
Labor Party (until 2011), Independence (2011-2012), Independent (2012-2019)
Views
Quotations:
"But I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past."
"If I were a Palestinian of the right age, I'd eventually join one of the terrorist organizations."
"There is a thin line between peace of the brave and peace of the hostage...between compromise - even calculated risk - and irresponsibility and capitulation."
"We are talking about a major change in reality that has to come about...We are not idiots. If it turns out that this situation where there is no partner (in peace) remains the same, then we will know what to do."
"Israel is surrounded by a raging sea, parts of which are not willing to accept us as a partner with equal rights among the nations. The reality we live in presents us with profound challenges, the need to effectively use all of our resources, and the need to prepare for any development, near or far. The IDF will protect the security and the future of the state. The IDF will provide the response when the order is given."
"At this place, Jews have prayed throughout the generations, and it is fitting that the message of brotherhood should go out from here. "
"In Israel, generally speaking, politics is much more familiar than any other place. We all know each other."
