Background
Yitzak Shamir (Yizernitsky) was born in 1914 in eastern Poland.
Yitzak Shamir (Yizernitsky) was born in 1914 in eastern Poland.
While a student at the Hebrew "gymnasium" in Bialystok Yitzchak Shamir was also involved with the Revisionist Zionist movement known as Brit Trumpeldor, or Betar.
In 1935 instead of pursuing law studies in Warsaw he immigrated to Palestine, where he worked as a construction worker and accountant in addition to studying at the Hebrew University.
Shamir was involved with the Jewish underground movement as a member of the more militant and nationalist groups pledged to resisting the British mandate authorities as well as retaliating against acts of Arab violence directed at the Jewish community
Unlike most of the Jewish underground, which chose to fight alongside of the British during World War II, Shamir remained firmly opposed to Britain's presence in Palestine.
In 1940 he left the Irgun organization and helped to form the Lehi (Lohamei Eretz Yisrael), or Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, also known as the "Stern Gang" because of its commander, Avraham Stern.
When Stern was captured and killed by the British, Shamir was a member of the triumvirate which took charge of Lehi in 1942, until Menachem Begin assumed command in 1943.
After the famous bombing incident at the King David Hotel, the British command center in Jerusalem, he was captured and deported to a prison camp in Eritrea in 1946, but escaped in 1947 to Djibouti, where he was detained by the French authorities.
The next 20 years are almost a blank in the biography of Yitzak Shamir.
Toward the end of the 19606 he left this service to manage several businesses in the private sector and to campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry.
In the 1973 elections he became a member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.
However, at a crucial moment in the peace process Shamir chose to abstain on the key vote which endorsed the 1978 Camp David accords.
In October 1979, following the resignation of Moshe Dayan as minister of foreign affairs, Begin turned to Shamir in seeking a successor.
Despite his lack of experience in international diplomacy, Shamir applied himself to the post and with time impressed outside observers and foreign statesmen as hard-working, receptive, and devoted.
However, whether due to his loyalty to Begin or to other reasons, Shamir came in for indirect criticism by the Kahan Commission set up to inquire into aspects of the 1982 Lebanese intervention; while cleared of complicity in the specific Sabra and Shatilla camp massacres, he was faulted in the final report with having ignored early rumors.
On August 28, 1983, Premier Begin made a surprise announcement that, due to personal reasons, he was resigning, having led the Herut in opposition and in power for over 35 years.
In an effort at filling this void, a hastily-convened Herut Party on September 2 selected Shamir as its leader.
In the coming five weeks of arduous inter-party negotiations Shamir finally succeeded in putting together a viable coalition with 64 Knesset votes, giving it a four vote majority.
The coalition, however, lasted less than a year.
In the 1984 national elections Shamir headed the Likud campaign.
When the results were tabulated, Likud gained 41 Knesset seats as against 44 for the Labour/Alignment, giving neither of the two main parties a clear majority.
Despite skepticism on the part of the experts, this arrangement held together; while not exactly a cordial relationship, Peres and Shamir were sufficiently motivated by a sense of national responsibility to preserve good working relations.
Shamir took a hard line against the Palestinian uprisings that began on the West Bank and in Gaza in late 1987.
He remained prime minister, as head of a Likud-Labor coalition, following the elections of November 1988.
He agreed to participate in the comprehensive Middle East peace talks that began in 1991, but his ardent support for new Jewish settlements on the West Bank hampered negotiations with the Palestinians and strained relations with the United States.
When Likud lost the parliamentary elections of June 1992, Yitzhak Rabin succeeded Shamir as prime minister.
In March 1993 Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded him as head of Likud.
On July 12, 1992, Shamir bid farewell as Prime Minister.
The uncompromising comments from Shamir appeared to be aimed at easing the shock of the election defeat.
Citizens reduced Likud's share of the vote to less than 30 percent.
Further Reading There is no published biography of Shamir to date.
Background information can be found in Robert Freedman, editor, Israel in the Begin Era (1982) and in Bernard Reich, Israel: Land of Tradition and Conflict (1985).
In 1944 Yitzchak Shamir married Shulamit They had two children, Yair and Gilada.