Biography of Ehud Barak
As commander of the Sayeret Matkal, Barak led his men in storming a hijacked Sabena airliner in Tel Aviv. On another occasion, disguised as a woman, he led a raid in Beirut to kill terrorists who had murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Barak played a key role in planning the famous Entebbe raid in Uganda, rescuing passengers of a hijacked airliner held hostage in the airport. After serving as head of Israeli Intelligence and Central Command during the 1980s, Barak was appointed IDF Chief of Staff, in 1991. Though his academic education was repeatedly interrupted by calls to active duty, Barak earned an undergraduate degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Masters in Economic Engineering Systems from Stanford University. He is also a gifted pianist and linguist and likes to take apart watches and other machines.
After serving as Chief of Staff, Barak became Interior Minister in the government headed by Yitzhak Rabin. In 1995, when Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, Shimon Peres became Prime Minister, and Barak replaced Peres as Foreign Minister. Barak's campaign advice was ignored by Peres's reelection staff, and Peres lost the election narrowly to Benjamin Nethanyahu. Barak then took over leadership of the Labor Party. Barak became Prime Minister, leading the Labor Party to a landslide victory over Benjamin Netanyahu in 1999. He declared that his goals were to continue the unfinished work of his mentor, Yitzhak Rabin: to make peace with the Palestinians and Syrians. Barak believed that the Palestinians would be more flexible if Syria was not opposed to the peace process. Accordingly, he first tried to make peace with the Syrians, but Hafez Assad, President of Syria, eventually refused the offer presented by Barak through US President Clinton. To prevent the Syrians from pressuring Israel by inspiring guerilla actions in Lebanon, Barak ended Israel's 17-year occupation of southern Lebanon. He tried unsuccessfully to revive the Oslo peace process that had been delayed and neglected during the time of Benjamin Netanyahu. Negotiations at Camp David broke down however, and Palestinians initiated violence against Israel in September, 2000. Nonetheless, Barak continued negotiations at Bollings Air Force Base and later at Taba, offering unprecedented concessions. The Palestinians refused Barak's offers and President Clinton's bridging proposals. Against the background of Palestinian violence and failed peace negotiations, Barak was roundly defeated in the next election by Ariel Sharon. After a long absence from politics, he returned in 2005, but failed in a bid to lead the Labor Party. In 2007, Ehud Barak returned to Israeli politics again, running in Labor party primaries for the role of Chairman against incumbent Amir Peretz, Ami Ayalon Ofir Pines and others. Beginning from fourth place in the polls, Barak beat all other candidates in the first round, and then narrowly beat Ami Ayalon in the second round, despite a big lead for Ayalon in the polls, becoming chairman of the Labor party on June 12. Ayalon was hurt by his alliance with discredited defense minister Amir Peretz . Subsequently, Barak became Minister of Defense in the Olmert government. Everyone agrees that he has set about rebuilding the IDF in a professional and competent manner, following the less than satisfactory performance in the 2006 Lebanon war. More Israeli and Zionist Biographies The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Zionism and Israel External Zionism LinksThis site provides resources about Zionism and Israeli history, including links to source documents. We are not responsible for the information content of these sites. These links are NOT intended to be an exhaustive reference about Zionism, but the list will keep growing... Please tell us about your favorite links and we will review them for inclusion. Please do copy these links to your Web site, giving credit to http://www.zionism-israel.com Zionism and Israel Information Center Thank you. Please link to us and to our Sister Web sites - http://zionism.netfirms.com Zionism Pages Brave Zionism and Zionism and Israel On the Web Wikipedia article about Zionism - A comprehensive article including the history of Zionism as well as links to specific topics and articles about anti-Zionism.Zionism - Table of contents at the Jewish Virtual Library Zionism - Definition and Brief History - A balanced article that covers the definitions and history of Zionism as well as opposition to Zionism and criticisms by Arabs, Jewish anti-Zionists. Labor Zionism - Early History and Critique - Contribution of Labor Zionism to the creation of the Jewish state, and problems of Labor Zionism in a changing reality. The US Library of congress has a comprehensive and balanced set of articles about Zionism: Zionist Precursors - US Library of Congress Political Zionism - US Library of Congress Cultural Zionism - US Library of Congress Labor Zionism - US Library of Congress Revisionist Zionism - US Library of Congress Jewish Agency Zionism pages - Links to basic information about Zionism from the Jewish Agency Ambassador Herzog explains Zionism in the UN Advocacy Active Zionism - A Zionist advocacy site with many useful links Israël-Palestina Informatie -gids Israël, Zionisme, Palestijnen en Midden-Oosten conflict... Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a European perspective - Dutch and English. ZioNation - Zionism-Israel Web Log Zionism & Israel News Israel: like this, as if Albert Einstein Bible History of Zionism Zionism FAQ Zionism Israel Center Maps of Israel Jew Israel Advocacy Zionism and its Impact Israel Christian Zionism Site Map Albert Einstein Biography - Ehud Barak |
