Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the prime minister and Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party between 1997 and 2001 and between 2007 and 2011. He was also Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2013.
Born on a kibbutz, Barak is the eldest of four sons; his maternal grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust. He graduated in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later obtained a master's in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University.
Barak's military career in the Israel Defense Forces began in 1959, spanning 35 years and culminating in his appointment as Chief of the General Staff in 1991, serving until 1995. His military tenure is noted for his leadership in several operations, including "Operation Isotope" in 1972, the covert 1973 Israeli raid in Lebanon, and the 1976 Entebbe raid. A lieutenant general, Barak shares with two others the honor of being the most highly decorated soldier in Israel's history.
In politics, his career began with his appointment as interior minister in 1995 under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Following Rabin's assassination, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Shimon Peres' government. Barak was elected to the Knesset on the Labor Party list in 1996 and subsequently was elected Labor Party leader in 1997. Barak served as Israel's most recent left-wing Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. His tenure was marked by significant events, including the decision to form a coalition with the Orthodox party Shas, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Southern Lebanon in 2000, and participation in the 2000 Camp David Summit aimed at resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Barak's government faced challenges, notably the protests in October 2000.
After defeat in the 2001 Israeli prime ministerial election, he left politics and engaged in international business and advisory roles. He made a political comeback in 2005, attempting to regain leadership in the Labor Party, and later served as defense minister − where he led Operation Cast Lead in 2008–09 − and deputy prime minister under Ehud Olmert and then in Benjamin Netanyahu's second government between 2007 and 2013. His decision to form the Independence party in 2011 marked a shift in his politics, influencing the dynamics within the Netanyahu government. Despite retiring from politics in 2012, he attempted another comeback, running in the September 2019 Israeli legislative election as the leader of Israel Democratic Party − a new party he formed. His party merged with others to form an alliance called the Democratic Union, but it did not win enough seats for him to become a member of the Knesset. Outside of his political and military career, Barak has accumulated wealth through business endeavors and investments; his net worth is estimated to be $10–15 million.
Early life and family
Ehud Barak was born on kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in what was then Mandatory Palestine. 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 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. It was during his military service that he met his future wife, Nava. They had three daughters together: Michal, Yael and Anat. He has grandchildren. Barak divorced Nava in August 2003. On 30 July 2007, Barak married Nili Priel in a small ceremony in his private residence. In his spare time, Barak enjoys reading works by writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and he is a classical pianist, with many years of study behind him. His second cousin, Ronald Barak, is an American Olympic gymnast.
Barak 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, California.
Military career
Barak joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959. 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.During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal, Barak led several highly acclaimed operations, such as: "Operation Isotope", the mission to free the hostages on board the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 at Lod Airport in 1972; the covert 1973 Israeli raid in Lebanon in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman to kill members of the Palestine Liberation Organization; Barak was also a key architect of the June 1976 Entebbe raid, another rescue mission to free the hostages of the Air France aircraft hijacked by terrorists and forced to land at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. These highly acclaimed operations, along with Operation Bayonet, led to the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist cell Black September. It has been alluded that Barak also masterminded the Tunis Raid on 16 April 1988, in which PLO leader Abu Jihad was killed.
During the Yom Kippur War, Barak commanded an improvised regiment of tanks which, among other things, helped rescue paratrooper battalion 890, commanded by Yitzhak Mordechai, which was suffering heavy losses in the Battle of the Chinese Farm. He went on to command the 401st armored brigade and the 611st "Pillar of Fire" and 252nd "Sinai" divisions, before his appointment to head the IDF's Planning Directorate. Barak also participated in the Siege of Beirut, overseeing it from Beirut International Airport.
Barak later served as head of Aman, the Military Intelligence Directorate, head of Central Command and Deputy Chief of the General Staff. 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 again awarded by the United States with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.
Political career
On 7 July 1995, Barak was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs by Yitzhak Rabin. When Shimon Peres formed a new government following Rabin's assassination in November 1995, Barak was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was elected to the Knesset on the Labor Party list in 1996, and served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In a party leadership election held after Peres' defeat in the 1996 election for Prime Minister, Barak was elected leader of the Labor Party in June 1997.Prime Minister of Israel
In the 1999 Prime Ministerial election, Barak beat Benjamin Netanyahu by a wide margin. However, he sparked controversy by deciding to form a coalition with the ultra-Orthodox party Shas, who had won an unprecedented 17 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Shas grudgingly agreed to Barak's terms that they eject their leader Aryeh Deri, a convicted felon, and enact reform to "clean up" in-party corruption. Consequentially, the left wing Meretz party quit the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy minister in the Ministry of Education.In 1999 Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel's 22-year-long occupation of Southern Lebanon within a year. On 24 May 2000 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. On 7 October, three Israeli soldiers were killed in a border raid by Hezbollah and their bodies were subsequently captured. The bodies of these soldiers, along with the living Elhanan Tenenbaum, were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004.
The Barak government resumed peace negotiations with the PLO, stating that "Every attempt to keep hold of this area as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a nondemocratic or a non-Jewish state. Because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binational state, and if they don't vote it is an apartheid state." As part of these negotiations, Barak took part in the Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant finally to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak also allowed Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to attend the Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.
Domestic issues
On 22 August 1999, Barak appointed the Tal committee which dealt with the controversial issue of ultra-Orthodox Jews' exemption from military service. Following the failure of the Camp David summit with Arafat and Bill Clinton in the summer of 2000, when the original seven-year mandate of the PNA expired, and just after Israel pulled its last troops out of southern Lebanon in May 2000, the October 2000 riots led to the killing of twelve Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian by Israel Police and one Jewish civilian by Israeli Arabs.Resignation
In 2001, Barak called an election for Prime Minister. In the contest, he was defeated by Likud leader Ariel Sharon, and subsequently resigned as Labor leader and from the Knesset.In private life (2001-2007)
Barak left Israel to work as a senior advisor with United States–based Electronic Data Systems. He also partnered with a private equity company focused on "security-related" work.In 2005, Barak announced his return to Israeli politics, and ran for leadership of the Labor Party in November. However, in light of his weak poll showings, Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman Shimon Peres. Following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labor party, Barak became a partner of the Pennsylvania-based investment company SCP Private Equity Partners. He also established a company "Ehud Barak Limited" which is thought to have made over NIS 30 million.
After Peres lost the race to Amir Peretz and left the Labor party, Barak announced he would stay at the party, despite his shaky relationship with its newly elected leader. He declared, however, that he would not run for a spot on the Labor party's Knesset list for the March 2006 elections. Barak's attempt to return to a prominent role in Israel politics seemed to have failed. However, Peretz's hold on the Labor leadership proved unexpectedly shaky as he was badly damaged by negative views of his performance as Defense Minister during the 2006 Lebanon War, which was seen as something less than a success in Israel.