June 30, 2012
Yitzhak Shamir, who as the seventh Israeli prime minister was the first to sit in the same room with Palestinian negotiators at the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference in 1991, dies at age 96.
He was born Yitzhak Yzernitzky in Ruzinoy, Poland, on Oct. 22, 1915. He began studying Hebrew and at the age of 14 joined the Betar youth movement. In 1935 he immigrated to Palestine and enrolled at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Disenchanted with the mainstream Zionist approach toward the British administration of Palestine, in 1937 he joined the underground group Ha-Irgun HaTzevai HaLe’umi B’Eretz Yisrael (“National Military Organization”), commonly known as the Irgun. In 1940 the Irgun decided to suspend its underground armed activities and cooperate with the British in the fight against Nazi Germany. Shamir was a part of the group that broke away from the Irgun and formed the more militant Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel or “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel”). Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang after its founder, Avraham Yair Stern, targeted British troops and bases in Palestine, hoping to drive the British out. Shamir became a leader of the group after Stern was killed by the British.
Shamir was arrested by the British twice. In an effort to hide from them, he changed his last name from Yzernitzky to Shamir. In public, he often dressed as a Hasidic rabbi to avoid being recognized and captured.
After a period in the private sector, Shamir served in a senior post in the Mossad for 10 years and was elected to the Knesset in 1973 as a member of Menachem Begin’s Herut party. When Begin resigned in 1983, Shamir became the seventh prime minister of Israel. He was prime minister during the 1991 Gulf War when Israel was hit by Iraqi Scud missiles, and at American urging Israel did not retaliate in order to preserve the international coalition set up to defeat Iraq. Shamir was a staunch advocate for building settlements in the West Bank and thus was often at odds with American presidents. When he left office, he acknowledged that while he was prime minister, though negotiations took place with the Palestinians, it was never his intention to relinquish territories to them.
