Minister of Defense Ehud Barak of Israel

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In a statement, Barak said "We face a period that will be neither easy nor short, and will require determination and perseverance until the necessary change is achieved in the situation in the south.
The film Munich includes a scene depicting Operation Spring of Youth where Ehud Barak is mentioned by name and is seen dressed as a brunette, reflecting his real-life experience as leader of a Sayeret Matkal unit during that event.
Barak was born in 1942 and educated in a kibbutz.
After the assassination of Rabin, Barak was elected in November 1996 to the 14th Knesset, after winning third place on the list in the Labor Party's primary elections.
Barak is also an expert in krav maga, the official martial art of the Israeli Defense Forces.
for courage and operational excellence.
Israel Party from the Labor, Gesher and Meimad factions.
Minister of Israel on May 17, 1999.
Barak received a BSc in mathematics and physics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a masters in economic engineering systems from Stanford University in California.
Barak is divorced and has three children.
Political CareerIn January 1995 Barak was discharged from the IDF and opened an investment firm in Washington.
After Rabin's assassination in November 1995, Barak was appointed minister of foreign affairs in Shimon Peres' short-lived interim government.
In the subsequent 1996 elections Barak joined the Labor party as an elected MK and in 1997 he succeeded Peres as party chairman and opposition leader.
With his coalition in tatters, Barak was eventually forced to resign in 2001.
Barak is considered as both a forceful military, being the country's most decorated soldier, as well as a talented negotiator between different groups and interests.
Barak was considered to be less open towards the so-called peace process with the Palestinian authorities than many other members of the Labour party.
Yet, Barak has expressed opinions in favour of giving up occupied land in exchange for peace, which could have lead to an agreement with Syria.
In February 2001, Barak was ousted from politics.
1982: Barak is central in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, as commander of the Lebanon Valley force.
1991 April: Barak is appointed Chief of Staff in the Israeli Defence Forces.
1997: Barak is elected leader of the Labour party.
1999 May 17: Barak is elected prime minister of Israel, beating his only contender Benjamin Netanyahu.
July 6: Barak is sworn in as the new prime minister of Israel.
The Hashemite Kingdom is blessed with vast quantities of this miracle rock, and the group led by Glazer and Barak had gone to see the king in order to get permission to mine the rock and set up a plant in the region.
He added, "Barak was the one who arranged the meeting with Abdullah, who gave the group the go-ahead.
Barak is not listed as one of the company's shareholders, but confidants of Glazer and one of the partners in the company confirmed this week that the former prime minister is to all intents and purposes their partner.
No comment Six years ago, Barak was defeated decisively by Ariel Sharon in elections for prime minister and announced that he was going to take a break from political life in order to feather his nest.
Barak has no intention of applying stricter norms of transparency to himself.
The case of Barak is particularly interesting, because from the moment he left the premiership it was clear that he would return to politics.
It is thought that Barak received $30,000 per lecture.
At the end of 2001, Barak was appointed a special adviser in EDS, a computer services company.
As prime minister and former chief of staff, Barak has been receiving an annual allowance of more than NIS 400,000.
Barak was supposed to use his name to forge connections with bodies regarding which we thought at the time he had an advantage.
It was here that Barak was reborn as a marketer.
Israel's ground incursion into Gaza will be lengthy and risky but is necessary to halt the barrage of Hamas rockets into southern Israel and restore peace to Israelis, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Saturday.
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.
In June 2007, Ehud Barak was elected to head the Labor Party, and was subsequently appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.
Dana Zaidman, a spokeswoman for Barak, said Barak had informed.
Ehud Barak was born on February 12, 1942 at Kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon.
In the course of his military service, Ehud Barak was awarded the “Distinguished Service Medal” and four additional citations for outstanding courage and valor, making him the most decorated soldier in the history of the Israel Defense Forces.
General, Ehud Barak was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.
From the May 1994 signing of the Gaza-Jericho Agreement (actualization of the 1993 Declaration of Principles - Oslo A), General Barak was responsible for the implementation of security arrangements and the redeployment of troops in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
Barak was assigned the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Shimon Peres government.
In May 1996, Ehud Barak was elected to the 14th Knesset on the Labor Party ticket and was a leading member of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee.
Barak was elected Labor Party Chairman in June 1997, and in May 1999 elections, with an overwhelming majority, was elected the 10th Prime Minister of the State of Israel and it’s Minister of Defense.
Ariel Sharon (Likud) won the ensuing elections, and Prime Minister Barak took a leave of absence from the political arena.
Prime Minister Barak is married to Nava and is the father of three daughters: Michal (30, married to Ziv Lotenberg), Yael (26), and Anat (20.
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weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there.
Hamastan on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable.
Barak has an extensive military background and I think the Israelis more than anyone know the devestation that war brings.
During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal, Barak took part in the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four other citations for courage and operational excellence; these five decorations make him, with Major Nechemya Cohen, the most decorated soldier in Israeli history.
In 1996 Barak was elected chairman of the Labor Party.
Barak was born in 1942 on Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon.
Barak is divorced with three children.
The following interview with Ehud Barak took place in Tel Aviv during late March and early April.
But Barak is far from dismissive of Arafat, who appears to many Israelis to be a sick, slightly doddering buffoon and, at the same time, sly and murderous.
Barak was elected prime minister, following three years of Benjamin Netanyahu's premiership, in May 1999 and took office in July.
Barak said he wanted to complete what Rabin had begun with the Oslo agreement, which inaugurated mutual IsraeliPalestinian recognition and partial Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and Gaza Strip back in 1993.
Barak says that, before July 2000, IDF intelligence gave the Camp David talks less than a 50 percent chance of success.
As to the charge raised by the Palestinians, and, in their wake, by Deborah Sontag, and Malley and Agha, that the Palestinians had been dragooned into coming to Camp David "unprepared" and prematurely, Barak is dismissive to the point of contempt.
Barak says that this was also Rabin's thinking.
Barak says that they met "almost every day" in Camp David at mealtimes and had one "two-hour meeting" in Arafat's cottage.
More forcefully and with greater speed, and simultaneously against all the cities, not, as was done, in staggered fashion.
Barak is extremely troubled by the problem posed by Israel's Arab minority, representing some 20 percent of Israel's total population of some 6.
Barak is employed as a senior adviser to an American company, Electronic Data Systems, and is considering a partnership in a private equity company, where he will be responsible for "security-related" ventures.
Ehud Barak is the Israeli defense minister.
Barak was considered a dead man walking in Israeli politics.
Barak was everywhere, in sunglasses and leather jacket, striding among his military commanders, talking strategy, calculating the next move.
Barak has gained from the war, he was opposed to it for far longer than any of the other top leaders and has been the most eager of them for a cease-fire since it began.
The popularity of Israels Defense Minister Ehud Barak is soaring, yet he was not eager to strike Hamas.
The tenth prime minister of Israel (1999-2001), Ehud Barak is the most decorated soldier in the history of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF.
In 1996 Barak was elected to the Knesset, and in 1999 he was elected Prime Minister, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu.
By 2007 Barak had made a political comeback and in June he was elected leader of Israel's Labor Party.
Although his academic education was repeatedly interrupted by calls to active duty, Barak found time to earn an undergraduate degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Masters in Economic Engineering Systems from Stanford University.
After serving as head of Israeli Intelligence and Central Command during the 1980s, Barak was appointed army Chief of Staff, his country's top military leader, in 1991.
Barak was propelled to leadership of the Labor Party following Peres's narrow electoral loss to Benjamin Netanyahu.
In June 2007, Barak was once again elected to lead the Labor Party and was immediately appointed to serve as Minister of Defense in the reorganized coalition government.
In 1995, following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak was named Israels Foreign Minister.
Ehud Barak was born in kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in 1942.
Soon after his IDF induction, when nearly 18, Ehud Barak was selected for the sayeret matkal elite special operations unit, going from platoon and company leader to its deputy commander and commander.
In 1976 Barak took part in the celebrated Entebbe rescue, and he is believed to have planned the April 1988 assassination in Tunis of Abu Jihad, the PLOs operations chief.
In 1974 Barak was appointed head of the IDFs Tank Commanders Course, and in the next six years he rotated from command of a regular armored battalion, a regular armored brigade, a reserve division and, finally, a regular division.
Known for his sharp intellect and analytical skill, Barak was also an accomplished classical pianist and weekend gardener at his home in Kochav Yair, north of Tel-Aviv, where he lived with his wife and three daughters.
In the midst of preparing the Israeli army for possible war threats beyond the year 2000, General Barak was unexpectedly summoned to cope with the more immediate security implications of the September 1993 Israeli-Palestinian act of mutual recognition.
Even before his scheduled retirement from the military, Ehud Barak was already touted as a natural contender for high political office as a prospective defense minister, and possibly even future prime minister.
When Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated In 1995, Barak was appointed to the post of Foreign Minister by Shimon Peres, Rabins successor.
Barak was then chosen on June 3, 1997 to replace Peres as leader of Israels Labour Party.
Could it be true that Barak is playing so sophisticated and dangerous a game? This writer, author of two books dismissing conspiracy theories, is plenty reluctant to believe that things are other than what they appear to be.
Ehud Barak Ehud Barak was born in 1942 in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon.
Barak was born Ehud Brug on the Israeli kibbutz (cooperative village or community) of Mishmar Hasharon.
In 1991 Barak was appointed Israel's army chief of staff, a position he held until he retired in 1995.
A protégé of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Barak joined Rabin's cabinet as interior minister in 1995.
Barak had initially been critical of the peace agreement between Israel and the PLO that was signed in Washington, D.
By the time of his election, Barak had attained a reputation as a “hawkish dove” on the peace process: supportive of its goals but deeply concerned about Israel’s security.
In October 2000 Barak approached Sharon with a proposal to form a coalition government.
Barak was expected to succeed Peretz as defense minister.
Six months into his tenure, Barak has effected an atmospheric change that resonates well beyond the confines of his modest bureau in Jerusalem.
Israeli and Hizballah forces continued to bloody each other in south Lebanon, but Barak was the first Prime Minister to promise to quit that territory, after 17 years of occupation, and to give himself a firm deadline--July 2000--for withdrawal.
Barak is not the cleverest of politicians.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has called the airstrikes a response to escalating rocket attacks against southern Israel.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Tel Aviv.
One hopes that the kind of investments in education and job-training that Barak has called for will reduce the resentment, wean some of Shas's supporters away from religious obscurantism and ethnic politics, that the hard choices can be avoided until they become less hard.
Barak was active in Mossad operations in Beirut in 1973 where 15 PLO commanders were killed.
Barak was awarded the "Distinguished Service Medal" and four other citations for courage and operational excellence.
Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel on May 17, 1999, taking the reins from predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu.
Later, Barak was blamed by Israeli left politicians and groups that he killed the Israeli peace movement by presenting Arafat as a "peace refuser.
Remember, Barak has no love of Arabs, he was a decorated general of Israel, killing them was his job.
WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (UPI) -- The Israeli army looks like it is belatedly preparing for a longer, more massive ground action than it originally planned.
Barak was born on 12 February 1942 in kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in Mandate Palestine.
Barak was also a key architect of the June 1976 Operation Entebbe, 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.
Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four Chief of Staff citations (Tzalash HaRamatcal) for courage and operational excellence.
In addition he was awarded in 1993 the Legion of Merit (Commander) by the United StatesBarak is also an expert in krav maga, the official martial art of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel on 17 May 1999.
Barak was in power during the appointment of the Tal committee which dealt with the controversial issue of haredi Jews' exemption from military service.
After winning back the leadership of the Labor party, Barak was sworn in as Minister of Defense on June 18, 2007, as part of Prime Minister Olmert's cabinet reshuffle.
References in popular cultureThe film Munich includes a scene depicting Operation Spring of Youth where Ehud Barak is mentioned by name and is seen dressed as a brunette, reflecting his real-life experience as leader of a Sayeret Matkal unit during that event.
Ehud Barak was born in 1942 in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon.
Barak was appointed Head of the Intelligence Branch at the IDF General Headquarters.
Labor, Gesher and Meimad factions.
Prime Minister of Israel on May 17, 1999.
Barak has proposed returning to the 1949 lines, with minor changes only.
Violation: Prime Minister Barak has been negotiating how many Palestininans will be allowed to return to Israel, within the Green Line, under the guise of "family reunification.
A sovereign Palestinian state, which Barak was willing to agree to at Camp David, would have the right and the desire to create a real army with no limits.
Violation: Barak has proposed transferring territory in the southwestern Negev to the Palestinians, in "return" for the portions of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) that he hopes to annex to Israel.
Violation: Prime Minister Ehud Barak is now willing to grant the Palestinians full sovereignty over the Jordan valley.
Red line: Both before and after his election in 1999, Barak has repeatedly promised that no settlement in Judea and Samaria would be dismantled and no settler would be abandoned.
Ehud Barak is currently running second in the Labor party primary race behind the liar Ami Ayalon.
Through all the turmoil, Ehud Barak was always accompanied by music.
During his tenure, Prime Minister Barak lead Israel out of prolonged recession into an economic boom, with 5.
Ehud Barak was a key architect of the June 1976 Entebbe Operation for the rescue of passengers on the Air France aircraft hijacked by terrorists and forced to land at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
A year later, some analysts are more convinced than ever that Barak is a secret hardliner.
Ditto for Jerusalem, writes Goell: Barak knew that no matter how generous he would be, Arafat would turn him down.
This writer, author of two books dismissing conspiracy theories, is plenty reluctant to believe that things are other than what they appear to be.
it assumes Clinton cannot flip the blame on the Israelis.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says the goals of rocket attacks on Gaza are to change the behavior of Hamas.
Barak says Israel has not ruled out a ground attack.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says he ordered the crossings opened for "essential humanitarian" supplies, in response to numerous re.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has stated that his country is conducting all out war against Hamas.
NECN Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Saturday that Israel's campaign against Gaza's Hamas rulers "will not be easy or short.
AMMAN -- Almost everything and everyone in the overcrowded Gaza Strip, it seemed, were fair game Thursday as Israeli warplanes and troops attacked targets with a vengeance as the massive Israeli war intensified – and in the process setting ablaze a hospital teeming with injured Palestinians, striking a United Nations agency housing critical aid supplies, and hitting a building serving international media outlets.
Barak was a general and former army chief.
Ehud Barak is a former Prime Minister of Israel who is currently the country's Defense Minister of Israel.
Barak has frequent conflicts with current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and has called for his resignation on numerous occasions.