Ezer Weizman
Ezer Weizman | |
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עזר ויצמן | |
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7th President of Israel | |
In office 13 May 1993 – 13 July 2000 | |
Prime Minister | Yitzhak Rabin Shimon Peres Benjamin Netanyahu Ehud Barak |
Preceded by | Chaim Herzog |
Succeeded by | Moshe Katsav |
Minister of Defense | |
In office 20 June 1977 – 28 May 1980 | |
Prime Minister | Menachem Begin |
Preceded by | Shimon Peres |
Succeeded by | Menachem Begin |
Personal details | |
Born | Yahad (1984–1991) Labor (1991–2005) | 15 June 1924
Other political affiliations | Gahal (1965–1972) Likud (1976–1984) |
Spouse |
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Ezer Weizman (
Biography
Ezer Weizman was born in Tel Aviv in the British Mandate of Palestine on 15 June 1924 to Yechiel and Yehudit Weizmann. His father was an agronomist. Weizman was a nephew of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann.
He grew up in Acre and Haifa, and attended the Hebrew Reali School.[1] He married Reuma Schwartz, sister of Ruth Dayan, wife of Moshe Dayan, and they had two children, Shaul and Michal.
Weizman was a combat
Between 1944 and 1946, he was a member of the Irgun underground in Mandatory Palestine. Between 1946 and 1947, he studied aeronautics in England. During 1947, in the midst of his studies, he became involved in a plot to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, commander of the British forces in Mandatory Palestine at the time. He and another Irgun operative had planned to mine the road outside Barker's house in London, but after attracting the suspicions of Scotland Yard, he left England, ending the plot.[2]
Military career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Avia-S-199_Ezer_Weizman.jpg/220px-Avia-S-199_Ezer_Weizman.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/King_of_Nepal%2C_Shimon_Peres_and_Ezer_Weizman_1963.jpg/220px-King_of_Nepal%2C_Shimon_Peres_and_Ezer_Weizman_1963.jpg)
After the establishment of the State of Israel, Weizman was a pilot for the Haganah in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He was the commander of the Negev Air Squadron near Nir-Am. In May 1948, he learned to fly the Avia S-199 (Messerschmitt Bf 109) at the České Budějovice air base in Czechoslovakia (Operation Balak) and participated in Israel's first fighter mission (executed by its "first fighter squadron"), a ground attack on an Egyptian column advancing toward Ad Halom near the Arab town of Isdud south of Tel Aviv.[3] In a battle between Israeli and British RAF aircraft on 7 January 1949, he flew one of four Israeli Spitfire fighters that attacked 19 British fighters, which were on a rescue mission in Egypt searching for four aircraft that had been destroyed in an earlier IAF attack.[4] An RAF Hawker Tempest was shot down by the IAF, resulting in the death of the pilot.[4] Due to a failure by ground crewmen, most of the RAF aircraft were not armed.[5]
Weizman joined the Israel Defense Forces and served as the Chief of Operations on the General Staff.[6] In 1951 he attended the RAF Staff College, Andover in England. Upon his return he became commander of Ramat David.[3]
Weizman served as the commander of the
In 1967, he directed the early morning surprise air attacks against the Egyptian air bases, which resulted in giving the Israelis total air superiority over the Sinai battlefields by totally destroying the Egyptian Air Force in 3 hours. A total of 400 enemy planes were destroyed by the Israeli Air Force on the first day of the Six-Day War.
Although he became the IDF's Deputy Chief of Staff in 1966, he retired from military service in 1969.
Political career
Upon retiring from the military, Weizman joined the right-wing
In 1977, he became
After Donald Neff wrote an article for Time magazine reporting an incident at Beit Jala, where a school was surrounded, the doors shut and canisters of gas fired into it, Weizman had a commission investigate Palestinian claims that it was part of an Israeli army campaign against youths in the West Bank which resulted in numerous Palestinians having their arms and legs broken and their heads shaved. When the commission confirmed that the Beit Jala story was true he fired the military governor of the West Bank, Brigadier General David Hagoel, for abusing Palestinians.[9]
Over time, Weizman's views became more dovish. After the
In May 1980, Weizman quit the government. He considered establishing a new party with Moshe Dayan, which led to his ousting from Likud. For the next four years, he put politics on hold and entered the business world.
In 1984, he established a new party,
Presidency
On 24 March 1993, the Knesset elected Weizman, by a majority of 66 to 53 (against Dov Shilansky, the Likud candidate), to serve as the next president of Israel. He assumed office as president on 13 May 1993.
In 1996, in an attempt to promote the
At the end of 1999, newspapers published allegations that Weizman had accepted large sums of money from businessmen before becoming president, without reporting this to the proper authorities. Since the statute of limitations had expired Weizman was not prosecuted,[12] but the controversy compelled him to resign. Weizman's resignation took effect on 13 July 2000.
Death
Weizman died of respiratory failure at his home in Caesarea on 24 April 2005, at the age of 80. He is not buried on Mt. Herzl, where Israeli presidents and prime ministers are usually interred, but alongside his son and daughter-in-law in Or Akiva.
Gallery
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Ezer Weizman 1958
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Ezer Weizman greetingKing Husseinof Jordan
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A meeting at Camp David with (l-r) Aharon Barak, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, and Ezer Weizmann, 1978
Awards and recognition
- 1996: Collar of the Order of the White Lion
- 1999: Grand Cross with Sash of the Order of the Star of Romania
Published works
- Weizman, Ezer (1976). On Eagles' Wings: The Personal Story of the Leading Commander of the Israeli Air Force. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 0-02-625790-4.
- Ruth, Sof (2002) (Hebrew, idiomatically: "Over and Out")
References
- ISSN 0362-4331.
- OCLC 5325882.
- ^ ISBN 0-517-58790-4.
- ^ a b "IAF v RAF". spyflight.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 April 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2007.
- S2CID 159711655.
- ^ "Knesset Lexicon - Ezer Weizmann". m.knesset.gov.il. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077.
- ^ Horne, Alistair (2009). Kissinger's Year: 1973. Phoenix. p. 122.
- ^ Donald Neff, Epiphany at Beit Jala, The Link, November – December 1995, Vol. 28, Issue 5.
- ^ "Ezer Weizman: 1924–2005" San Francisco Chronicle, 25 April 2005
- ^ Obituary: Ezer Weizman The Guardian
- ^ Ezer Weizman Jewish Virtual Library
Further reading
- Moshe Ben Shaul, ed. (1968). Generals of Israel. Tel-Aviv: Hadar Publishing.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Ezer Weizman on the Knesset website
- Ezer Weizman's biography Knesset website (in English)
- Ezer Weizman – Obituary The Times
- 101 Squadron, Israel's first fighter squadron in which Weizman was a pilot and eventual commander
- Pictures of his life
- Interview on YouTube by Leon Charneyon The Leon Charney Report