Ezer Weizman

Menachem Begin, perceiving that the Israeli public supports a more active defense posture, appoints Yitzhak Shamir as foreign minister and the hawkish Ariel Sharon as minister of defense, replacing the more moderate Ezer Weizman, who, like foreign minister Moshe Dayan, had in 1980 resigned in protest against Begin's settlement policy.

Sharon is unquestionably an Israeli war hero of longstanding; he had played an important role in the 1956, 1967, and 1973 wars and is widely respected as a brilliant military tactician.

He is also feared, however as a military man with political ambitions, one who is ignorant of political protocol and who is known to make precipitous moves.

Aligned with Sharon is chief of staff General Rafael Eitan, who also advocates an aggressive Israeli defense posture.

Because Begin is not a military man, the minister of defense and the chief of staff increasingly decide Israel's defense policy.

The combination of wide discretionary powers granted Sharon and Eitan over Israeli military strategy, the PLO's menacing growth in southern Lebanon, and the existence of Syrian SAMs in the Biqa Valley points to imminent Syrian-PLO-Israeli hostilities.

Benjamin Netanyahu easily wins election as the leader of the Likud party in March 1993, succeeding Yitzhak Shamir in this post.

Retired air force general Ezer Weizman, in 1984, had founded a political party, Yahad, which ran on a dovish platform in the elections to the Eleventh Knesset, gaining three seats.

In the national unity government formed after these elections, Weizman served as Minister without Portfolio and as a member of the inner cabinet.

In 1985, he was appointed Coordinator of Arab Affairs, a position that enabled him to promote his long-time interest in assisting Israel's Arab sector.

In the 1988 elections, he ran Labor's campaign and subsequently became Minister of Science and Development in the new national unity government, serving in this position until March 1990.

In February 1992, Weizman resigned from the Knesset over what he regarded as lack of progress in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Weizman is elected Israel's seventh President by the Knesset (Israel's parliament) for a five-year term (commencing 13 May 1993).

Ezer Weizman, supported by Israel's opposition Labor Party, is reelected president on March 4, 1998, defeating the prime minister's candidate, Shaul Amor, in the Knesset sixty-three to forty-nine

Tensions between Weizman and Netanyahu are exacerbated as the outspoken president criticizes the prime minister's failure to take the peace process forward.

Strains in Israel's relations with Europe come to the fore when British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, representing the U.K. presidency of the European Union, visits the controversial Har Homa construction site in Jerusalem on March 17, and, contrary to a previous agreement with the Israelis, shakes hands with a Palestinian leader there. (It had been the start of construction work on the site by the Israelis a year earlier that had led to the collapse of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and the ensuing stalemate.)

Israel's president Ezer Weizman announces on May 28, that he intends to step down in July, following allegations that he had received more than three hundred thousand dollars from two millionaire businessmen friends.

The attorney general decides not to prosecute because of the seven-year time lapse since the gifts had been accepted.