Word: weizman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first won military fame in the 1950s for his swashbuckling leadership of fierce raids against Arab villages and refugee camps in Jordan and Gaza. After the 1973 October War, his soldiers hailed him "Arik, Arik, King of Israel." Former Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman once wrote: "In war, I'd follow him through fire and flood, but political life has different values." Says a ranking general: "His world is divided into black and white, good guys and bad guys. According to his philosophy, 'Whosoever is not with me must be against...
...mean everything, to get the Prime Minister's post," says an Israeli general. Begin had misgivings about awarding the powerful Defense portfolio to Sharon, who had a reputation for disobeying superiors on the battlefield. Begin, who held the Defense post himself for more than a year after Ezer Weizman resigned in May 1980, once remarked to Deputy Prime Minister Simcha Ehrlich: "Sharon might surround the Prime Minister's office with tanks." Not even Sharon's military colleagues trust his commitment to free government. Says former Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor: "If ever, God forbid, he reaches the supreme...
...country's leaders, men like Begin, President Yitzhak Navon, former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and Labor Party Leader Shimon Peres, who knew Sadat and worked with him, were genuinely moved and saddened. Right-wing extremists were overjoyed, anticipating that Sadat's death might mean Israel would retain its hold on part of the Sinai...
Among them: Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Ashraf Ghorbal, former Presidents Ford and Carter, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance, and former Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman...
...Begin's most important appointment was his selection of General Ariel Sharon as his new Defense Minister. Sharon, who served as Agriculture Minister in the last government and was a zealous builder of new Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, has wanted the defense post ever since Ezer Weizman resigned last year. Instead, Begin kept the portfolio himself, quipping that if the aggressive Sharon were to become Defense Minister, he might "surround the Prime Minister's office with tanks." This time Begin relented...