Word: weizman
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Israeli Defense Chief Ezer Weizman, the Cabinet minister who greeted his returning boss Menachem Begin in Jerusalem with a widely publicized call for the formation of a "national peace government," has a well-deserved reputation for speaking his mind. So much so that when he was chief of operations for the Israeli forces in the late 1960s, he was told by Moshe Dayan, then Defense Minister, that he would never become chief of staff. "Too rash, naughty, and always shooting from the hip," said Dayan...
...tall, handsome onetime fighter pilot is still firing away, but he seems to be surviving. Not only does Weizman, 53, now have Dayan's old job at the Israeli defense ministry in Tel Aviv, he has also long been considered a leading contender for Begin's job-which, of course, he says he does not seek. "I'm very happy in what I'm doing," he told TIME last week, "and I can enjoy it for many years...
Quick reactions and boundless self-confidence are Weizman hallmarks. In the planning for the Israeli charge into Lebanon, it was Weizman's idea to create only a limited "security belt" close to Israel's border, and it was his idea later on in the operation to continue the plunge almost all the way to the Litani River, after it became clear that the Palestinians were putting up a hard fight and trouble was coming from the U.N. In the middle of the operation, Weizman explains with his characteristically dry understatement, "the rules had changed...
...inbred world of Israel's leadership, Weizman occupies a special position. His uncle Chaim Weizmann was Israel's first President (young Ezer dropped the second n in his last name in an early assertion of his independence). His wife Re'uma is the sister of Foreign Minister Dayan's first wife. And in Israel's Likud coalition government, he stands as something of a kingmaker: it was Weizman, the second ranking member in Begin's Herut Party, who ran the campaign that gave Begin his upset victory in last May's elections...
Among Israelis, Weizman has long had a kind of Steve Canyonesque reputation. He flew reconnaissance missions for the British in Egypt and India during World War II, helped build Israel's fledgling air force after independence came in 1948 and was named commander ten years later. When he left the air force in 1966 to become chief of operations, he said goodbye by buzzing all the Israeli air-bases in his personal plane, a vintage Spitfire with a red propeller...