Yitzhak Shamir (Jaziernicki)

Lexicon of Terms

Political Biography

Yitzhak Shamir as Speaker of the Knesset (1977-1980)

National Unity Government: Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, March 28, 1988.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and MK Yitzhak Rabin at the Mimouna celebrations in Mevasseret Tzion, April 25, 1992.

Yitzhak Shamir (Jaziernicki)

A leading member of the Lehi, statesman, Member of the Knesset, minister, leader of the Likud and Prime Minister of Israel during the years 1983–1984 and 1986–1992.

Shamir was born in 1915 in Poland. He studied at a Jewish high school in Bialystok and in his youth joined the Betar movement. In 1935 he left his academic studies of law in Warsaw and made Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, where he completed his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1937 he joined the Etzel underground military movement and was a founding member of the Lehi, following a split from Etzel in 1940. After Avraham Stern ("Yair") was murdered in 1942, Shamir became one of the three leaders of Lehi. He was arrested twice by the British Mandate Government and escaped arrest both times – the second time from a detainee's camp in Eritrea.

From 1955 through 1965 Shamir held a senior post in the Mossad. In later years he conducted private businesses and took part in the public struggle to help Soviet Jewry. He joined the Herut movement in 1970 and was elected to its executive committee. Shamir was in charge, within the party, of the Aliyah department and later the executive department. In 1975 he was elected as chairman of the executive committee.

Shamir was a member of the Knesset from the Eighth Knesset (1974) and until the Thirteenth Knesset (1992). In June 1977 he was elected as Speaker of the Knesset and was appointed, in March 1980, as minister of foreign affairs after Moshe Dayan resigned from the post. Following Prime Minister Menahem Begin's resignation, Shamir was elected as his successor in October 1983, while continuing to serve as foreign minister.

In 1984, following the elections to the Eleventh Knesset, he had called for establishment of a national unity government. Between September 1984 and October 1986 Shamir served as acting prime minister and minister of foreign affairs under Prime Minister Shimon Peres. In accordance with the rotation agreement, he took over as prime minister in 1986. In March 1987 Shamir was officially elected as chairman of Herut. After the elections to the Twelfth Knesset (1988), he preferred to form a national unity government over a narrow right-wing government.

In early 1989, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin worked out a peace initiative, approved by the government, which called for elections in the occupied territories. However, growing opposition within the Likud forced Shamir to adopt more rigid plans. On March 15th, the government was voted down in a no-confidence motion, supported by the Labor Party. Shimon Peres failed to form a new government and Shamir installed and headed a narrow government.

The government's compliance to US policy during the Gulf War was highly regarded by the United States. Shamir's participation in the Madrid Conference, as well as his willingness to participate in negotiations with Syria, Lebanon and the Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, had caused three parties (Tehiya, Tzomet and Moledet) to resign from the coalition and bring forward the elections. In the elections to the Thirteenth Knesset (1992), the Likud was defeated and on March 25th 1993 Benjamin Netanyahu was elected to party leadership. Shamir did not seek reelection to the 14th Knesset (1996). He was a fierce objector to the Declaration of Principles signed with the PLO and was dissatisfied with Netanyahu's continued implementation of the Taba Agreement.