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June 15 1924 – April 24 2005
Dates of office:
May 13 1993 – July 13 2000
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Military man, politician and Israel’s 7th president.
Ezer Weizmann was born in 1924 in Tel Aviv. His uncle was Chaim Weizmann. During the Second World War, Ezer served in the Royal Air Force, and was stationed in Egypt and India. From 1946 until 1948, he was a member of the Irgun and in 1946, he was assigned a mission, which was not implemented, to assassinate General Evelyn Barker in England, since Barker, after the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem by the Irgun, declared that Jews must be injured where it would hurt most – in their pockets.
Weizmann served in the “Air Services” which preceded the establishment of the Israeli Air Force. During the War of Independence, he flew ammunition and supplies to the Negev and Gush Etzion, and in 1948, he was sent to Czechoslovakia to learn to fly Messerschmitt airplanes, and then flew one to Israel. Weizmann served in the Air Force until 1966. During his last 8 years of service, he served as Commander of the Air Force. Between 1966 and 1969, he served as the head of operations and Deputy Chief of General Staff. His background in politics prevented his appointment to Chief of General Staff.
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In 1969, he served as Minister of Transportation of the Gahal Party in the second Likud National Government established by Levi Eshkol. Between 1971 and 1972, he served as Chairman of the Board of the Herut Party, and resigned in December 1972, following a disagreement with Menachem Begin regarding the division of seats in the party’s Central Committee. He returned to Herut in May 1973, and remained a member until 1980.
Weizmann was elected to the Ninth Knesset (1977) after being in charge of the Likud’s election campaign. He was appointed Minister of Defense in Menachem Begin’s first Government, and played an important role in the peace process with Egypt. In March 1978, he decided to implement the Litani Plan, and immediately thereafter proposed the establishment of a “National Peace Government” to advance the peace process – a proposal rejected by the Prime Minister.
During this period, his opinions underwent a dramatic shift, and he became more and more critical of the rigid and uncompromising policies of his party with regard to the peace process, while at the same time clashing with Minister of Agriculture, Ariel Sharon, over settlement policies. In May 1980, he resigned from the Government, citing cuts to the defense budget. In November 1980, he considered forming a new party led by Moshe Dayan, and as a result was forced out of the Herut party.
Between 1980 and 1984, he concentrated on business. In March 1984, Weizmann founded a new party called “Yahad”, which ran in the elections for the 11th Knesset (1981). “Yahad” won three seats and joined the bloc created around the Ma’arach party ahead of the formation of a national unity government. The Government established by Shimon Peres appointed Weizmann as Minister without Portfolio and a member of the reduced cabinet. In January 1985, he was appointed Coordinator for Arab Affairs thereby cancelling the position of Prime Minister’s Advisor for Arab Affairs. In October 1986, he combined his party with the Labor Party. In the national unity government established by Yitzhak Shamir in 1988, Weizmann was appointed Minister of Science and Technology. At the end of 1989, Shamir threatened to expel him from the Government due to his contact with members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). After the dissolution of the national unity government, Weizmann decided to distance himself from politics, and resigned from the Knesset in February 1992.
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In 1993, he was elected President, and received a fair amount of criticism for his political outbursts, and his refusal to commute the sentences of a number of prisoners. Following the Declaration of Principles with the Palestinians, and due to the lack of advancement in peace negotiations with Syria, he became even more rigid in his opinions. However, after the establishment of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in June 1996, and the feeling of crisis with regard to Israel’s relations with the Palestinians, he acted to advance negotiations with them, and in October he invited the Head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, to visit him in his home in Caesarea.
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Despite the criticism of his excessive political involvement, Weizmann was elected to a second term as president in March 1998. After Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister, Weizmann spoke out in favor of withdrawing from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria, thus raising the opposition’s ire. In the end of December 1999, an article was published which stated that since 1988, Weizmann had been receiving large sums of money without reporting them to the authorities. Despite the fact that the State Prosecutor decided that there were no grounds for Weizmann to stand trial, primarily because of the statute of limitations, the matter brought about Weizmann’s resignation as president. His letter of resignation was submitted to the Speaker of the Knesset on July 11, 2000, and became valid on July 13.
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