Baruch Dayan HaEmet: Yitzhak Shamir

The former prime minister of Israel has died at the age of 96. Shamir headed the Stern Gang terror group before the State of Israel was born, and worked as a senior Mossad operative for years after that. He suffered from Alzheimer's Disease.

Shamir was infamous (or famous, depending on your point of view) for foot dragging and refusing to make peace deals with Arabs if those deals in any way meant Israel would have to cede territory.

Shamir was also lukewarm about rescuing Ethiopian Jews, agreeing to do so only after the US agreed to pay for the rescue and manage much of it, and only after the US put him in a very akward position – one that would have seen him pay a high price for refusal and that could easily have forced him out of office.

Shamir's family died during the Holocaust. Shamir didn't because he was already in Palestine.

Shamir's father escaped from a trasport to a death camp and sought shelter with non-Jewish friends. Those friends killed him.

That loss – and the way that it happened – impacted and shaped Shamir's actions for the rest of his life.

Comments

[ZIY]

Years ago, while spending a couple hours with Shamir (this was when Rabin was still alive), I asked him about the Altalena Affair, & the friction between him (with Begin) & Rabin on that catastrophic event. To which Shamir smiled & answered me with a twinkle in his eyes: "Vhy do you vant to take skeletons out of the closet?" - & that was that...

[SMR]

More problems at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim's illegal housing complex in Monsey.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20120630/NEWS03/306300062/Ramapo-religious-housing-faces-violations-after-Hillcrest-firefighters-cite-safety-issues

Hat Tip: SMR!

[Jake]

יהיה שמו ברוך

[Barry]

More problems at Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim's illegal housing complex in Monsey.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20120630/NEWS03/306300062/Ramapo-religious-housing-faces-violations-after-Hillcrest-firefighters-cite-safety-issues

Hat Tip: SMR!

Posted by: SMR | June 30, 2012 at 11:45 PM

Very poor taste to post this here. Next time email your smutz to Shmarya directly.

[ultra haredi lite]

Awesome obit. RIP.

[ruthie]

a true soldier of israel.
may his memory be a blessing

[Reb Chaim]

Here's a historical note on the passing of Yitzchok Shamir (A"H). Does anyone know why he named his daughter Gilada? Hint: it is directly related to his activities with the Stern Gang during the period before May 1948.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

Even the NY Times did not use the word terrorist but Shmarya jumps right into it in the headline.

Lehi (a.k.a. the Stern Gang) self-identified as a terrorist group and openly proclaimed not to have any moral qualms about using terrorism.

[Friar Yid]

For Reb Chaim and the curious: Political Assassinations by Jews

[PeninaD]

I was a witness to his stubborness.
As a paramedic in NYC, I was once assigned to the dignitary protection detail for him. As we pulled up to his hotel, he walked into the lobby surrounded by his armed protectors...and he promptly spun around, left the hotel, and walked right through the streets and into Central Park. The guards went nuts, ran all over the place to see if there were any gunmen or other threats along a route that had not been pre-cleared, leaving me and my partner to carry a stair chair and essential equipment and run after him...leaving the two of us essentially the only thing between him and a bullet.
Totally a day to remember.

[Shmarya]

Here's a historical note on the passing of Yitzchok Shamir (A"H). Does anyone know why he named his daughter Gilada? Hint: it is directly related to his activities with the Stern Gang during the period before May 1948.

Posted by: Reb Chaim | July 01, 2012 at 08:24 AM

It was based on their name for the machine guns they used, wasn't it?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Baruch Dayan Emet.

[Friar Yid]

Shmarya- The link I posted describes the whole Giladi incident. (Don't be turned off by the title; it's actually a well-done study by an Israeli sociologist.)

[Jake]

I use to live on Arlosorof street around the corner from the prime ministers residence.

I fondly remember warm morning greetings as he was taking walks and I was walking my somewhat unusual dog.

Can't say I knew but definitely remember the twinkle in his eyes.

[hexagram]

Yitzhak Shamir gave the world a weapon that has blown back in our faces for decades: the car bomb. An early proponent of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets, even when the Irgun limited its attacks to barracks and military targets (including the first such attack in the Jewish-Arab conflict in Eretz Yiosrael -- the bombing of an Arab movie house).

Not a legacy we Jews should be proud of.

[miriam]

! 'כן יאבדו כל־אויביך ד