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MENACE= BEGIN
The look The spry great uncle who
gets into an argument with your grand-
mother after the Passover seder.
I
The life: Born in Poland, at 15 he
joined the Zionist youth movement,
Betar; by 25 he was heading the organi-
zation. After spending a year in a Siber-
ian labor camp, he served in the Free
Polish Army and the British Army
before becoming head of the Irgun
Zionist guerrilla organization. As part of
that group, Begin was responsible for
the bombing of Jerusalem's King David
Hotel in 1946, an act which took the
lives of 90 people, including several
British officials.
The career: After independence, Begin
was a leading spokesman for the oppo-
sition. In 1973 he helped form the
Likud Party; when it won the 1977
elections, Begin was swept into office as
prime minister. Not long after, Egyptian
=MON PERES
The look A
slightly perplexed
chess master.
The life: Born in
Belorussia, Peres
(originally "Per-
sky") has been a
career politician.
A protege of
David Ben-Gurion, he held various
government posts until becoming
Labor Party leader in 1977, where-
upon his party was upset in the
national elections by Menachem
Begin's Likud. In 1984, an election
gave Labor a narrow victory — so nar-
row that Labor and Likud formed a
coalition government.
president Anwar
Sadat made peace
overtures, and
after more than a
year of delicate
negotiations, on
March 26, 1979,
the two heads of
state signed the
Camp David
Accords.
The rest of his term was not to be as
positive. In 1981, Sadat was assassinat-
ed; his successor, Hosni Mubarak,
backed off from the peace process.
Meanwhile, Begin began an unpopular
border war with Lebanon, which
proved a disaster. In 1983, exhausted
from medical problems and the death
of his wife, he resigned as prime minis-
ter.
Afterward: He lived in semi-seclusion,
and died in 1992.
(1923- )
The career: Based on the agreement
between the two parties, Peres became
prime minister until 1986, when he
relinquished the post to Yitzhak Shamir.
In 1992, he lost Labor leadership to
Yitzhak Rabin, who became prime min-
ister after victory in February. Peres
joined the cabinet as foreign minister, a
position he had held in the coalition
government. A year later, he signed the
1993 peace treaty with the Palestinians.
When assassination claimed Rabin's
life two years later, Peres assumed the
prime ministership. But, weakened by
political miscalculations, he lost the
1996 election to Binyamin Netanyahu.
The life: Irgun member, followed by
several years with the Stern Gang, an
Irgun splinter group. After indepen-
dence, Shamir headed Mossad, the
Israeli Secret Service. He left Mossad in
1965 and joined Begin's Herut Party,
later to become Likud, where he rose to
foreign minister before Begin retired.
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Afterward: He remains a force in Israeli
politics.
YITZHAK SHAMIR
The look The other great uncle, who
silently twiddles his thumbs in a fit of
bemused pique after a Passover seder.
(1913-1992)
Get a full year JCC Health
Club Membership for only
$198 more!
(1914-
The career: In a
strange power-
sharing arrange-
ment, Shamir and
Labor leader Shi-
mon Peres alternat-
ed the prime min-
istership after the
inconclusive 1984
elections; Peres
served from 1984 to 1986, and Shamir
PRIME MINISTERS on page 106
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categories, please call JCC Membership Services in
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• Sign-up for yearly membership ends June 30, 1998
(must not have been a JCC member ,n the past 12 months: •
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT JCC
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building • 6600 W. Maple Road • West Bloomfield, MI • 48322
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5/1
1998
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