Generally Likable

AVI MACH LIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jerusalem

A

mnon Lipkin-Shahak has
been watching his populari-
ty soar in public opinion
polls as he prepares to
launch his candidacy for prime minis-
ter.
But even as the former army chief
of staff was officially discharged last
week, Israelis were still trying to figure
out just who he is.
"I think many
people in the State
of Israel are wait-
ing for something
different," he said
cautiously. "They
want hope, and if
I can help bring
these things, I
Amnon
will."
Lipkin-Shahak
Despite his reti-
cence about his
plans for a newly formed centrist
party, Shahak, 54, has already found
himself under fire from both the left
and right. The Labor Party has
accused him of splitting the left-wing
vote by refusing to join Labor's ranks,
a move 'they say will only benefit
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
in the upcoming elections. The Likud
Party has accused him of breaking
Israeli military law by engaging in pol-
itics before officially leaving the army,
in which he served 36 years.
Polls say Shahak could get about 20
percent of the vote in a first round of
elections against Netanyahu and Labor
leader Ehud Barak, and that he would
beat Netanyahu by 48 percent to 33
percent if the two competed in a sec-
ond-round runoff.
Born in 1944 in Tel Aviv, Shahak
graduated from a military preparatory
school in Haifa before joining the
army in 1962. He was awarded the
prestigious medal of valor twice, first
in 1968 for his handling of a raid on a
Palestinian guerrilla base in Jordan.
His second decoration was for a dar-
ing undercover operation in Beirut in
1973, when he led one of two com-
mando teams. The second team was
led by Barak.
Shahak rose through the army
ranks to become the head of military
intelligence, deputy chief of staff and,
eventually, chief of staff in 1995. He
was criticized for a military failure
during an April 1996 attack on
Hezbollah fighters in southern
Lebanon when the accidental shelling

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Detroit Jewish News

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