World
Israeli
Patriot
Former Israeli president and air force
founder Ezer Weizman dies.
DAN BARON
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
"Weizman will
be remembered as
a great patriot."
President Moshe Katsav
"Ezer was a symbol
and the embodiment
of the Israeli sabra."
— Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
QIN
4/28
2005
30
erusalem
e was the ultimate Israeli
highflier, literally as well as
metaphorically, shepherding
and shaping the Jewish state through
war and peace with a singular, some-
times mordant charm.
And though Ezer Weizman, who died
Sunday, April 24, 2005, at 80, ended his
public career tainted by scandal, to
many Israelis he typified a national ideal.
"Ezer was a symbol and the embodi-
ment of the Israeli sabra," Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said of the for-
mer air force chief, defense minister
and president. "I have lost a corn-
mander and a friend."
Israel's political and military estab-
lishment showed up en masse at
Tuesday's memorial service to listen as
Sharon, President Moshe Katsav, Israel
Air Force head Eliezer Shkedi and
Weizman's daughter, Michal Yaffe,
eulogized him.
"Weizman will be remembered as a
great patriot," Katsav said. Directing his
words to his dead friend, he added, "A
sense of hope and resilience is following
you, not that of despair and grief."
As Sharon paid tribute to Weizman's
strength, importance and wisdom, he
added, "There was also another Ezer,
of the colony, the bottle of drink, the
laughter, which all created a special
spirit in the air force."
Weizman was buried later Tuesday.
By his choice, his final resting place is
not on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl,
where many of Israel's national leaders
are buried, but in Or Akiva, next to
his son Shaul and his daughter-in-law
Rachel, both of whom died in a 1992
road accident.
The scion of Zionist aristocracy —
In this 1988 Knesset photo, future President Ezer Weizman and future Defense
Minister Moshe Arens listen to a debate.
his uncle Chaim was Israel's first presi-
dent — Weizman was born in Tel Aviv
in 1924 and served in the Haganah
underground. After earning a flying
license as a teenager, he volunteered to
fight alongside British pilots in the
Royal Air Force during World War II.
The experience gave Weizman the
knowledge needed to help found the
Jewish state's air force.
Weizman grew up in a multilingual
home — Yiddish, Russian, Arabic,
English and Hebrew all could be heard
there.— and spent time studying in
London, where his sister lived. Those
experiences gave him command of the
Queen's English and European-style
diplomacy, both of which proved useful
in brokering Israel's landmark Camp
David peace accord with Egypt in 1979.
"Just as he fought bravely for Israel's
security, so too did he struggle spirit-
edly for peace," fellow elder statesman
Shimon Peres said. "He never ceased
charming the country, from its first
founding."
Former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter, who brokered the Camp David
agreement, called Weizman "one of
the true heroes of Israel, in both times
of war and peace."
But Weizman always remained the
scrappy sabra, indifferent to — and
sometimes clearly delighting in — the
offense his wit could cause among
feminists, gays and the religious.
Approached by a young woman who
wanted to become one of Israel's first
female fighter pilots, Weizman notori-
ously responded, "Maydele [young
lady], have you ever seen a man darn-
ing socks?"
After the 1967 Six-Day War, a victo-
ry in which the Israel air force that
Weizman had created played such a
key role, the deputy chief of staff
doffed his uniform and joined Golda
Meir's coalition government. Yet
Weizman resigned a year later to
protest Jerusalem's acceptance of
United Nations Security Council
Resolution 242, which called for
Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands
captured during the conflict.
That he was to become a key player
in Camp David, when Israel agreed to
return the Sinai to Egypt, heralded a
rather contrarian style of politics on
Weizman's part. Having helped engi-
neer the election victory of Menachem
Begin's Likud party in 1977, he later
became a member of Labor.
Weizman quit parliamentary politics
in 1992, shortly after his son. and
daughter-in-law were killed. A year
later, he accepted Labor's nomination
to become Israel's president.
Following the 1993 Oslo peace
accords, Weizman harangued Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin for being too
quick to negotiate with the
Palestinians, and later criticized Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for
being too slow.
Weizman relished the office of presi-
dent, which allowed him not only to
challenge Israeli leaders but also to
represent the country abroad. Yet his
tenure ended under a cloud in 2000
when Weizman, dogged by revelations
of financial impropriety while he
served in the Cabinet, became the first
president to resign.
His health declined soon after, and
he spent much of this year hospital-
ized. Weizman is survived by his
imidow Reuma and their daughter
Michal.
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