“I never ran after any office and did not imagine that my merits and talents amounted to that of a peddler in the marketplace”
Yitzhak Shamir, Israel’s seventh Prime Minister, has passed away at the age of 96.
While many did not agree with his political views, he received praise from across the political spectrum for his uncompromising loyalty to Israel.
President Shimon Peres, who fought bitterly with Shamir in the 1980s, issued a statement in which he described Shamir as a courageous fighter both before and after the establishment of the state. Peres said Shamir had left a lasting legacy of bravery.
“He remained true to his beliefs, was a great patriot of his people and a great lover of Israel who served the nation loyally and with great dedication for many years,” Peres said.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Shamir “belonged to the generation of giants that established the State of Israel and fought for the freedom of the Jewish people in its land.” He said Shamir, who lost his family in the Holocaust, fought in the Lehi and as prime minister to build up the security of the state and ensure its future out of concern for its citizens.
“We lost a great man who was a great leader who was fundamentally a man of the people,” Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said. “To really understand him and his refusal to be enticed by diplomatic overtures that would have weakened Israel you had to have heard him speak on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Shamir was a symbol of Israel’s rising from the ashes of the Holocaust to strength and staying power. Out of this developed his personality as an enlightened realist and a stiff ideologue who withstands internal and external pressure and fought to prevent a situation that the people of Israel will not have their own land and state.”
By contrast, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, who served as a minister in Shamir’s cabinet, praised Shamir for negotiating with the Palestinians, initiating peace talks in Madrid, and resisting pressure to attack Iraq after Sadam Hussein fired Scud missiles at Israel.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed sorrow at Shamir’s death, saying he acted all his life as an “uncompromising and focused granite rock.”
“In the underground, in the Mossad, in the governments of Israel and as prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir always strove to ensure Israel’s freedom,” Barak said.
The defense minister added that Shamir “asked himself only what is good and right in the struggle for Israel’s security, what is good and right for the people of Israel, and thus he acted.”
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman referred to Shamir as “a man who had a major role in forming the state.” He added that Shamir served as an example of a man of principles.
“I had the honor of knowing Shamir personally and I will always remember him and his great contribution to the country,” Liberman said.
Opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich called Shamir “a determined prime minister who dedicated his life to his country in his own ideological fashion, with integrity, humility and with a modest way of life worthy of a leader.”
Yechimovich praised Shamir for exercising restraint during the First Gulf War, keeping Israel from unnecessarily becoming entangled in a war with Iraq despite his hawkish beliefs.
Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
Update: Here’s an interview with Shamir from 1995.
