{{Short description|President of Israel from 1993 to 2000}} {{pp-extended|small=yes}} {{more citations needed|date=November 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Ezer Weizman | image = Ezer Weizman 9.jpg | office = 7th President of Israel | caption = | term_start = 13 May 1993 | term_end = 13 July 2000 | prime_minister = Yitzhak Rabin<br />Shimon Peres<br />Benjamin Netanyahu<br />Ehud Barak | predecessor = Chaim Herzog | successor = Moshe Katsav | office2 = Minister of Defense | prime_minister2 = Menachem Begin | term_start2 = 20 June 1977 | term_end2 = 28 May 1980 | predecessor2 = Shimon Peres | successor2 = Menachem Begin | birth_date = {{birth date|1924|6|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine | death_date = {{death date and age|2005|4|24|1924|6|15|df=y}} | death_place = Caesarea, Israel | signature = Ezer Weizman Signature from the Goldman Collection (No background).png | party = Independent (1965–1984)<br />Yahad (1984–1991)<br />Labor (1991–2005) | other_party = Gahal (1965–1972)<br />Likud (1976–1984) | spouse = {{marriage|Reuma Schwartz|1950|2005}} | children = 2 | profession = Military | module = {{Infobox military person |embed=yes |allegiance={{UK}}<br />{{flag|Israel}} |branch={{army|UK}}<br />{{air force|UK}}<br />{{air force|Israel}} |service_years= 1942–1945 (UK)<br /> 1946–1969 (Israel) |rank=Aluf (Major General) |commands=Chief of Operations on the General Staff<br />Commander of Ramat David<br />Commander of the Israeli Air Force<br />Deputy Chief of the General Staff |battles=World War II<br />1947–1949 Palestine war<br />Suez Crisis<br />Six-Day War<br />War of Attrition }} | native_name = {{Nobold|{{Script/Hebrew|עֵזֶר וַיְצְמָן}}}} | native_name_lang = he }} '''Ezer Weizman''' ({{langx|he|עֵזֶר וַיְצְמָן|Ezer Vaytsman}}, {{IPA|he|ˈezeʁ ˈvaitsman|pron|He-Ezer_Weitzman.ogg}}; 15 June 1924 – 24 April 2005) was an Israeli major general and politician who served as the president of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.
==Biography== Ezer Weizman was born in Tel Aviv in the British Mandate of Palestine on 15 June 1924 to Yechiel and Yehudit Weizmann. His father was an agronomist originally from Pinsk, whereas his mother's family had been among the founders of Rishon LeZion. Weizman was a nephew of Israel's first president, Chaim Weizmann.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-04-29 |title=Israelis Remember Ezer Weizman, Hawk Turned Dove |url=https://forward.com/news/3376/israelis-remember-ezer-weizman-hawk-turned-dove/ |access-date=2025-02-13 |website=The Forward |language=en}}</ref>
He grew up in Acre and Haifa, and attended the Hebrew Reali School.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/obituaries/ezer-weizman-former-president-of-israel-and-hero-of-1967-war.html|title=Ezer Weizman, Former President of Israel and Hero of 1967 War, Dies at 80|last1=Orme|first1=William A. Jr.|date=25 April 2005|work=The New York Times|last2=Myre|first2=Greg|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He married Reuma Schwartz, sister of Ruth Dayan, wife of Moshe Dayan, and they had two children, Shaul and Michal.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
Weizman enlisted in the British Army in 1942 during World War II and served as a truck driver in the Western Desert campaign in Egypt and Libya. In 1943, he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and attended aviation school in Rhodesia. He served with the RAF in Egypt and then India until 1945. Weizman ended his service in the RAF as a sergeant pilot but did not obtain any operational experience.<ref>[https://www.machal.org.il/personal-stories/ezer-weizman/ Ezer Weizman]</ref>
Between 1944 and 1946, he was a member of the Irgun underground in Mandatory Palestine. From 1946 to 1947, he studied aeronautics in England. During 1947, in the midst of his studies, he became involved in a plot to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, commander of the British forces in Mandatory Palestine at the time. He and another Irgun operative had planned to mine the road outside Barker's house in London, but after attracting the suspicions of Scotland Yard, he left England, ending the plot.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bethell|first=Nicholas|title=The Palestine Triangle : The Struggle for the Holy Land, 1935-48|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|year=1979|isbn=0-399-12398-9|pages=307|oclc=5325882}}</ref>
==Military career== [[Image:Avia-S-199 Ezer Weizman.jpg|thumb|Weizman sits upon the wing root of an Avia S-199, a Czechoslovak-built version of the Bf 109.]] [[Image:King of Nepal, Shimon Peres and Ezer Weizman 1963.jpg|thumb|King Mahendra of Nepal (left) visiting Israel, accompanied by Shimon Peres, Director General of the Ministry of Defense (middle), and Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Ezer Weizman (right) with a IAF Mirage III in the background, 1958.]]
After the establishment of the State of Israel, Weizman was a pilot for the Haganah in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He was the commander of the Negev Air Squadron near Nir-Am. In May 1948, he learned to fly the Avia S-199 (Messerschmitt Bf 109) at the České Budějovice air base in Czechoslovakia (Operation Balak) and participated in Israel's first fighter mission (executed by its "first fighter squadron"), a ground attack on an Egyptian column advancing toward Ad Halom near the Arab town of Isdud south of Tel Aviv.<ref name="Cohen">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Eliezer|title=Israel's Best Defense|publisher=Orion Books|year=1993|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/israelsbestdefen0000cohe/page/504 504]|isbn=0-517-58790-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/israelsbestdefen0000cohe/page/504}}</ref> In a battle between Israeli and neutral British RAF aircraft on 7 January 1949, he flew one of four Israeli Spitfire fighters that attacked 19 British fighters, which were on a rescue mission in Egypt searching for four aircraft on a reconnaissance flight that had been destroyed in an earlier IAF attack, with the IAF pilots falsely claiming the RAF aircraft were attacking Israeli ground forces.<ref name=spyflight>{{cite web|url=http://www.spyflight.co.uk/iafvraf.htm|title=IAF v RAF|work=spyflight.co.uk|access-date=22 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414141639/http://www.spyflight.co.uk/iafvraf.htm|archive-date=14 April 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> An RAF Hawker Tempest was shot down by the IAF, resulting in the death of the pilot.<ref name=spyflight/> Due to an oversight by ground crewmen, most of the RAF aircraft were not able to fire.<ref name=spyflight>{{cite web|url=http://www.spyflight.co.uk/iafvraf.htm|title=IAF v RAF|work=spyflight.co.uk|access-date=22 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414141639/http://www.spyflight.co.uk/iafvraf.htm|archive-date=14 April 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Tzahor|first=Zeev|title=The 1949 Air Clash between the Israeli Air Force and the RAF|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=28|issue=1|pages=75–101 [p. 90] |doi=10.1177/002200949302800105 |date=January 1993|s2cid=159711655}}</ref>
Weizman joined the Israel Defense Forces and served as the Chief of Operations on the General Staff.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Knesset Lexicon - Ezer Weizmann |url=https://m.knesset.gov.il/about/lexicon/pages/weitzman_ez.aspx |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=m.knesset.gov.il}}</ref> In 1951 he attended the RAF Staff College, Andover in England. Upon his return he became commander of Ramat David.<ref name="Cohen" />
Weizman served as the commander of the Israeli Air Force between 1958 and 1966, and later served as deputy Chief of the General Staff. In 1966, he oversaw the defection of an Iraqi fighter pilot and his MiG fighter which gave Israel vital intelligence information.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/apr/26/guardianobituaries.israel|title=Ezer Weizman|last=Joffe|first=Lawrence|date=26 April 2005|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
In 1967, he directed the early morning surprise air attacks against the Egyptian air bases, which resulted in giving the Israelis total air superiority over the Sinai battlefields by totally destroying the Egyptian Air Force in 3 hours. A total of 400 enemy planes were destroyed by the Israeli Air Force on the first day of the Six-Day War.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
Although he became the IDF's Deputy Chief of Staff in 1966, he retired from military service in 1969.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
==Political career== Upon retiring from the military, Weizman joined the right-wing Gahal party. He served as Minister of Transportation in Levi Eshkol's national unity government until Gahal left the coalition in 1970. Weizman quit Gahal in 1972, but returned in 1976, by which time it had become Likud.
In 1977, he became Defense Minister under Menachem Begin. During his term, Israel developed the IAI Lavi fighter and launched the Litani Operation against the PLO in south Lebanon.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Kissinger's Year: 1973 |last=Horne |first=Alistair |publisher=Phoenix |year=2009 |pages=122 |isbn=978-0-7538-2700-0 }}</ref>
After Donald Neff wrote an article for ''Time'' magazine reporting an incident at Beit Jala, where a school was surrounded, the doors shut and canisters of gas fired into it, Weizman had a commission investigate Palestinian claims that it was part of an Israeli army campaign against youths in the West Bank which resulted in numerous Palestinians having their arms and legs broken and their heads shaved. When the commission confirmed that the Beit Jala story was true he fired the military governor of the West Bank, Brigadier General David Hagoel, for abusing Palestinians.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Donald |last=Neff |title=Epiphany at Beit Jala |journal=The Link |year=1995 |volume=28 |issue=5 November–December |url=https://www.ameu.org/1995/11/24/epiphany-at-beit-jala/ }}</ref>
Over time, Weizman's views became more dovish. After the visit to Jerusalem of Egypt's president Anwar Sadat in 1977, Weizman (who spoke Arabic<ref name=":0"/>) developed a close friendship with him and the Egyptian negotiators Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Hosni Mubarak.<ref name=":0" /> Sadat was quoted as saying: "Weizman is the only Israeli personality I can deal with ... He is my younger brother."<ref name=":0" /> These relations were a crucial factor in the talks that culminated in the 1978 Camp David Accords, followed by a peace treaty with Egypt the following year.<ref>[https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/ezer-weizman-1924-2005-former-israeli-2639417.php "Ezer Weizman: 1924–2005"] ''San Francisco Chronicle'', 25 April 2005</ref>
In May 1980, Weizman quit the government. He considered establishing a new party with Moshe Dayan, which led to his ousting from Likud. For the next four years, he put politics on hold and entered the business world.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
In 1984, he established a new party, Yahad, which won three seats in the 1984 elections. The party joined a national unity government in which Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir served as prime ministers in rotation. In October 1986, Yahad merged with the Alignment, after Yossi Sarid and the Mapam party left the coalition. Between 1984 and 1990, Weizman was Minister for Arab Affairs and then Minister of Science and Technology. In 1992, the Alignment became the Israeli Labor Party.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
==Presidency== [[File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - PRESIDENT EZER WEIZMAN LIGHTING THE FIRST CHANNUKA CANDLE.jpg|left|thumb|Weizman lighting the first candle of a Channukia in Hannukah. In the background is an Israeli volcanic ash artwork by Moshe Castel.]] On 24 March 1993, the Knesset elected Weizman, by a majority of 66 to 53 (against Dov Shilansky, the Likud candidate), to serve as the next president of Israel. He assumed office as president on 13 May 1993.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
In 1996, in an attempt to promote the peace process, Weizman invited Yasser Arafat for a private visit to his home in Caesarea. In 1999, he met with the DFLP leader Nayef Hawatmeh, declaring "I am even prepared to meet with the devil if it helps [to bring peace]."<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/israel/Story/0,2763,1470135,00.html Obituary: Ezer Weizman] The Guardian</ref> He openly supported withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria, drawing criticism from the right wing parties.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
At the end of 1999, newspapers published allegations that Weizman had accepted large sums of money from businessmen before becoming president, without reporting this to the proper authorities. Since the statute of limitations had expired Weizman was not prosecuted,<ref>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ezer_weizman.html Ezer Weizman] Jewish Virtual Library</ref> but the controversy compelled him to resign. Weizman's resignation took effect on 13 July 2000.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
==Death== {{unreferenced section|date=November 2024}} Weizman died of respiratory failure at his home in Caesarea on 24 April 2005, at the age of 80. He is not buried on Mt. Herzl, where Israeli presidents and prime ministers are usually interred, but alongside his son and daughter-in-law in Or Akiva.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}
==Gallery== <gallery> File:אלוף-משנה עזר ויצמן (פורטרט).jpg|Ezer Weizman 1958. File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Pres. Ezer Weizman and Jordan's King Hussein.jpg|Ezer Weizman greeting King Hussein of Jordan. Image:Barak-Begin-Sadat-Weizmann1978.jpg|A meeting at Camp David with (l-r) Aharon Barak, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, and Ezer Weizmann, 1978. </gallery>
==Awards and recognition == * 1996: Order of the White Lion, civil division, 1st Class with collar<ref>[https://www.hrad.cz/cs/ceska-republika/statni-vyznamenani/rad-bileho-lva/seznam-vyznamenanych Seznam vyznamenaných] (Awardee list), Order of the White Lion</ref> * 1999: Collar Class of the Order of the Star of Romania.<ref>[https://legislatie.just.ro/public/DetaliiDocument/20507 DECRET nr. 452 din 28 decembrie 1999]</ref>
==Published works== * {{cite book|last=Weizman|first=Ezer|title=On Eagles' Wings: The Personal Story of the Leading Commander of the Israeli Air Force|place=New York|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.|date=1976|isbn=0-02-625790-4}} * ''Ruth, Sof'' (2002) (Hebrew, idiomatically: "Over and Out")
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book|title=Generals of Israel|editor=Moshe Ben Shaul|publisher=Hadar Publishing|place=Tel-Aviv|date=1968|oclc=2648484}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Ezer Weizman}} {{wikiquote}} * {{MKlink|id=690}} * [https://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/weitzman_ez_eng.htm Ezer Weizman's biography] Knesset website {{in lang|en}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060110064408/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1585344,00.html Ezer Weizman – Obituary] ''The Times'' * [http://101squadron.com/101real/people/weizman.html 101 Squadron, Israel's first fighter squadron] in which Weizman was a pilot and eventual commander * [http://www.mod.gov.il/pages/heritage/wiezman_pics.asp Pictures of his life] * {{YouTube|AcKppPKs4K4|Interview}} by Leon Charney on ''The Leon Charney Report''
{{S-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Dan Tolkowsky}} {{s-ttl|title=Commander of Israeli Air Force|years=1958–1966}} {{s-aft|after=Mordechai Hod}} {{S-off}} {{S-bef|before=Moshe Carmel}} {{S-ttl|title=Minister of Transportation|years=1969–1970}} {{S-aft|after=Shimon Peres}} {{S-bef|before=Shimon Peres}} {{S-ttl|title=Minister of Defense|years=1977–1980}} {{S-aft|after=Menachem Begin}} {{S-bef|before=Gideon Patt}} {{S-ttl|title=Minister of Science and Technology|years=1988–1990}} {{S-aft|after=Yuval Ne'eman}} {{S-bef|before=Chaim Herzog}} {{S-ttl|title=President of Israel|years=1993–2000}} {{S-aft|after=Moshe Katsav}} {{s-end}}
{{IAF Commanders}} {{Israelpres}} {{IsraelDefenseMin}} {{Israeli Science, Culture and Sport Ministers}} {{Israeli Ministers of Transportation}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weizman, Ezer}} Category:1924 births Category:2005 deaths Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:20th-century Israeli military personnel Category:Collars of the Order of the White Lion Category:First Class of the Order of the Star of Romania Category:Israeli Air Force generals Category:Israeli Labor Party politicians Category:Israeli military aviators Category:Israeli military personnel of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Category:Israeli people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Category:Jewish Israeli politicians Category:Jews from Mandatory Palestine Category:Leaders of political parties in Israel Category:Mandatory Palestine military personnel of World War II Category:Members of the 9th Knesset (1977–1981) Category:Members of the 11th Knesset (1984–1988) Category:Members of the 12th Knesset (1988–1992) Category:Ministers of defense of Israel Category:Ministers of science of Israel Category:Ministers of transport of Israel Category:People from Caesarea, Israel Category:Politicians from Tel Aviv Category:Presidents of Israel Category:Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Category:1948 Arab–Israeli War pilots Ezer Category:Irgun members Category:Ministers without Portfolio of Israel Category:Haganah members