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Ehud Barak אֵהוּד בָּרָק
10th Prime Minister of Israel
In office May, 1999 – March, 2001
Preceded by	Benjamin Netanyahu
Succeeded by	Ariel Sharon
Born	February 12, 1942 Mishmar HaSharon Kibbutz, British Mandate of Palestine
Political party	Labor

Ehud Barak (Hebrew: אֵהוּד בָּרָק) (born Ehud Brog on February 12, 1942, in Mishmar HaSharon kibbutz,^[1] then British Mandate of Palestine) is an Israeli politician and was the 10th Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001.

Contents 1 Military service 2 Education 3 Political career 4 Term as Prime Minister 5 Post-Prime ministerial career 5.1 Politics 6 References in popular culture 7 References 8 Notes 9 Quotations 10 See also

Ehud Brog joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1959. It was then that he decided to change his name to "Barak", which means "thunder" in Hebrew.^[1] He served in the IDF for 35 years, rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of Rav Aluf, the highest in the Israeli military. During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal, Barak took part in the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four other citations for courage and operational excellence; these five decorations make him, with Major Nechemya Cohen, the most decorated soldier in Israeli history.

Barak is also an expert in krav maga, the official martial art of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Barak earned his bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1976, and his master's degree in engineering-economic systems in 1978 from Stanford University in Stanford, California.

In politics, he served as Minister of the Interior (1995) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1995-1996). He was elected to the Knesset in 1996, where he served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. In 1996 Barak became the leader of the Labor Party.

Ehud Barak was elected Prime Minister of Israel on May 17, 1999 and completed his term on March 7, 2001 after his loss to Ariel Sharon in a February special election for prime minister.

Barak's term as prime minister had several notable events, most of them controversial:

• Forming a coalition with the haredi party Shas, after Barak promised an end to "corruption" sponsored by religious parties.
• The left wing Meretz party quits the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy-minister in the Ministry of Education.
• The withdrawal from Southern Lebanon.
• The kidnapping of the bodies of three killed Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.
• Peace negotiations with Syria.
• The passing of the Tal Law which gives a legal statute for haredi Jews' exemption from military service.
• The Camp David 2000 Summit which meant to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, and US president Bill Clinton put the blame on Yasser Arafat. Barak claimed he exposed "Arafat's true intentions".
• The eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
• The killing of 13 Israeli-Arabs by police and one Jewish Israeli civilian in October 2000 Riots.
• The Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.

After losing the 2001 elections to Ariel Sharon's Likud party by a landslide, Barak left Israel to work as a senior advisor with U.S.-based Electronic Data Systems. He also partnered with a private equity company focused on "security-related" work.

In 2005, Barak announced his return to Israeli politics, and ran for leadership of the Labor party in November. However, in light of his weak poll showings, Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman Shimon Peres.

After Peres lost the race to Amir Peretz and left the Labor party, Barak announced he would stay in the party, despite his shaky relationship with its newly elected leader. However, he declared he would not run for a spot on the Labor party's Knesset list for the March 2006 elections.

Following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labor party, Barak became a partner of the investment company SCP Private Equity Partners, Pennsylvania.

In January 2007, Barak launched an bid to recaputure the leadership of the Labor party in a letter acknowledging "mistakes" and "inexperience" during his tenure as Prime Minister.^[2]

In early March of 2007, a poll of Labor Party primary voters showed Barak ahead of all other opponents, including current leader Amir Peretz. ^[3]

The film Munich includes a scene where Ehud Barak is a commando dressed as a woman, about to covertly attack a Palestinian armed cell in Beirut. This scene is actually derived from a real life experience he had when he served as a member of Sayeret Matkal in the Israeli defence forces.^{[citation needed]} Barak also appears as a military advisor to a fictitious Israeli Prime Minister in the Frederick Forsyth novel The Devil's Alternative.

• Bregman, Ahron Elusive Peace: How the Holy Land Defeated America.
• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
• Dromi, Uri (Nov. 5, 2005). "Still craving peace 10 years after Rabin". New Straits Times, p. 20.
• http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15501 Volume 49, Number 10 · June 13, 2002 Email to a friend Exchange Camp David and After: An Exchange (1. An Interview with Ehud Barak)
• Ehud Barak profile, Israel lexicon, Ynet News
• Lying is cultural trait of Arabs, says Barak

1. ^ ^{a b} BARAK, Ehoud, European Institute for Research on Mediterranean and Euro-Arab Cooperation. Retrieved January 7, 2006.
2. ^ New York Times. Former Israeli PM Barak in New Leadership Bid (January 7, 2007). nytimes.com.
3. ^ Ha'aretz. [["Poll: Barak, Ayalon lead Peretz in the Labor leadership primaries"]http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/833154.html] (March 3, 2007)

   Barak went on a public speaking tour of American colleges, expressing his view on the Middle East. On this tour in 2006, he said that “[Iraq] gradually deteriorates to civil war [and] the US presence is more and more a part of the problem and not the solution."[http://campusj.com/2006/10/31/ehud-barak-speaks-on-the-war-on-terror-at-indiana-university/ Ehud Barak’s Speech at IU] from [[CampusJ]]

• "Two Egyptian divisions were already deployed deep into the Sinai desert very close to the Israeli border. Israel had a very small regular standing army, and it had to deploy immediately along the border to avoid a surprise attack."
• "On the battlefield itself, no one will move if you are not moving. It's a swift decision."
• "I imagine that if I were a Palestinian of the right age, I would, at some stage, have joined one of the terror organizations."

• List of Israel's Chiefs of the General Staff

Political offices
Preceded by Yossi Sarid	Education Minister of Israel 2000-2001	Succeeded by Limor Livnat
Preceded by Shimon Peres	Foreign Minister of Israel 1996	Succeeded by David Levy
Preceded by Benjamin Netanyahu	Prime Minister of Israel 1999-2001	Succeeded by Ariel Sharon
Preceded by Moshe Arens	Defense Minister of Israel 1999-2001	Succeeded by Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
Preceded by Shimon Peres	Leader of the Labor Party 1999–2001	Succeeded by Benjamin Ben-Eliezer
Military Offices
Preceded by Dan Shomron	Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces 1991-1995	Succeeded by Amnon Lipkin-Shahak
Preceded by Yehoshua Saguy	Director of Aman 1983–1985	Succeeded by Amnon Lipkin-Shahak

v • d • e  Prime Ministers of Israel
David Ben-Gurion • Moshe Sharett • David Ben-Gurion • Levi Eshkol • Golda Meir • Yitzhak Rabin • Menachem Begin • Yitzhak Shamir • Shimon Peres • Yitzhak Shamir • Yitzhak Rabin • Shimon Peres • Benjamin Netanyahu • Ehud Barak • Ariel Sharon • Ehud Olmert