Ehud Barak

Biography

Ehud Barak, born Ehud Brog on kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in 1942, joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1959 and served for 35 years. As a commando in Sayeret Matkal he led the 1972 rescue of the hostages on hijacked Sabena Flight 571 and the covert 1973 raid in Beirut, and he helped plan the 1976 Entebbe raid. He later commanded armoured units, headed military intelligence and Central Command, and was Chief of the General Staff from 1991 to 1995, becoming one of Israel's most decorated soldiers. Along the way he took a degree in physics and mathematics at the Hebrew University and a master's in engineering-economic systems at Stanford.

He entered politics in 1995 as interior minister under Yitzhak Rabin and then served as foreign minister under Shimon Peres. Elected to the Knesset for Labor in 1996, he became party leader in 1997 and defeated Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1999 prime ministerial election. As prime minister he withdrew Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000 and took part in the failed Camp David summit with Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton; his government was also shaken by the October 2000 riots. Ariel Sharon defeated him in the 2001 election.

After several years in business he regained the Labor leadership in 2007 and served as defence minister under Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu until 2013, directing Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09. In 2011 he left Labor to form the Independence party, and he retired from politics in 2012. A comeback in 2019 with the new Israel Democratic Party, running within the Democratic Union, did not return him to the Knesset. His past contacts with Jeffrey Epstein have drawn public scrutiny.