Yitzchak Mordecai

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Yitzchak Mordechai (1997)

Yitzchak Mordechai ( Hebrew יצחק מרדכי, Alternative spelling Yitzhak Mordechai ; * November 22, 1944 near Zaxo , Iraq ) is a former Israeli general and politician and as such a co-founder of the Israeli center party Mifleget ha-Merkas (also: Merkaz ; Hebrew מפלגת המרכז).

Early years

Mordechai's family emigrated from Iraq to the newly established State of Israel in 1949. At the age of 18 he joined the Israeli army. He served as a paratrooper in the Israeli Paratrooper Brigade from 1962 and attended the staff academy in Israel and later in Great Britain . He received his degrees in history and political science from the Universities of Tel Aviv and Haifa , respectively . He did not complete a law degree that he had started at the University of Herzlija and a degree in Judaism at the Bar-Ilan University .

Military career

During the Six Day War he commanded a paratrooper unit in Sinai and in the Yom Kippur War he commanded a paratrooper battalion on the Sinai front. Here he was awarded a medal for bravery. From 1983 to 1986 he was the highest officer in the infantry and paratroopers. In 1984 Mordechai was in command of a commando operation aimed at freeing a hijacked bus. Two Palestinian bus hijackers were murdered by Israeli agents after they were captured. Mordechai and the then domestic intelligence chief Avraham Shalom accused each other of being responsible for the murders. In 1986 he was promoted to major general ( Aluf ) and was as such head of the training department of the headquarters and in the same year commander of the southern command . After an interim position as the commanding officer of the central command from 1989 to 1991, he was finally appointed commander of the northern command in 1991 . This makes him the only general in the Israeli army to have held all three posts. Although he would have been predestined for the post of Israeli chief of staff , he was passed over during the occupation. After 33 years of service, Mordechai was retired from the army in 1995.

Political career

After retiring from the army, he was elected to the Knesset for the Likud in May 1996 . The following month he was appointed Minister of Defense. When it became clear that he wanted to found a new party, the Merkas, together with Amnon Lipkin-Schahak , Roni Milo and Dan Meridor , he was dismissed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in spring 1999 . Shortly before the elections, he broke off his candidacy for prime minister (as the first non- Ashkenazi ) in the 1999 elections because he had no chance. But he was able to win his Knesset seat again as a member of the Center Party. In July 1999 he was appointed Minister of Transport and Deputy Prime Minister under Netanyahu, but was forced to resign in the following May of 2000 on charges of sexual assault on women. In March 2001, he was sentenced to an 18-month suspended sentence for molesting two women.

Private

Mordechai is divorced from his wife, with whom he has three children.

Web links

Commons : Jitzchak Mordechai  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haaretz article (Engl.)
  2. ↑ Jewish Virtually Library (Eng.)
  3. ↑ Jewish Virtually Library (Eng.)
personal data
SURNAME Mordecai, Yitzchak
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mordecai, Yitzhak
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH at Zaxo Iraq