Scha'ul mopeds

Schaul Mofas (2003)

Scha'ul Mofas ^{? / i} orMofaz(Hebrew שאול מופז, [ ʃaˈʔul muˈfaz ]; * 1948 in Tehran , Iran ) is an Israeli officer and politician, former chairman of the Kadima party and in 2012 meanwhile vice-premier in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu . He was previously the 16th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces , Defense Minister from 2002 to 2006 and Minister of Transport from 2006 to 2009. At the beginning of 2015 he announced his retirement from politics.

Military career

Mofaz was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel in 1957 . Immediately after high school he joined the Israeli Armed Forces (Tzahal) in 1966 and served in the paratrooper brigade . He took part in the Six Day War , the Yom Kippur War , the Lebanon War and Operation Entebbe as a paratrooper and as a member of the Sajeret Matkal special unit .

Scha'ul Mofas was appointed commander of an infantry brigade in the Lebanon War . Later he attended the Command and Staff College of the US Marine Corps in Quantico ( Virginia ). Upon his return he was briefly appointed commander of the officers' academy before returning to the paratrooper brigade as commander in 1986.

He served in various senior positions in the military and was promoted to Tat-Aluf in 1988 . In 1993 Mofas became the commander of the armed forces in the West Bank . In 1994 he was promoted to Aluf and commanded troops in southern Israel. His rapid military career culminated in 1997 when he was appointed deputy chief of staff and chief of staff (Ramatkal) the following year.

In particular, the financial and structural reforms of the Israeli army during his tenure should be emphasized. The most important event of his tenure, however, was the outbreak of the Second Intifada . The tough tactical measures taken by Mofaz provoked opposition from the international community, but were viewed by the Israeli public as a justified response to terrorism. Discussions arose particularly about the offensive in Jenin , temporary marches into the Gaza Strip and the isolation of Yasser Arafat .

Mofas fought the wave of violence since 1999 and prepared Tzahal for the fierce guerrilla warfare in the Israeli-occupied territories . He reinforced the posts in the Gaza Strip and kept Israeli casualties low by improving street fighting tactics and the “intelligent” use of bulldozers . For some of these acts (such as the demolition of Palestinian homes ) he was heavily criticized by left-wing Israeli groups. On the occasion of Mofaz's trip to Great Britain, Scotland Yard investigated him in 2002 on suspicion of war crimes against Palestinians . At the time, the human rights organization Amnesty International submitted a detailed special report, which referred in particular to what was going on in Jenin, and called on the British government to arrest Mofaz as one of those responsible.

With reference to mopeds, in 2004 the Israeli army withdrew from the Palestinian owner of a piece of land in the border area of ​​the Israel-occupied West Bank, which was separated by the barrier wall, from cultivating her land and ordered the felling of the trees there. According to a report by Amnesty International, the army gave the 72-year-old widow the reason that the country was located near the home of the then defense minister in the town of Kochaw Ja'ir , which is located directly on the “ Green Line ”.

politics

Shaul Mofas (front right) with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (left) in 2002

In 2002, Sha'ul Mofas was appointed Minister of Defense in Ariel Sharon's cabinet after a government crisis .

After leaving Tzahal, he became a member of Likud . Although he is committed to an agreement with the Palestinians, he is considered a hardliner . He spoke out in favor of liquidating Arafat and declared that he was not prepared to compromise with terrorist groups such as Hamas , Islamic Jihad or the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades . Thanks to his military experience, Mofaz is convinced that he can stop Palestinian terrorism. According to a report by Army Radio, he resigned from the Likud party on December 11, 2005 to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new Kadima party. The move was a major setback for the Likud party, which had dominated Israeli politics for decades.

In September 2008, after the resignation of Ehud Olmert , Mofas was a candidate for the Kadima party chairmanship, but was narrowly defeated by the popular Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni . Immediately after the defeat by Livni he announced a break in his political activities.

On March 26, 2012, Mofas was elected party chairman in another primary election. He received 61.7% of the votes cast, defeating Tzipi Livni, who received 37.2%.

On January 27, 2015, he announced his resignation as party leader of Kadima and at the same time his retirement from politics.

Web links

Commons : Scha'ul Mofas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Scha'ul Mofas on the Knesset website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gil Hoffman: Mofaz to be acting PM next week . The Jerusalem Post , May 11, 2012; Retrieved May 12, 2012
2. ↑ Chris McGreal: Amnesty calls for arrest of Israelis for war crimes . In: The Guardian , November 4, 2002; accessed on August 20, 2015
3. ^ Peres Plays Down Amnesty Report Accusing Israel of War Crimes . In: Haaretz , November 4, 2002; accessed on August 20, 2015
4. ^ Israel and the Occupied Territories: Conflict, Occupation and Patriarchy. Women carry the burden . ( Memento of October 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Amnesty International , Special Report, March 2005, p. 12 (English)
5. ↑ Jörg Bremer: The silent resentment of the Scha'ul Mofaz . FAZ.net, September 19, 2008
6. ^ Raphael Ahren: Kadima primaries: Mofaz wins landslide victory over Livni Times of Israel, March 27, 2012; Retrieved May 12, 2012
7. ^ Mofaz Resigns from Politics . , Former Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz retires from politics . ( Memento of June 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (both accessed on March 13, 2015)

predecessor	Office	successor
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak	Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces 1998–2002	Moshe Jaalon