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| Affiliation | Centre |
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| Name | Yitzhak Mordechai |
| Address |
, , Israel |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 22, 1944
(79 years)
|
| Contributor | 411 Name Removed |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Sep 17, 2022 07:29pm |
| Tags |
Asian - Jewish - Judaism - Straight -
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| Info | Military commander and politician. Born in the Kurdish part of Iraq in 1944, he grew up in Tiberias in a national religious family. He was drafted into the IDF in 1962 and served for 33 years. During the Yom Kippur War he was decorated for bravery in the battle of the Chinese Farm, when he commanded a Paratroop unit. Following the Lebanon War he was appointed OC Paratroop Brigade. Following the terrorist attack on bus No. 300 near Ashdod in April 1984, Mordechai, then a brigadier-general, was suspected of involvement in the beating to death two Palestinian terrorists who had been captured alive, but were subsequently brought dead to hospital. He was cleared by a military court.
Mordechai was promoted to major-general in 1986, after which he served as OC Southern, Center, and Northern commands. During the intifada, when Mordechai was OC Southern Command, he was considered to favor using violent methods to suppress the violence. As OC Northern Command, he commanded Operation Accountability to strike back against terrorists in Lebanon in July 1993. He resigned from the IDF in October 1994, after failing to be appointed deputy to Amnon Lipkin-Shahak when the latter was appointed chief of General Staff.
In the course of his military service, Mordechai earned a BA in political science and Jewish history. After his resignation from the IDF he started to study agriculture and take courses toward an MA in political science. He participated in courses at the Sde Boker College on the heritage of David Ben-Gurion.
Mordechai joined the Likud in March 1996. In the Likud primaries before the elections to the 14th Knesset he unexpectedly came first and was appointed defense minister in the government formed by Binyamin Netanyahu in June 1996. In this job Mordechai was one of the more popular members of Netanyahu's government, and gained the sympathy of many in the Left for his positive attitude toward the peace process with the Palestinians, and especially his contribution to the attainment of the Wye agreement. Mordechai objected to a unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, and pushed for the appointment of the Iranian-born Shaul Mofaz, rather than Matan Vilna'i, as Israel's 16th chief of General Staff.
Growing differences of opinion with Netanyahu over the implementation of the agreements with the Palestinians, and growing personal mistrust in him, led Mordechai to start talks with the leaders of the new Center Party -- Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Dan Meridor, and Ronni Milo -- about the possibility of leaving the Likud and joining them. On the evening of January 23, 1999, while Mordechai was meeting with the three at his home, and just several minutes after receiving a letter from Netanyahu informing him that he had decided to fire him, the prime minister announced his decision on live television, accusing Mordechai of unbridled ambition and disloyalty. Soon after it was announced that Mordechai would lead the Center Party and be its candidate for the premiership. Unlike the other leaders of the Center Party, Mordechai is traditionally religious and less committed to granting equality to the non-Orthodox Jewish religious streams in Israel. He is also the first Sephardi candidate for the premiership in Israel.
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