Amnon Lipkin-Shahak
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Amnon Lipkin-Shahak (Hebrew: אמנון ליפקין-שחק, born March 18th, 1944) was the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and later Israeli Minister of Tourism and Transport.
Military service
Lipkin-Shahak started his military service as a teenager in the military boarding-school in Haifa. He enlisted as a corporal in the paratrooper brigade in 1962, fulfilled various command positions and eventually became brigade commander. During his military service, he was decorated twice for bravery for his conduct in Operation Inferno, Karameh, Jordan 1968 as a captain, and in Operation Spring of Youth, Beirut, Lebanon 1973 as a Lt. Colonel. As deputy Chief of Staff, he was involved in the negotiations with the Palestinians under prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Lipkin-Shahak succeeded Ehud Barak as the 15th Chief of the General Staff in 1995. As Chief of staff, he continued to take part in negotiations with the Palestinians and Syrians, in which position he met his Syrian counterpart. Most of his tenure as Chief of Staff was under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai. His tenure was marked with much public friction between him and his superiors, reportedly due to political differences and personal disrespect (Lipkin-Shahak refused to nominate Mordechai, a Major General, as his deputy when he became Chief of Staff, causing Mordechai to retire from the army and join the political arena, eventually to become Lipkin-Shahak's superior.)
Lipkin-Shahak retired from the army after 36 years of service in 1998 and was succeeded as Chief of Staff by Shaul Mofaz.
Political service
In 1999 Lipkin-Shahak joined the new Center Party, headed by Yitzhak Mordechai. On this party ticket he was elected to the 15th Knesset (Israeli parliament), when Ehud Barak was elected as Prime Minister (on the Labor Party ticket). Lipkin-Shahak joined Barak's government as Minister of Tourism (1999) and later on also as Minister of Transport (2000, when Mordechai resigned). Soon afterwards he left his Center Party and joined The New Way party. When Barak failed to be re-elected in the 2001 special Prime-Ministerial elections (which he lost to Ariel Sharon), Lipkin-Shahak resigned from the Knesset.
He is married and has six children. He holds a B.A. in general history from Tel Aviv University.
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See also
- List of Israel's Chiefs of the General Staff
External links
- [Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Amnon Lipkin-Shahak] Official biography + military milestones
- [Knesset website: Amnon Lipkin-Shahak]
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