Shaul Mofaz

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Shaul Mofaz during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on November 10, 2003.

[Shaul Mofaz] ([Media helphelp]·[info]) (Hebrew: שאול מופז, born 1948 in Tehran, Iran) is the current Israeli Minister of Transport and a Deputy Prime Minister, and until recently was Minister of Defense. Previously he was the 16th Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, and was the first Israeli of Iranian-Jewish origin to achieve that post.

Mofaz has had the unique distinction of serving under four different Israeli Prime Ministers, having been appointed as Chief of Staff by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (1996-1999) in 1998, then served under Prime Minister Ehud Barak (1999-2001), and was then appointed as Minister of Defense in 2002 by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (2001-2006), and presently serves under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Born in Teheran, Mofaz immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1957. Upon graduating from high school he joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1966 and served in the Paratroop Brigade. He participated in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, and Operation Entebbe with the paratroopers and Sayeret Matkal, an elite special forces unit.

Mofaz was then appointed an infantry brigade commander for the 1982 Lebanon War. Afterwards he attended the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia. On his return he was briefly appointed commander of the Officers School, before returning to active service as commander of the Paratroop Brigade in 1986.

Shaul Mofaz served in a series of senior military posts, having been promoted to the rank of Brigadier General (1988). In 1993 he was made commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank. In 1994, he was promoted to Major General, commanding the Southern Corps. His rapid rise continued, in 1997 Mofaz was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and in 1998 he was appointed Chief of the General Staff.

The Chief of Staff Gen. Shaul Mofaz (right foreground) meets with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (left), and other senior DoD officials in the Pentagon

His term of Chief of Staff was noted for financial and structural reforms of the Israeli Army. But the most significant event in his tenure was the eruption of the Second Intifada. The tough tactics undertaken by Mofaz drew widespread concern from the international community but were broadly supported by the Israeli public. Controversy erupted over the offensive in Jenin, intermittent raids in the Gaza Strip, and the continued isolation of Yasser Arafat.

Mofaz foresaw the wave of violence coming early as 1999 and prepared the IDF for intense guerrilla warfare in the territories. He fortified posts at the Gaza Strip and due to advance MOUT tactics and intelligent use of bulldozers he managed to keep Israel Defense Forces casualties low. However, he drew criticism from leftist groups because of the methods he had undertaken (such as house demolitions).

Following a government crisis in 2002, Shaul Mofaz was appointed defense minister by Ariel Sharon.

After retiring from the IDF, Mofaz joined the Likud party. Mofaz is a hardliner; although he supports an agreement with the Palestinians, he was determined to "liquidate" Arafat and was willing to make no compromise in the war against terrorist groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Mofaz believes the IDF can stop Palestinian terrorism.

On 21 November 2005, Mofaz rejected former Likud leader Ariel Sharon's invitation to join his new party, Kadima, and instead announced his candidacy for the leadership of Likud. But, on 11 December 2005 he withdrew from both the leadership race and the Likud to join Kadima.

Evaluating his present standing

Most of the Israeli public has retained a favourable attitude toward Mofaz and his function as Defense Minister. However, his hesitant conduct during the split between Likud and Kadima was a strategic blunder politically that threw him backward in the chain of potential successors of Ariel Sharon that allowed current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to outlflank him after years when he was considered the key ally of Sharon in the cabinet, even more so than Olmert.

Following the elections in late March 2006, negotiations ensued for the formation of a new government with Kadima and the rival Labour Party as the main coalition partners. During those negotiations, Mofaz's status was downgraded because of Kadima's priority of keeping the Finance Ministry and Treasury in their hands and not in the hands of Labour. Media reports in Israel indicated that the Ministry of Defense would be delivered to Labour leader Amir Peretz, who would be the first civilian to hold that position since Prime Minister Levi Eshkol did in the 1960's. Mofaz would therefore be left with the options of less prestigious portfolios, such as the Interior, Interior Security, or Trade and Industry to choose from. The embarrassing demotion, in addition to similar dissatisfaction being implied to the media by former Prime Minister Shimon Peres also of Kadima in response to the results of the Kadima-Labour negotiations is considered to be a prime motivator for a potential schism within Kadima itself that could lead to the disintegration of the party into small "principalities", rival camps that would transform Olmert into an impotent and irrelevant leader, and probably allow him to serve for only a short period of time.

With the announcement of the new government in late April 2006, followed by its installation on May 4, Mofaz was indeed replaced by Peretz as Defense Minister and received the Transport ministry.

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Shaul Mofaz

Evaluating his present standing

See also