Yitzhak Shamir

Yitzhak Shamir (Hebrew יִצְחָק שָׁמִיר) (born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012)  was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–84 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment of the state of Israel, Shamir was a leader of the Zionist militant group Lehi. After the establishment of the Israeli state he served in the Mossad between 1955 and 1965 and as a Knesset Member. He served as the 6th Speaker of the Knesset and as Foreign Affairs Minister.

Quotes

 * The sea is the same sea, and the Arabs are the same Arabs.
 * Shamir used this phrase in 1996, following the Oslo accords ("It's Inconceivable" by Rafi Mann)


 * For the land of Israel - it is allowed to lie


 * Our image has undergone change from David fighting Goliath to being Goliath.
 * Daily Telegraph London, (25 January, 1989).

Quotes about

 * Every time they try to shake us off their backs, we in our blindness search for "instigators." There are no instigators, Mr. Prime Minister; there are just people who do not want a foreign occupation. Let me ask you: did you do what you did in the underground in the 1940s because of "instigators," Mr. Shamir?
 * Shulamith Hareven "Life Is Now, Mr. Shamir" in The Vocabulary of Peace: Life, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East (1995)


 * Begin, Shamir and Sharon were the evil three.
 * Harold Wilson, Speech at Indiana University (4 October 1982) after the Beirut massacre, quoted in The Times (5 October 1982), p. 4