How tall is ehud barak

Another underground guerrilla fighter, he succeeded Begin in and served until , with a two-year break in the middle. He is known for building West Bank settlements and refusing to bargain for land. Barely over 5 feet 1. His term was marked by conflict with the U. He also attended the first Arab-Israeli peace conference in Madrid in He is remembered as a solid if uninspiring champion of the status quo.

In addition to a brief stint as acting prime minister in , Peres led the government from in a rotation agreement with Shamir. Peres is credited with disentangling Israeli troops from Lebanon, rescuing its economy from triple-digit inflation in the s and guiding a skeptical nation into peace talks with the Palestinians in the s.

After years of setbacks, Peres finally secured public acclaim when he was chosen by parliament to a seven-year term as ceremonial president in , taking the role of elder statesman. For years, Sharon was a polarizing general and politician, notorious for leading the country into a war in Lebanon as defense minister in A longtime ally of the West Bank settler movement, the hard-line Sharon was head of the opposition when the second Palestinian uprising began and led his party to victory.

He was prime minister from until suffering a debilitating stroke in But during that time, he underwent a transformation. While quashing the Palestinian uprising, he forged close ties with President George W. Bush and endorsed a U. His boldest initiative was the unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in Only last month it was officially confirmed that Israel had assassinated the PLO's military chief, Abu Jihad, in Tunisia in during the first Palestinian intifada.

Barak, then deputy chief of staff, is reported to have run the operation. That was part of an Israeli strategy that assumed, then as now, that there is a military solution to the Palestinian question. Barak became IDF chief of staff in but like many other generals, including his mentor Yitzhak Rabin, left the army to enter politics.

He beat Shimon Peres to lead the Labour party and then defeated Netanyahu in the elections. As prime minister, he sought to reach a conclusive peace agreement with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, an attempt that culminated in the failed Camp David summit in Bill Clinton's last days in the White House. That led to the second intifada, which in turn brought his resignation in Barak's public image was badly damaged by the purchase of an expensive apartment in one of Tel Aviv's flashiest and most sought-after locations.

Israel's yearning for experienced military leaders brought him back to political life after the Lebanon war and he became minister of defence. He seems to have a feel for what motivates his enemies and was widely quoted as saying: "If I were a Palestinian I would have joined a terrorist organisation.

This article is more than 8 years old. Defence minister quits after a chequered political career and over 50 years at the centre of country's armed forces. Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak has announced his retirement. Reuse this content.