Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( , , " Ihood Barak " ; born Ehud Brog ; 12 February 1942 ) is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001 . He was leader of the Labour Party until January 2011 . He previously held the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu ' s second government from 2009 to 2013 . He is a graduate in physics , mathematics , and economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford University . He served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces . Following a highly decorated career , he was appointed Chief of General Staff in 1991 , serving until 1995 . On 26 November 2012 he announced that he would retire from politics after the next election in January 2013 . Personal life . He was born on 12 February 1942 in kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine . He is the eldest of four sons of Esther ( née Godin ; 25 June 1914 - 12 August 2013 ) and Yisrael Mendel Brog ( 24 August 1910 - 8 February 2002 ) . His paternal grandparents , Frieda and Reuven Brog , were murdered in Pušalotas ( Pushelat ) in the northern Lithuania ( then ruled by Russian Empire ) in 1912 , leaving his father orphaned at the age of two . Barak ' s maternal grandparents , Elka and Shmuel Godin , died at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust . Ehud hebraized his family name from " Brog " to " Barak " in 1972 . It was during his military service that he met his future wife , Nava ( née Cohen , born 8 April 1947 ) . They had three daughters together : Michal ( born 9 August 1970 ) , Yael ( born 23 October 1974 ) and Anat ( born 16 October 1981 ) . Barak divorced Nava in August 2003 . On 30 July 2007 , Barak married Nili Priel ( born 25 April 1944 ) in a small ceremony in his private residence . In his spare time , Barak enjoys reading works by writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . In 2005 , he was voted the 61st - greatest Israeli of all time , in a poll by the Israeli news website " Ynet " to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis . Education . Barak earned his bachelor ' s degree in physics and mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968 , and his master ' s degree in engineering - economic systems in 1978 from Stanford University , in California . Military service . Barak joined the Israel Defense Forces ( I . D . F . ) in 1959 . He served in the IDF for 35 years , rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of " Rav Aluf " ( Lieutenant - General ) , the highest in the Israeli military . During the Yom Kippur War , Barak commanded an improvised regiment of tanks which , among other things , helped rescue paratrooper battalion 890 , commanded by Yitzhak Mordechai , which was suffering heavy losses in the Battle of the Chinese Farm . During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal , Barak led several highly acclaimed operations , such as : " Operation Isotope " , the rescue mission to free the hostages on board the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 at Lod Airport in 1972 ; the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut , in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization ; Barak was also a key architect of the June 1976 Operation Entebbe , another rescue mission to free the hostages of the Air France aircraft hijacked by terrorists and forced to land at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda . These highly acclaimed operations , along with Operation Bayonet led to the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist cell Black September . It has been alluded that Barak also masterminded the Tunis Raid on 16 April 1988 , in which PLO leader Abu Jihad was assassinated . Later he served as head of Aman , the Military Intelligence Directorate ( 1983 – 85 ) , head of Central Command ( 1986 – 87 ) and Deputy Chief of the General Staff ( 1987 – 91 ) . He served as Chief of the General Staff between 1 April 1991 and 1 January 1995 . During this period he implemented the first Oslo Accords and participated in the negotiations towards the Israel - Jordan Treaty of Peace . Barak was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service and four Chief of Staff citations ( " Tzalash HaRamatkal " ) for courage and operational excellence . These five decorations make him the most decorated soldier in Israeli history ( jointly with close friend Nechemya Cohen ) . In 1992 he was awarded the Legion of Merit ( Commander ) by the United States . In 2012 , he was again awarded by the United States with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service . Political career . On 7 July 1995 , Barak was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs by Yitzhak Rabin . When Shimon Peres formed a new government following Rabin ' s assassination in November 1995 , Barak was made Minister of Foreign Affairs ( 1995 – 96 ) . He was elected to the Knesset on the Labour Party list in 1996 , and served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee . Following internal elections after Peres ' defeat in the election for Prime Minister in 1996 , Barak became the leader of the Labour Party . Prime Minister of Israel . In the 1999 Prime Ministerial election , Barak beat Binyamin Netanyahu by a wide margin . However , he sparked controversy by deciding to form a coalition with the ultra - Orthodox party Shas , who had won an unprecedented 17 seats in the 120 - seat Knesset . Shas grudgingly agreed to Barak ' s terms that they eject their leader Aryeh Deri , a convicted felon , and enact reform to " clean up " in - party corruption . Consequentially , the left wing Meretz party quit the coalition after they failed to agree on the powers to be given to a Shas deputy minister in the Ministry of Education . In 1999 Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel ' s 22 - year long occupation of Southern Lebanon within a year . On 24 May 2000 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon . On 7 October , three Israeli soldiers were killed in a border raid by Hezbollah and their bodies were subsequently captured . The bodies of these soldiers , along with the living Elhanan Tenenbaum , were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004 . The Barak government resumed peace negotiations with the PLO , stating that “ Every attempt [ by the State of Israel ] to keep hold of this area [ the West Bank and Gaza ] as one political entity leads , necessarily , to either a nondemocratic or a non - Jewish state . Because if the Palestinians vote , then it is a binational state , and if they don ’ t vote it is an apartheid state . ” As part of these negotiations , Barak took part in the Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant finally to resolve the Israeli - Palestinian conflict but failed . Barak also allowed Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben - Ami to attend the Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority , after his government had fallen . Domestic issues . In August 1999 , Barak appointed the Tal committee which dealt with the controversial issue of ultra - Orthodox Jews ' exemption from military service . Following the failure of the Camp - David summit with Arafat and Bill Clinton on summer 2000 , when the original 7 years mandate of the PNA expired , and just after Israel pulled out its last troops out of southern - Lebanon in May 2000 , the weeks - long Riots in October 2000 led to the killing of twelve Israeli - Arabs and one Palestinian by Israel Police and one Jewish civilian by Israeli Arabs . Resignation . In 2001 , Barak called a special election for Prime Minister . In the contest , he was defeated by Likud leader Ariel Sharon , and subsequently resigned as Labour leader and from the Knesset . He left Israel to work as a senior advisor with United States - based Electronic Data Systems . He also partnered with a private equity company focused on " security - related " work . Return to politics . In 2005 , Barak announced his return to Israeli politics , and ran for leadership of the Labour Party in November . However , in light of his weak poll showings , Barak dropped out of the race early and declared his support for veteran statesman Shimon Peres . Following his failed attempt to maintain leadership of the Labour party , Barak became a partner of the investment company SCP Private Equity Partners , Pennsylvania . He also established a company " Ehud Barak Limited " which is thought to have made over NIS 30 million . After Peres lost the race to Amir Peretz and left the Labour party , Barak announced he would stay at the party , despite his shaky relationship with its newly elected leader . He declared , however , that he would not run for a spot on the Labour party ' s Knesset list for the March 2006 elections . Barak ' s attempt to return to a prominent role in Israel politics seemed to have failed . However , Peretz ' s hold on the Labour leadership proved unexpectedly shaky as he was badly damaged by negative views of his performance as Defense Minister during the 2006 Lebanon War , which was seen as something less than a success in Israel . In January 2007 Barak launched a bid to recapture the leadership of the Labour party in a letter acknowledging " mistakes " and " inexperience " during his tenure as Prime Minister . In early March 2007 , a poll of Labour Party primary voters put Barak ahead of all other opponents , including Peretz . In the first round of voting , on 28 May 2007 , he gained 39 % of the votes , more than his two closest rivals , but not enough to win the election . As a result , Barak faced a runoff against the second - place finisher , Ami Ayalon , on 12 June 2007 , which he won by a narrow margin . Barak has been critical of what he sees as racist sentiments that have recently been expressed by some Israeli rabbis and rebbetzin s ; he views such statements as a threat to Israeli unity and that they may lead Israeli society into a " dark and dangerous place " . As head of the Labour Party . After winning back the leadership of the Labour party , Barak was sworn in as Minister of Defense on 18 June 2007 , as part of Prime Minister Olmert ' s cabinet reshuffle . However on 1 July 2007 , Barak led a successful effort in the Labour central committee to stipulate that Labour would leave the government coalition if Olmert did not resign by September or October 2007 . At that time the Winograd Commission would publish its final report on the performance of the Israel Defense Forces and its civilian leadership . The preliminary Winograd report released earlier this year laid most of the blame on Olmert for poorly planning , executing , and reviewing war strategies in the 2006 conflict against Hezbollah . During December 2008 through January 2009 , Barak led ( as defense minister ) Operation Cast Lead . Labour won only 13 out of the 120 Knesset seats in the 2009 elections , making them the fourth largest party . Barak and other Labour officials initially stated they would not take part in the next government . However , over the objections of some in the Labour party , Barak later reached an agreement under which Labour joined the governing coalition . Barak retained his position as Defense Minister . Leaving the Labour Party . In January 2011 , Labour Party leader Barak formed a breakaway party , Independence , which enabled him to maintain his loyal Labour ' s MK faction within Netanyahu ' s government , and prevented the departure of Labour party as a whole from Netanyahu ' s coalition - government . Labour previously threatened to force Barak to do so . After Barak ' s move , Netanyahu was able to maintain a majority of 66 MK ( out of 120 in the Knesset ) , previously having 74 MKs within his majority coalition . In February 2011 , Barak attended a ceremony at the UN for the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust . Barak told the UN General Assembly : “ an independent , strong , thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead . On this day , when we remember the six million victims , let us also remember two lessons : first , ‘ the Holocaust – never again . ’ And second – an independent , strong , thriving and peaceful State of Israel is the vengeance of the dead . ” Barak stated during an American television interview that he would " probably " strive for nuclear weapons if he were in Iran ’ s position , adding " I don ’ t delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel " . This comment has been criticized and compared to Barak ' s comment in 1998 during a television interview when he said that if he were a Palestinian he would probably have joined one of the terror organizations .