- Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert ; born September 30, 1945) is the 12th and current Prime Minister of Israel. Olmert became Prime Minister on April 14, 2006 but had been exercising the powers of the office since they were transferred to him on January 4, 2006 after Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke. Olmert's title for that period was Acting Prime Minister. Olmert has previously been the Vice Prime Minister of Israel, Finance minister, Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, …
- Raphael Israeli
Raphael Israeli is a Moroccan born author and professor. At the age of 14, he emigrated to Israel. He has received extensive education on Middle Eastern and Chinese affairs, and has written many books and academic papers on these topics.
- Ariel Sharon
"' (also known by his diminutive Arik אָרִיק"' is a former Israeli Prime Minister and military leader whose political career was ended by a massive stroke that he suffered in early 2006. Sharon served as Prime Minister from March 2001 until April 2006, though the powers of his office were exercised by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert following Sharon's stroke on 4 January2006. At that time, Sharon fell into a coma; as of July 2007, …
- Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician, former Prime Minster, and current Minister of Defense, deputy prime minister and leader of Israel's Labor Party. Barak served as the 10th Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001. After losing the 2001 election, Barak embarked on a business career. On June 12, 2007, he completed a political comeback by winning election to the Labor Party leadership. He was appointed as Israeli Minister of Defence, …
- Shimon Peres
"' (born Szymon Perski"' on August 2, 1923 in eastern Poland) is the 9th President of the State of Israel. He is a senior Israeli statesman with a political career spanning more than 65 years. He joined the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until June 13, 2007, the day he was elected President of Israel.
- The Shadow
Yoav Eliasi, commonly known by his rap name The Shadow, is an Israeli rap artist. He is part of the stable of artists on the label, TACT Records, who are the best-selling Israeli musical group of all time, with over 10 #1 hit singles in Israel and over 1 million records sold worldwide to date, and TACT Records is Israel's largest music label.
- Gilad Shalit
Cpl. Gilad Shalit (b. 28 August 1986) is an Israeli soldier who was abducted by Hamas militants on 25 June 2006. The first Israeli soldier captured by Palestinians since Nachshon Wachsman in 1994, he is one of three Israeli soldiers to have been captured during the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon during summer 2006 (the other two being Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev).
- Benjamin Netanyahu
"', transliterated Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu"', born October 21, 1949, Tel Aviv) was the 9th Prime Minister of Israel and is Chairman of the Likud Party. As leader of the conservative Likud party, he was Prime Minister from June 1996 to July 1999. He is the first (and to date only) Prime Minister of Israel to be born after the State of Israel's foundation. He was Finance Minister of Israel until August 9, 2005, …
- Tzipi Livni
Tzipora Malka "Tzipi" Livni (born July 8 1958 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is Foreign Affairs Minister, Acting Prime Minister of Israel, and a leading member of the Kadima party. Following the March 2006 Knesset election and the subsequent negotations for formation of Israel's 31st Government, some observers believed that Livni had emerged as "the second most powerful politician in Israel," after Ehud Olmert.
- Yitzhak Rabin
"'"', <font color="white">a</font>(March 1, 1922 – November 4, 1995) was an Israeli politician and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel with two periods in office, from 1974 until 1977 and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. In 1994 during his second term Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, for their efforts towards peace which culminated in the Oslo Accords.
- Caroline Glick
Caroline Glick is an Israeli-American Journalist and is the deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post. She is also the Senior Fellow for Middle East Affairs of the Washington, DC-based Center for Security Policy
- Amir Peretz
Amir Peretz (born 9 March, 1952) is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset. He is a former Defense Minister of Israel and former leader of the Israeli Labour Party, having left those positions in June of 2007. Peretz is the former chairman of the Histadrut trade union federation and defeated Shimon Peres in the primary elections for the Labour leadership in November 9, 2005. He led the Labour Party to a second place showing in the 2006 Israeli elections.
- Ehud Goldwasser
Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser is an Israeli soldier who was captured in Israel by Hezbollah along with Eldad Regev on 12 July 2006, sparking the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. His rank is Master Sergeant. On 11 October 2006, Shlomo Goldwasser, father of the captured soldier, said that although the kidnapped soldiers issue "went down from the public's agenda, those who are tasked with releasing the soldiers are working day and night to find a solution." Hassan Nasrallah, …
- Uri Avnery
Uri Avnery (also transliterated Uri Avneri, born September 10, 1923 in Beckum, Germany as Helmut Ostermann), is a German-born Israeli journalist, left-wing peace activist, and former Knesset member, who was originally a member of the right-wing Revisionist Zionist movement.
- Shaul Mofaz
"'"' (born 1948 in Tehran, Iran) is the current Israeli Minister of Transportation and a Deputy Prime Minister, and a former 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 origin to achieve that post. Mofaz was born in Tehran, although his parents came from Isfahan. Mofaz has had the unique distinction of serving under four different Israeli Prime Ministers, …
- David Ben-Gurion
"'"' (October 16, 1886 – December 1, 1973;) was the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, culminated in his instrumental role in the founding of the state of Israel. After leading Israel to victory in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Ben-Gurion helped build the state institutions and oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world. Upon retiring from political life in 1970, he moved to Sde Boker, …
- Menachem Begin
"'"' (August 16, 1913 – March 9, 1992) was a Polish-Jewish head of the Zionist underground group the Irgun, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first Likud Prime Minister of Israel. Though revered by many Israelis, Begin’s legacy remains highly controversial and divisive. As the leader of Irgun, Begin played a central role in Jewish military resistance to the British Mandate of Palestine, but was strongly deplored and consequently sidelined by mainstream Zionist leadership.
- Mark Regev
Mark Regev is the Spokesman of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to occupying his current post, he has served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Consulate General in Hong Kong, Spokesman at the Embassy in Beijing and at the Jordan Division at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Jerusalem, and as a professor of International Relations and Strategy at the Israel Defense Forces' Staff College. Born in Australia, and a graduate of Mount Scopus Memorial College, …
- David Horovitz
David Horovitz (b. August 12, 1962, London) Editor-in-chief of "The Jerusalem Post" since 2004. In October 2004, Horovitz rejoined the paper having worked for the Post from 1983-1990. After leaving the newspaper, he worked at "The Jerusalem Report", where he was the editor from 1998 and publisher from 2001. Horovitz has also written from Israel for newspapers around the world, including "The New York Times", "Los Angeles Times", …
- Golda Meir
Golda Meir (born Golda Mabovitz on 3 May 1898, died December 8, 1978, also known as Golda Myerson from 1917-1956), was one of the founders of the State of Israel. Meir served as the Minister of Labour, Foreign Minister, and then as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969, to June 3, 1974. As the BBC put it, Golda Meir was the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher.
- Ron Arad
Ron Arad (born May 5, 1958) is an Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer (WSO) who is officially classified as missing in action but widely presumed dead.
- Martin Kramer
Martin Kramer (b. 1954, Washington, DC) is an American scholar of the Middle East at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Shalem Center, and the Olin Institute, Harvard University. His focus is on Islam and Arab politics.
- Ron Arad
Ron Arad (b. 1951) is an industrial designer, artist and architect. He attended the Jerusalem Academy of Art between 1971-73 and the Architectural Association in London from 1974-79. He has produced furniture and lighting design for many (mainly Italian) companies including Alessi, Vitra, Flos, Artemide and Kartell. His most notable industrial design works include the Tom Vac stackable chair for Vitra, and the Book Worm for Kartell.
- Natan Sharansky
Natan Sharansky </ref> He resigned from the Knesset on November 20, 2006. As of June 18, 2007, Sharansky is the president of Beit Hatefutsot, the Jewish diaspora museum.
- Gideon Levy
Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist for Ha'aretz, a member of its editorial board and former spokesman for Shimon Peres A recurring theme of his articles is what he calls the "moral blindness" of the Israeli society to the effects of its acts of war and occupation, an attitude which he attributes to the systematic dehumanization of Israel's neighbours.
- Amira Hass
Amira Hass ; born 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper "Ha'aretz". She is especially famous for living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and reporting on events from the Palestinian perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The daughter of two Holocaust survivors (Bergen-Belsen), Hass was born in Jerusalem.
- Dan Halutz
"'"' (born August 71948 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli Air Force Lt. General and former Israeli Air Force commander. Halutz was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces on June 1, 2005. On January 17 2007 he announced his resignation. He has a degree in economics.
- Dan Gillerman
Dan Gillerman, born in British Mandate Palestine in 1944, is Israel's 13th Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was appointed in July 2002 and assumed his post on January 1, 2003. Educated at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Gillerman served as the CEO of several Israeli companies, Chairman of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, …
- Benny Morris
Benny Morris (born in 1948) is an Israeli historian and unofficial leader of the New Historians, a group of scholars who dispute the mainstream historical view of the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Known for his work on the history of Palestinian refugees and his refusal to perform reserve duty in the West Bank, Morris was widely seen as an Israeli sympathizer of the Palestinian cause, and his work was very often cited and praised by pro-Arab writers.
- Amotz Asa-El
Amotz Asa-El was the Jerusalem Post's executive editor in 2002 - 2005, and before that served as its business editor, news editor, and editor of its overseas edition, The International Jerusalem Post. Author of "The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel" and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Asa-El is now the Jerusalem Post's senior columnist and a lecturer at the Shalem Center.
- Barry Rubin
Barry Rubin is a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center ; and "U.S. Middle East Policy and the Intifada", in Gad Gilbar and Asher Susser, "At the Core of the Conflict" (in Hebrew). He is the editor of two book series: "The Middle East in Focus" (Palgrave-Macmillan); and "Military and Strategic Issues in the Middle East" (Taylor & Francis). His recently-completed books are "The Truth About Syria" (Palgrave-MacMillan, …
- Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. The fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958), he became a fighting symbol to the world of the new State of Israel.
- Amos Oz
Amos Oz (born May 4, 1939), birth name Amos Klausner) is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva. Since 1967, he has been a prominent advocate of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Dore Gold
Ambassador Dore Gold is a former Israeli diplomat. He also served as President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs as well as an advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
- Silvan Shalom
"'"' (born 4 October 1958) is an Israeli politician and former Foreign Minister (2003-2006) and Finance Minister (2001-2003). He remains a Likud Party member of the Knesset, in which he has served since 1992. Born in Gabès, Tunisia to the Beit Shalom dynasty, Shalom emigrated to Israel in 1959. Like most Israelis, Shalom was inducted into the Israel Defense Forces at the age of 18 and achieved the rank of Sergeant. Shalom attended Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva, …
- Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor Lieberman, also Liberman is an Israeli politician and leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party. He has served as the Minister of Strategic Affairs and as a Deputy Prime Minister of Israel since November 2006. In October 2006, Lieberman and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed a coalition agreement. Under the agreement, Lieberman became the Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, …
- Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon (born June 9, 1963) is a jazz musician, author and anti-Zionist activist, who was born in Israel and currently lives in London. He was born a secular Israeli Jew in Tel Aviv, and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. He studied philosophy in Germany and moved to London at age 32.
- Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon (born 10 April 1950) is an Israeli politician and Member of the Knesset for Kadima. He was appointed Minister of Justice on 4 May 2006 and announced his resignation from the post on August 18 of the same year, following allegations of sexual misconduct. Despite being found guilty of the harassment, he was reappointed to the cabinet in July 2007 as Vice Premier and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy.
- Jonathan Pollard
Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7 1954 in South Bend, Indiana) is a convicted Israeli spy and a former United States Naval civilian intelligence analyst. Pollard waived the right to trial in return for restrictions on sentencing, pleaded guilty and was convicted on one count of spying for Israel, receiving a life sentence in 1986 with a recommendation against parole. Israel publicly denied that Pollard was an Israeli spy until 1998, …
- Yossi Beilin
Dr. Yossef ("Yossi") Beilin is a leftist Israeli politician, Knesset member, and a former deputy foreign minister and justice minister within the Israeli Labour Party. He is currently chairman of Meretz-Yachad. He is best known for his involvement with the Oslo accords, the Geneva Initiative and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in general.