Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's Legacy
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought”
"Israel Hayom”, July 1, 2012
http://bit.ly/KUjdhh

In 1992, the Republican Whip, Senator Alan Simpson from Wyoming, who was
critical of Prime Minister Shamir's policies, told me: "How can I like Prime
Minister Shamir when he resembles a non-peaceful roaring tiger? However,
how can I but respect a roaring tiger?!”

Former Secretary of State Jim Baker, who was one of the crudest detractors
of Shamir's policies, respected Shamir's ironclad commitment to
deeply-rooted ideology. Therefore, he considered Shamir a trustworthy –
although non-subservient – ally of the USA. Shamir was consistently guided
by principles, values and history-steered vision/ideology; he was not
herded – zigzagging - by pollsters and public opinion consultants.

The late Prime Minister Shamir was a role model of Jewish patriotism,
optimism, principle-driven and security-based statesmanship,
history-motivated tenacity, reliability, modesty, independence and endurance
in face of brutal pressure.

In 1991, at the height of the bitter conflict between Prime Minster Shamir
and Republican President Bush, then Republican House Whip, Newt Gingrich,
asserted: "How can you expect communications between Bush, who was given the
presidency, as well as the CIA and the UN ambassadorship, on a golden
platter, and Shamir who has demonstrated willingness to sacrifice his life
on the altar of ideology?!”

Following the 1990 meeting between Shamir and Senate Majority and Minority
Leaders, George Mitchell and Bob Dole, the latter told Shamir: "The Majority
Leader and I respect you - although we disagree with your policies - because
you are tough!”

The short Shamir was a giant of a Prime Minister – a geo political gamer
changer - in the areas of Aliya (Jewish immigration), economy, US-Israel
strategic cooperation and defiance of pressure.

While the Jackson-Vanik Amendment opened the doors of the USSR for
emigration, Shamir's Aliya policy was chiefly responsible for the arrival in
Israel of over one million Olim (Jewish immigrants) from the USSR. Shamir
believed that aggressive, tenacious, pro-active Aliya policy – generating
Aliya - was the prerequisite for massive Aliya waves from the USSR, Ethiopia
and other countries. During the 1990s, he projected a future Aliya wave from
France, resulting from anti-Semitism and Islamic migration. Former US
Assistant Secretary of State, Dick Schifter, appreciated Shamir's intense
lobbying of Secretaries of State, Schultz and Baker, to stop issuing refugee
certificates to Soviet Jews, thus directing them to relocate to Israel. In
addition, Shamir initiated a request from the US Senate to pass a
resolution – signed by all 100 Senators – expecting Moscow to direct Jewish
emigrants to fly only directly to Israel and not to Rome or Vienna.
Shamir's initiatives transformed an 80% dropout rate (until 1990) to an
almost 100% arrival rate, by Soviet Jews, to Israel.

Shamir orchestrated the absorption of over one million Soviet Jews and
60,000 Ethiopian Jews, by less than five million Israelis - an unprecedented
human accomplishment. He considered Aliya to be the raison d'etre of the
Jewish State, its moral compass, its top priority and its turbo growth
engine. He was aware that Aliyah determined Israel's posture of deterrence
and the Jewish-Arab demographic balance between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean.

Shamir laid down the foundations for the resurgence of Israel's economy from
a potential meltdown to one of the most fiscally-responsible economies in
the world. His composure in face of lethal pressures, marathon-like (and
not sprint-like) style of leadership, strategic thinking and willingness to
lead through delegation of authority to experts – such as Jacob Frenkel, who
was appointed by Shamir to be the Governor of the Bank of Israel - paved the
road to the stabilization of Israel's Shekel, the dramatic restraint of
inflation, interest and unemployment rates and the drastic reduction of
budget deficit.

Former Secretary of State George Schultz was a systematic critic of Shamir's
policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict, but rarely fails to express his utmost
respect for Shamir's integrity and perseverance. Most of Shamir's sustained
critics in Washington indicate that "we miss him now more than anytime
before.”

In 1988, Texas Congressman Ted Poe, then a Federal Judge and currently a
member of the Foreign Relations Committee, defined Shamir as "the sturdiest
statesman in the Middle East.”

Shamir's defiance of the US, when it came to Jewish roots in the Land of
Israel and Israel's fundamental security requirements, eroded his
popularity, but enhanced respect towards him. In 1991, he preconditioned
participation in the Madrid Conference upon a US commitment to avoid any
reference to Land-for-Peace, to prohibit PLO participation and to inform
Syria that no retreat on the Golan Heights was forthcoming. His image as a
strategic partner was upgraded by his dismissal of international guarantees
of Israel's security and propositions to station foreign troops on Israel's
borders. On a rainy day, the US is not looking for a "punching bag,” but for
a reliable, capable, democratic, unconditional ally, which is willing to
defy even the US.

Shamir's seven years at the helm were characterized by unprecedented
expansion of US-Israel strategic cooperation – despite severe disagreements
over the Palestinian issue - from the April 1988 Memorandum of Understanding
through the 1990-1991 enhancement of joint exercises, intelligence and
counter-terrorism cooperation, prepositioning of US military hardware in
Israel, defense industrial cooperation, the upgrading of the port of Haifa
for the Sixth Fleet, etc.

Contemporary challenges, domestically, internationally, commercially and
militarily, behoove Israeli and American leaders to follow in the footsteps
of Prime Minister Shamir's legacy.

Yoram Ettinger, http://www.TheEttingerReport.Com