Yair Shamir

Yair Shamir (; born 18 August 1945) is an Israeli politician, businessman and former military officer. He served as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu between 2013 and 2015, during which he also held the post of Minister of Agriculture.

Biography

Personal life The son of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his wife Shulamit, Yair Shamir was born in Ramat Gan and raised in Tel Aviv. He was named after Avraham "Yair" Stern, founder of Lehi, a Jewish underground movement that functioned in the years before the founding of the modern State of Israel. When he was a year old, his father Yitzhak was captured by the British and exiled to Eritrea. When Yair was two years old, his mother was arrested as a Lehi activist. The family was not reunited until the end of 1948.

Shamir lives in Savyon and is married to Ella, with whom he has three children and seven grandchildren.

Military career Shamir served in the Israeli Air Force from 1963 to 1988 as a pilot, engineer and commander. In 1974, during his military service, Shamir completed a degree in electrical engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. In 1988 Shamir was honorably discharged with the rank of colonel.

Controversially, in 2011, Defense Minister Ehud Barak appointed Dov Bahrav of Amdocs as chairman. Shamir is thought to have been the key person behind IAI's initial public offering.

Public service Shamir also has several public roles and sits on the board of governors of the Technion and on the board of trustees of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He also serves as chairman of the board of directors of the Shalem Center. Shamir inspired and underwrote a series of Rohr Jewish Learning Institute classes commemorating the centennial of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's birth.

Political career In May 2012 Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman appointed Shamir deputy leader of the party. He was elected to the Knesset in the 2013 elections, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture.

In January 2015 Shamir announced that he was leaving the party and would not contest the 2015 elections due to disagreements with Lieberman over foreign policy.

In an interview given to The Jewish Press in 2004, Shamir said that he did not believe in surrendering Israeli-controlled land to the Arabs, but that he would compromise if this was necessary. He also said that then-US President George W. Bush was better for Israel than then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He also criticized Benjamin Netanyahu for caving in to pressure too easily, and believed that Israel should do what it thinks is right without regard to global opinion. Shamir was also opposed to the Tannenbaum prisoner exchange with Hezbollah.