The ExScite Yair Shamir, the 67-year-old son of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, will serve in the next Knesset and will stridently oppose pressure from the Obama administration.
So where does all this leave Yair Shamir?
If Lieberman is forced from the Knesset, Shamir will in all likelihood become the Yisrael Beiteinu party’s leader. He was fourth on the joint Yisrael Beiteinu/Likud list. Shamir is a former colonel who rose to prominence for his success in business. He had a series of high-level executive roles in some of Israel’s top-performing corporations and was a top player in Israel’s hi-tech scene. For six years he was chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries.
Yair Shamir clearly has the gravitas to lead Yisrael Beiteinu. But what is more interesting is that he may have the skills needed to keep Bibi Netanyahu from allowing the Obama administration to set the agenda for Israel’s future.
Shamir’s father was a commander of Israel’s LEHI (Stern Group) pre-state militia and Likud leader. Landau’s father, Chaim, was a leading member of the Irgun, the other rightist pre-state militia and a founder of the Herut party, the forerunner of the Likud. Chaim Landau was a Knesset member from 1949 to 1977 and served as a cabinet minister with Yitzhak Shamir under Menachem Begin. At 69 and having been in Knesset since 1984, Uzi Landau may provide Yair Shamir all the help he needs to keep Netanyahu loyal to the ideas that all of their fathers shared.
“True leadership understands that saying no and standing up against pressure is vital to attain strategic goals while surrender and acquiescence only leads to abandonment of these goals,” wrote Yair Shamir in September 2009. The article was titled “Say ‘no’ to Obama.”
