It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Efi Arazi.

Efi Arazi passed away today at the age of 76. Exactly on his birthday.

Efi was the founder of Scitex and the father of Israeli hi-tech. He had a profound influence on many of us and touched us all on a professional as well as a personal level.

For many of us he was an inspiration as a creative thinker and a magnetic personality.

He will be sorely missed. The world is a poorer place without him.

The funeral will be held on Monday 13:30 at  Kibutz Horashim in Israel

(Likud Yisrael Beitenu)

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

Yair Shamir was born in Ramat Gan in 1945, son of the late former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. He served in the Israeli Air Force as a pilot and commander between the years 1963-1988 and retired with the rank of Colonel. He holds a BA in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Technion (1974)

Shamir has served as Director General and Deputy President of Scitex (1988-1994), Director General of Elite (1994-1995), President and Director General and Chairman of Vicon Telecommunications (1997-2002), Chairman and Partner of Catalyst (1999), and Chairman of Shamir Optics Industries Ltd. He also served as Chairman of the EL-AL Board of Directors (2004-2005), Chairman of Israel Aircraft Industries (2005-2011), and Chairman of Israel National Roads Company (2012).

Yair Shamir was elected to the Knesset on the Likud Yisrael Beitenu list in January 2013 and in March 2013 was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He is married and the father of three.

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.”

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/the_other_big_israeli_election_story_the_other_yair.html#ixzz2J0JHV2lC

A recent ISRAEL21c issue takes a look at Israel’s top 10 high-tech pioneers.

Needless to say- Efi Arazi, Scitex founder is among the ten.

Effi Arazi founded and led Scitex Corporation in 1968. The company, later sold to Hewlett Packard and Kodak, develops and manufactures hardware and software technologies, and equipment for the printing and publishing industries. This was Israel’s first high-tech firm and at its peak employed 4,000 people. Since then, Arazi has gone on to found additional graphics and printing companies.

See more here:

http://israel21c.org/people/the-top-10-icons-of-israeli-high-tech-the-pioneers/?utm_source=Newsletter+5%2F23%2F2012&utm_campaign=May+23+2012+&utm_medium=email