Yitzhak Shamir, left, with Ariel Sharon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Marshall Breger, a former Reagan administration official who at the time still functioned as an unofficial liaison between Bush and the Jewish community, said Shamir earned kudos with that decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the U.S. perspective that was very important and got a lot of good will because we could not have gotten the coalition that we got if Israel had acted in a proactive or reactive way, if Israel had acted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zakheim also recalled Shamir intervening when AIPAC tried to stop the sale of combat aircraft to Kuwait.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was extremely pragmatic and somebody who when the chips were down tended to make good decisions,\u201d Zakheim said.<\/p>\n
Shamir, notably, earned affectionate references in the memoirs of U.S. figures who were among his most frustrated interlocutors when they faced each other as leaders, among them the elder Bush, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell, who under Bush was the chief of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p>\n
Shamir was not a comfortable campaigner. In the 1992 elections he lost to Yitzhak Rabin, advisers told him to exude more warmth. Appearing at a late-in-the-game rally in Maaleh Adumim — a West Bank settlement and city, and what should have been a natural constituency — he stood at the podium, his diminutive figure nearly swallowed by the stage, threw open his arms and shouted \u201cI love you!\u201d The crowd murmured nervously.<\/p>\n
Yet one on one, he exuded warmth and determination. Shamir would take constitutional walks around the prime minister\u2019s residence in Rehavia, followed by a single security guard, and stop to chat with everyone, giving extra time to recent immigrants and congratulating them on their decision to move to Israel.<\/p>\n
His mantra was land. After Oslo, still serving as a backbencher after Netanyahu had succeeded him as party leader, Shamir decried in a Knesset speech the ceding of the Gaza Strip, citing biblical injunctions about preserving the land of Israel. A Labor backbencher shouted that Gaza is not part of biblical Israel. Shamir shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were taught that territory is sacrosanct,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Breger said Shamir understood what the other side wanted — but stuck to what he wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had occasions to talk to him when he was rubbing up against Bush 41 and urged him to pay attention to how serious Bush was about building in the territories, which culminated in Bush\u2019s effort to reduce the loan guarantees dollar by dollar for what was being spent in the territories,\u201d Breger said. \u201cYou had the feeling that he didn\u2019t reject what I said, but he had made up his mind and would go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
That posture set a standard for Shamir\u2019s successors, said Rosen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stood for a set of core principles that are still the bedrock of the right wing but I would argue have influenced the center, too,\u201d he said. \u201cSkepticism of the seriousness of the Arabs on permanent peace, a reliance on self-defense and not on agreements that rely on the will of others, skepticism of great power guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shamir the \u201chard-liner\u201d paved the way for \u201chard bargainers,\u201d Rosen said.<\/p>\n
Breger agreed, noting that in later years \u201cthere was more respect\u201d in the American establishment \u201cfor Ariel Sharon being a rock — but maybe because by then, they were used to Israeli rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
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