53 Facts About Ayoob Kara

Ayoob Kara has served as a member of the Knesset for Likud in four spells between 1999 and 2021, and as Minister of Communications.

Ayoob Kara went to an agricultural high school in Kfar Galim.

Ayoob Kara spent a year playing professional football as a defensive back for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv.

Ayoob Kara later served in the Israel Defense Forces reserve and attained the rank of major before being discharged for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ayoob Kara urged Likud party chairman Ariel Sharon to campaign for the Arab vote.

Ayoob Kara was elected in 1999, becoming the third Druze Likud MK in history, after Amal Nasser el-Din and Assad Assad.

Ayoob Kara was appointed Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Workers.

Ayoob Kara retained his seat in the 2003 elections and became chairman of the Anti-Drug Committee.

Ayoob Kara opposed the Gaza disengagement plan championed by prime minister Ariel Sharon, and was almost ejected from Knesset with Michael Ratzon for "repeated disturbances".

Ayoob Kara praised Likud's "glorious past" and said it will return stronger, despite the split.

Ayoob Kara lost his seat in the 2006 elections, when Likud dropped to 12 seats.

Ayoob Kara met with Hebron residents and criticized the demolition of a Jewish home there, calling Kadima chairman Tzipi Livni as "good for Hamas".

Ayoob Kara was placed 23rd on the party's list, and returned to the Knesset when Likud won 27 seats.

Ayoob Kara sought and received a ministerial post: becoming Israel's new Deputy Minister of the Development of the Negev and Galilee.

Ayoob Kara is the first non-Jewish nationalist to receive a portfolio.

Ayoob Kara opposed the inclusion of Kadima in Netanyahu's government, saying that Likud had "no room for traitors".

Ayoob Kara promoted development of the two regions to encourage Jews to stay and work there.

Ayoob Kara worked to help former soldiers to study for free at colleges in the Negev and Galilee, as well as a new college of medicine in the latter.

Ayoob Kara supported the building of casinos in the Negev.

Later, with Ayoob Kara's help, ZAKA volunteers began to establish volunteer rescue services in northern Druze and Arab towns in September 2010, starting with Beit Jann and Yirka.

Ayoob Kara led a group of Druze, Bedouins, and Muslims that met with the family of Gilad Shalit to show support for his release from Hamas, who kidnapped Shalit in a 2006 raid.

Ayoob Kara has been instrumental in improving relations with Syria and Lebanon.

Ayoob Kara has been outspoken in his opposition to proposed divisions of the border village of Ghajar, comparing it to the Berlin Wall.

Ayoob Kara is hopeful that these "cracks in the great wall between Israel and Syria" will one day lead to real negotiations for peace.

Ayoob Kara has called for mines to be removed from the Golan Heights, citing them as dangerous to travelers and not needed for Israel's defense.

Ayoob Kara urged stronger relationships with European politicians that support Israel.

Ayoob Kara visited Austria in December 2010 and met with Heinz-Christian Strache, leader of the Freedom Party of Austria, praising him at a joint press conference and calling him a "friend of Israel" in its war on terror.

The head of a South Sudan delegation to a February 2011 meeting of a new organization to develop Nigeria, Suleiman Alhariri, invited Ayoob Kara to help begin setting up diplomatic relations.

Ayoob Kara led a delegation of Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian religious leaders to discuss interfaith relations in Istanbul with TV show host Adnan Oktar.

Ayoob Kara was placed 39th on the Likud Yisrael Beiteinu list for the 2013 elections, losing his seat as the alliance won only 31 seats.

Ayoob Kara was appointed Deputy Minister of Regional Cooperation.

Ayoob Kara was blamed by several Likud politicians for the leak, but denied involvement.

Ayoob Kara is known as a staunch conservative in the Knesset, supporting "hawkish" and Zionist views.

Ayoob Kara was a supporter of Moshe Feiglin's Manhigut Yehudit faction, within Likud.

Ayoob Kara was threatened with expulsion from the Knesset for trying to obstruct the plan as it went through.

Ayoob Kara told the mufti that Israel conducted the operation legally and humanely and presented facts backing his claims.

At a meeting hosted by Turkish television personality Adnan Oktar, Ayoob Kara stated that flotillas must carry humanitarian aid and not weapons.

Ayoob Kara said that Israel wanted to work with Turkey to transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Ayoob Kara stated he would help and that the scientist was staying in a "friendly country", but there has been no word on the plan since the announcement.

Ayoob Kara stated that as a non-Jew, he appreciated Israel's freedom and democracy, and that were it not for the Jewish people, the entire region would look like Iran.

At the event, Ayoob Kara criticized the Israeli government for inaction, and called Ahmadinejad "a catastrophe for the world" and said that Israel wants peace, not wars.

Ayoob Kara warned that Ahmadinejad intends to rebuild the Persian Empire, using Lebanon as an army base.

Ayoob Kara believes that Israel "has no one to make peace with", and that all the peace partners aim to weaken Israel.

Ayoob Kara noted that many Israelis think like Europeans and do not understand the thought process in the Middle East.

Ayoob Kara criticized the Oslo accords for giving "the criminal Palestinian leadership that was in Lebanon and Tunisia the legitimacy to be leaders in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza".

In July 2010, Ayoob Kara warned Israel not to be tricked by United States president Barack Obama's apparent sympathy for Israel.

Ayoob Kara stated that Obama "doesn't sound evil now because he needs Jewish votes and money, but I won't forget the pressure he put on Netanyahu and the stress I saw in the prime minister the last time he came back from Washington".

Ayoob Kara noted that Arabs almost universally call for a restoration of the situation prior to the Six-Day War, when Gaza was part of Egypt.

At the first International Regional Cooperation Conference in Tel Aviv, Ayoob Kara said Israel should negotiate with businessmen rather than the Palestinian Authority leadership.

Ayoob Kara criticizing it as not helpful to Israel or the PA and said that the killings of four Israelis near Kiryat Arba shows that the freeze only serves as "appeasement" and is not working.

In 2010, Ayoob Kara attended a rally marking the end of the construction slow down in Revava, that was attended by hundreds of Christian supporters of Israel.

In 2010 Ayoob Kara called for the imposition of the death penalty on the perpetrator of the Tapuah Junction stabbing.

Ayoob Kara was part of a delegation of Israeli politicians who visited Poland at the invitation of the Polish Redemptorist priest Tadeusz Rydzyk in late 2017.