36 Facts About Shaul Mofaz

Shaul Mofaz is a retired Israeli military officer and politician.

Shaul Mofaz joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1966 and served in the Paratroopers Brigade.

Shaul Mofaz fought in the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, 1982 Lebanon War, and Operation Entebbe with the paratroopers and Sayeret Matkal, an elite special forces unit.

Shaul Mofaz was appointed Minister of Defense in 2002, holding the position until 2006, when he was elected to the Knesset on the Kadima list.

Shaul Mofaz then served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transportation and Road Safety until 2009.

Kadima was reduced to just two seats in the 2013 elections, and Mofaz retired from politics shortly before the 2015 elections.

Shaul Mofaz was born Shahram Mofazzazkar on 4 November 1948 in Tehran, Iran, to Persian Jewish parents from Isfahan, and lived in Tehran until his family moved to Israel.

Shaul Mofaz's father was the principal of the ORT school in Tehran.

Shaul Mofaz immigrated to Israel with his family in 1957 when he was nine years old.

Shaul Mofaz's family lived in a one-and-a-half-room apartment and his parents struggled to put food on the table.

Shaul Mofaz fought in the Six-Day War as a paratrooper on the southern front against the Egyptian Army.

Shaul Mofaz became an officer in 1969, commanded a paratrooper platoon in the 890th Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, then commanded a company of the 890th Battalion in 1971.

Shaul Mofaz took part in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War.

Shaul Mofaz became Deputy Commander of the 890th Battalion in 1974.

Shaul Mofaz was appointed Deputy Commander of Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit, in 1975 and took part in Operation Entebbe the following year.

Shaul Mofaz was appointed commander of the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, and became Deputy Commander of the Paratroopers Brigade in 1980.

Shaul Mofaz was an infantry brigade commander during the 1982 Lebanon War.

Shaul Mofaz was appointed Commander of the Paratroopers Brigade in 1986, and led its forces in counterinsurgency operations in the South Lebanon security zone.

Shaul Mofaz played a major role in Operation Law and Order.

Shaul Mofaz served in a series of senior military posts and was promoted to Brigadier General in 1988.

Shaul Mofaz's rapid rise continued; in 1997, Mofaz was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the Operations Directorate.

Shaul Mofaz's tenure saw continued operations in the South Lebanon security zone and the withdrawal from the security zone in 2000.

The tough tactics undertaken by Shaul Mofaz drew widespread concern from the international community but were broadly supported by the Israeli public.

Shaul Mofaz had foreseen the wave of violence as early as 1999 and prepared the IDF for intense guerrilla warfare in the territories.

Shaul Mofaz fortified posts in the Gaza Strip and kept Israeli military casualties low.

On 21 November 2005, Shaul Mofaz rejected Sharon's invitation to join his new party, Kadima, and instead announced his candidacy for the leadership of Likud.

In 2008, with Israel's then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, being pressured to resign due to corruption charges, Shaul Mofaz announced that he would run for the leadership of the Kadima party.

On 5 August 2008, Shaul Mofaz officially entered the race to be the leader of Kadima.

Shaul Mofaz said the "national responsibility by the public brings me to approach this job with great reverence".

Shaul Mofaz accepted the Kadima primary's result, despite his lawyer, Yehuda Weinstein's appeal advice, and telephoned Livni congratulating her.

On 27 March 2012, Shaul Mofaz won the Kadima party leadership primaries by a landslide, defeating party chairwoman Tzipi Livni.

Shaul Mofaz became Vice Prime Minister as part of a deal reached for a government of national unity with Binyamin Netanyahu.

Shaul Mofaz said during the Kadima primaries that he would not join a government led by Netanyahu.

Shaul Mofaz had Kadima withdraw from the government coalition over Netanyahu's indecision over a draft reform law and warned that the prime minister was trying to patch together a majority for a vote to plunge the region into war.

Shaul Mofaz negotiated with the Zionist Union alliance to bring Kadima onto their slate, but ended negotiations when it became clear he would not be their candidate for Defense Minister.

Immediately after Shaul Mofaz announced he was not joining the Zionist Union slate, it was announced the former Military Intelligence Directorate head Amos Yadlin was appointed to the Zionist Union slate and would be their candidate for Defense Minister.