Newcomer to Israeli politics: Yair Shamir

Son of former PM Yitzhak Shamir moves to public sector after serving as chairman of El Al and Israel Aerospace Industries.

From Times of Israel, 31 Oct 2012, by Raphael Ahren:

...Shamir was speaking in English to participants of the “Conference on the Future of the Jewish People,” organized by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the Jewish Agency. Shamir passionately laid out, in his view, the problems facing Israel today, but made no effort to show he has any faith in the capacity of the country’s political system to address them.

“I am going into politics; I’m not going to be a politician. I am going to continue my mission and if I see that this is not the right platform, I am going to another one, and I don’t care about what’s this or that,” he said.

A former executive at Israel Aerospace Industries and El Al, Shamir will be slotted into second place on Yisrael Beytenu’s Knesset list, ahead of senior party members such as veteran MK and current Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau. As Avigdor Liberman’s No. 2 man, Shamir is guaranteed a Knesset seat and has good chances of receiving a ministerial portfolio if the joint Likud-Yisrael Beytenu partnership wins the elections.

Shamir’s primary political interests focus on socioeconomic issues, especially housing and food prices.

“The most important challenges are internal and those should be our focus. The challenges ahead are to focus on reducing the cost of living,” he wrote on his Facebook profile Wednesday. “We need to deregulate the cost of housing and dairy products and decrease government control.”

Asked by a conference participant about his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Shamir said,

“I think we have much more important issues to deal with than the Palestinians, and that is dealing with ourselves

Shamir lamented Israel’s spiritual situation, suggesting that the government focus on fixing that before anything else.

“How many Israelis can speak articulately [about] why a Jewish state is needed? How many Israeli religious citizens can speak meaningfully about the significance of democracy? How many of its scholar citizens can say something profound about what is Jewish about the Jewish state? Conclusion: [Our ] Jewish, our spiritual existence is in danger. We are losing the battle for the soul of Israel.”

While Israel’s physical existence is today more or less secured, the real danger to Israel is the erosion of Jewish and Zionist values, he said at the conference.

“Zionism is in decay,” he said. “Zionism is attacked on a daily basis, obviously from the outside world but unfortunately also from the inside. And what is more worrying is the inside.”

From The Shalem Center web site:

Yair Shamir, Chairman of the Board

Yair Shamir, Chairman of the Board, is considered one of Israel’s leading businessmen. He is currently Chairman and Managing Partner of Catalyst Investments, and, from 2005-20011, was Chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries. Many observers credit Shamir’s leadership with IAI’s dramatic turnaround in profit earnings. In January 2012, Mr. Shamir became Chairman of the Israel National Roads Company (INRC), Israel’s leading road network authority responsible for design, development, and operation of interurban roads in Israel.  Previously, Mr. Shamir served as Chairman of El Al Israel Airlines, whose privatization process he oversaw, as well as CEO of VCON Telecommunications Ltd., Executive Vice President of the Challenge Fund-Etgar L.P., Executive Vice President and General Manager of Scitex Corporation, Ltd., a leading worldwide developer, manufacturer, and marketer of interactive computerized systems for the graphic design, printing, and publishing markets, and CEO of Elite Food Industries, one of Israel’s leading food-products manufacturers. He holds a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.  The son of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Mr. Shamir also boasts a decorated military career, having served as a pilot, engineer, and commander in the Israel Air Force. After attaining the rank of colonel, he served, as head of the electronics department, in the IAF’s highest professional electronics position. An active member of the board of IDC Herzliya in its founding stage, Mr. Shamir also sits on the Board of Governors of the Technion and the Board of Directors of Ben-Gurion University.