Silvan Shalom

Silvan Shalom
Date of birth	4 August 1958 (1958-08-04)
Place of birth	Gabès, Tunisia
Year of aliyah	1959
Knessets	13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Party	Likud
Ministerial posts (current in bold)	Vice Prime Minister Minister for Regional Development Minister of Foreign Affairs Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Finance Minister of Science & Technology

Silvan Shalom (Hebrew: ציון סילבן משה שלום‎ (officially Tzion Silvan Moshe Shalom)^{[citation needed]}, (born 4 October 1958) is an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset from the Likud party and the country's senior Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development and the development of the Negev and the Galilie. He previously served as the country's Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, minister of science and deputy defense minister.

Biography

Born in Gabès, Tunisia a Sephardic Spanish Jewish Beit Shalom dynasty, Shalom made an aliyah to the city of Beersheba, capital of the Negev, southern part of Israel in 1959. On November 3, 1964, while Shalom was 6 years old, his Father, Shimon Shalom, a bank manager and a member of the Beitar movement, who was 37 years old at the time, was murdered during a bank robbery. The 2 assassins, David Ben Harush and Josef Dahan, both citizens of Beer Sheva, at the age of 27, robbed 500 Liras from Shimon. When Dahan was trying to escape, he shot Shalom, who tried to resist the robbery. Shalom was seriously injured and died on his way to the hospital. The murder was notoriously known as the first Bank robbery in the history of the young state of Israel. At the age of 18, he was inducted into the Israel Defense Forces and achieved the rank of Sergeant.

Army service

At the age of 18, he was inducted into the I.D.F Israel Defense Forces and achieved the rank of Sergeant.

Education and early career

After completing his service in the IDF Shalom attended Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, from which he received a BA in Economics as well as a CPA. Certification. During that time Shalom was elected as the chairman of the university's students' union and later as the vice chairman of the national students' union. He later attended Tel Aviv University, from which he received an LLB law degree as well as an MA in Public Policy. Shalom started as a journalist. During his first degree, he began to work as a journalist at the "Yediot Aharonot" newspaper in the student section. After that he started working in the "Rosh Berosh" magazine and in the Negev's local newspaper. in 1980 he moved to Tel Aviv and started working at the "hadashot" newspaper. In 1984, he was appointed as the head political and economical correspondent.

Politics

In 1985, Shalom was appointed adviser to the minister of treasury Yitzhak Moda'i, who was later appointed ministry of justice. At the age of 31 he was appointed as the CEO of the ministry of energy and 2 years later, in 1990, he was appointed director in chief of the Israeli electric company.

Knesset member

In 1992, at the age of 34, Shalom was elected Knesset member. He was elected on the 34th spot in the Likud list to the Knesset and the party received only 33 seats in the 13th Knesset. After former security minister, Moshe Arens resigned, Shalom succeeded in becoming an MK. As a young MK, his first bill was in the academic field. In 1992 there was room for only 100 thousand students, with no space for anymore students. Shalom was acting to allow all the students to get accepted, when the reduction of the students would be made at the end of the first year. Due to his bill, awareness has been made to the problem and the Israeli colleges were established. In the year 2010, for the first time, more students started their degree in colleges. Shalom, during his first term was the first male MK to be a member of the committee on the status of women. He was also the chairman of the subcommittee regarding the capital market, chairman of the subcommittee of energy and a member of the economic affairs committee. In 1996, a year after the assassination of p.m. Yitzhak Rabin from the labor party, the Likud, headed by the opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, was united with 2 parties: Gesher and Tzomet and ran in the election against the Labor party, headed by acting P.M. Shimon Peres. The Likud received 32 seats, 2 fewer than the labor party, but due to the direct election of the P.M. at the time of the election, Netanyahu won and became P.M.

Deputy to the defense minister

Shalom, who won the 18th spot in the combined list of the three parties, became deputy to the defense minister, Itzhak Morderchai. One of his biggest achievements was in integrating and allowing Hassidic Jews to serve in the army, a step that they have been avoiding in doing for decades. The Hassidic battalion, "Netzach Yehuda", was established on February 1999 and became independent in 2002. The uniqueness of the battalion is that unlike most solders, who serve in the army for 3 years, the "netzach Yehuda" solders serve for 2 years and on the 3rd year they go to study in order to allow them to get accepted to a working place and narrowing the gaps in fields which they are lacking knowledge like Math, English and Science.

Minister of science

After a rotation with MK Michael Eitan, Shalom, on july 13th 1998, became minister of science. During his year old term in office, he created the "science flowers" project, which helped universities get to the Israeli periphery and helped under privileged students to excel. Another main project Shalom was involved in, was in spreading the internet in Israel and enlarging the internet's bandwidth and as a result of it, its surfing speed.

Mk In the opposition (1999-2001)

In the 1999 election, the Likud party, headed by the widely unpopular prime minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, was running against the Labor party, headed by Ehud Barak. The labor party received 26 seast at the knesset, while the Likud party receieved only 19 seats and lost the election. After the Labor party gained power in 1999 and the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu, Shalom who reached the 1st place, became part of the opposition, lead by Ariel Sharon.

After challenging Netanyahu for party leadership in late 2005 and achieving second place, Shalom was granted the second spot on the Likud list to the 2006 general election and thus did not compete in the 11 January 2006 primaries. He was placed seventh on the party's list for the 2009 elections.

Shalom is married to Israeli talk show host Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes. The couple have five children and reside in Ramat Gan.

In January 2010, he asked Pope Benedict XVI to open the wartime archives of the papacy of Pius XII.

External links

• Official website
• Silvan Shalom Knesset website