Natan Sharansky

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Natan Sharansky (Hebrew: נתן שרנסקי, Russian: Натан Щаранский; born January 20, 1948) is a notable former Soviet dissident, anticommunist, Zionist, Israeli politician and writer.

He is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center and heads its strategic studies institute. From March 2003 until May 2005, he was a Minister without portfolio, responsible for Jerusalem, social and Jewish diaspora affairs. Previously he served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Housing and Construction since March 2001, Interior Minister of Israel (July 1999 - resigned in July 2000), Minister of Industry and Trade (1996-1999). He resigned from the cabinet in April 2005 to protest plans to withdraw Israeli settlers from the contested Gaza Strip. He was re-elected to the Knesset in March 2006 as a member of the Likud Party. In October 2006, it was announced that he plans to resign from politics.

1 Biography
2 Books
3 Trivia
4 Footnotes
5 Bibliography
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Biography

Born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky (Анатолий Борисович Щаранский) in Donetsk, Ukraine to a Jewish family, he graduated with the degree in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

After being denied an exit visa to Israel on the grounds of national security in 1973, he worked as an English interpreter for prominent physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, and also became a human rights activist. Sharansky was one of the founders and the spokesman of Jewish and the Refusenik movement in Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, also known as Yuri Orlov's group.

The front cover of Sharansky's book, Fear No Evil

In March 1977 he was arrested and in July 1978 convicted on charges of treason and spying for the United States and sentenced to 13 years of forced labor. After 16 months of incarceration in Lefortovo prison he was sent to a Siberian labor camp Perm 35 where he served for nine years. The fate of Sharansky and other political prisoners in the USSR, repeatedly brought to attention by Western human rights groups and diplomats, was a cause of embarrassment and irritation for the Soviet authorities. In 1986, he was exchanged for a pair of Soviet spies: Karl Koecher and his wife, Hana Koecher. Famed for his resistance in the Gulag, he was told upon his release to walk straight towards his freedom; Sharansky instead walked in a zigzag in a final act of defiance. Sharansky then emigrated to Israel, adopting a Hebrew given name Natan.

In 1988 Sharansky was elected the President of the Zionist Forum, an umbrella organization of Zionist former Soviet dissidents. Sharansky also served as a contributing editor to The Jerusalem Report and a Board member of the Peace Watch.

In 1986 Congress granted him the Congressional Gold Medal [1]. In 2006 US President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sharansky is the chairman and founder (1995) of the political party Israel Ba-Aliya ("Israel for aliya" or wordplay "Israel on the rise") promoting the absorption of the Soviet Jews into the Israeli society. With another ex-Soviet dissident Yuli Edelstein as a cofounder and a slogan stating that their political party is different: its leaders first go to prison and only then go into politics, the party won seven Knesset seats in 1996. ^[2]

From 2003 to 2005, Sharansky was a cabinet member of the Israeli government (the second Ariel Sharon's government). He resigned on May 2, 2005 in protest of the ruling Likud party's plan to withdraw Israeli settlers from the contested Gaza Strip.

He was listed under number eleven on the list of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2005 in the "Scientists and thinkers" category. He is currently a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center, the Jerusalem research institute that publishes the journal Azure (www.azure.org.il).

[edit] Books

His book The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, cowritten with Ron Dermer, was a "must read" on the Embassy Row. It had a major influence on the United States president George W. Bush and other government officials, who urged their subordinates to read the book:

"If you want a glimpse of how I think about foreign policy read Natan Sharansky's book, The Case for Democracy... For government, particularly — for opinion makers, I would put it on your recommended reading list. It's short and it's good. This guy is a heroic figure, as you know. It's a great book." (CNN), [3].

In it, Sharansky argues that freedom is essential for security and prosperity, and every people and nation deserve to live free in a democratic society. Suggesting his "town square test", Sharansky argues that human rights, safety and stability can only be assured by releasing people from their oppressors and turn them into free societies when each would have the freedom to express his opinion. Therefore, he concludes, the free world must insist of promoting democracy for the oppressed people, instead of appeasing dictatorships and doing business with tyrant regimes,

I then explained why democracy was so crucial to international stability and security, why linkage had been so successful during the Cold War, and why the free world had betrayed its democratic principles at Oslo. I outlined my plan to help the Palestinians build a free society and help Israelis and Palestinians forge a lasting peace. [4]

Sharansky takes what many of his critics call a hardline position towards the Palestinians, arguing that there can never be peace between Israel and the Palestinians until the latter rid their society of terrorist groups like Hamas and of anti-Semitism. His critics see an incompatibility between his ardent Zionism and his commitment to the struggle for universal human rights and democracy.

In a recent Ha’aretz interview, he maintained the “Jews came here 3,000 years ago and this is the cradle of Jewish civilization. Jews are the only people in history who kept their loyalty to their identity and their land throughout the 2,000 years of exile, and no doubt that they have the right to have their place among nations—not only historically but also geographically. As to the Palestinians, who are the descendants of those Arabs who migrated in the last 200 years, they have the right, if they want, to have their own state... but not at the expense of the state of Israel.” [5]

[edit] Trivia

As a child, Sharansky was a chess prodigy - something highly valued in the U.S.S.R.. He performed in simultaneous and blindfold displays, usually against adults. When incarcerated in solitary confinement, he claims to have played chess against himself in his mind. (See Fear No Evil)

Sharansky beat the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a "Simul" game that was held in Israel (see List of people who have beaten Garry Kasparov in chess).

[edit] Footnotes

↑ The Case for Democracy p.xxiii

[edit] Bibliography

Natan Sharansky, Fear No Evil. The Classic Memoir of One Man's Triumph over a Police State. ISBN 1-891620-02-9.
Natan Sharansky, Ron Dermer, The Case for Democracy. The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. ISBN 1-58648-261-0.