Avigdor Kahalani

Tat Aluf
 Avigdor Kahalani
Brigadier General, Avigdor Kahalani
Minister of Internal Security
In office
June 18, 1996 – July 6, 1999
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Preceded by Moshe Shahal
Succeeded by Shlomo Ben-Ami
Member of the Knesset
In office
23 June 1992 – 17 May 1999
Personal details
Born 16 June 1944 (1944-06-16) (age 67)
Ness Ziona, Mandate Palestine
Political party Third Way
Labor Party (formerly)
Military service
Allegiance IDF
Years of service 1962 to 1992
Rank Brigadier General
Commands 77 Battalion
7th Brigade
36th Division
Battles/wars Six-Day War
Yom Kippur War
Awards Distinguished Service Medal
Medal of Valor

Brigadier-General (Tat Aluf) Avigdor Kahalani (Hebrew: אביגדור קהלני‎, born 16 June 1944) is a former Israeli soldier and politician.

Contents

Background

Kahalani was born in Ness Ziona during the Mandate era. He studied at Tel Aviv University, gaining a B.A. in History, before going on to Haifa University, where he studied for an M.A. in Political Science. He also attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and graduated from the National Defense College.

IDF career

Kahalani was a career officer in the IDF, achieving the rank of Brigadier General. In the Yom Kippur War (1973), he served as commander of an armored battalion on the Golan Heights. Kahalani received the Medal of Distinguished Service for service during the Six Day War, where he was badly wounded when his Centurion tank caught fire. He later received the Medal of Valor for service during the Yom Kippur War.[1] During this war he commanded a hastily assembled group of tanks and crews from different armour units (The Israeli forces were in a disjointed state due to the surprise combined Arab attack which commenced the war). The group repelled a vastly superior Syrian force which had overrun the Israeli positions in the first days of the war, in the Golan Heights region of northern Israel. The battle proved to be one of the turning points of the war. After the war, the valley where it took place was littered with hundreds of burned Syrian tanks and was renamed "Emek Ha-Bacha" ("The Valley of Tears").

Political career

After leaving the IDF, Kahalani made his way into politics. He served as Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv, and was elected to the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party in the 1992 election, he served on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense and the Education and Culture Committees. He has been active in the Committee for the Rescue of Jews from Yemen and Chairman of the Golan Lobby in the Knesset. He is also chairman of the Friends of LIBI Foundation and president of the Israeli Association for Drug Rehabilitation.

During the Knesset session, Kahalani broke away from the Labor Party and founded The Third Way with Emanuel Zisman. The new party won four seats in the 1996 elections , and joined Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition, with Kahalani made Minister of Internal Security.

However, in the 1999 elections the party failed to cross the electoral threshold and Kahalani lost his seat. He later joined Likud, and was placed 43rd on the party's list for the 2003 elections,[2] but missed out on a seat when the party won only 38.

Since November 2007, Kahalani has been serving as chairman of the Organization for the Soldier.

Published works

References

  1. ^ Tal Zagreba (31 October 2008). "We Were Like a Wounded Animal that Was Discarded and Fights for Its Life". Bamahane (42nd Edition (2008)): pp. 54–55. 
  2. ^ Police probe Likud members about alleged corruption in primary race The Jerusalem Post, 17 December 2002

External links

Sheetrit (1948–67) · Sasson (1967–69) · Hillel (1969–77) · Bar-Lev (1984–90) · Milo (1990–92) · Shahal (1992–96) · Kahalani (1996–99) · Ben-Ami (1999–2001) · Landau (2001–03) · Hanegbi (2003–04) · Ezra (2004–06) · Dichter (2006–09) · Aharonovich (2009–)