Matan Vilnai

Matan Vilnai
Date of birth	20 May 1944 (1944-05-20) (age 66)
Place of birth	Jerusalem, Mandate Palestine
Knessets	15, 16, 17, 18
Party	Labor Party (2001-)
Former parties	One Israel (1999-2001)
Ministerial posts (current in bold)	Minister of Science, Culture & Sport Minister in the PM's Office Minister of Science and Technology

Matan Vilnai (Hebrew: מתן וילנאי‎, born 20 May 1944) is an Israeli politician and a former Major General in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He is currently Deputy Defense Minister and a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party.

[edit] Biography

Vilnai was born in Jerusalem in 1944. His father was Prof. Zev Vilnay, a pioneer in the sphere of Israeli geography and Land of Israel studies, from whom he inherited a love of nature and hiking.^[1] He was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1966, serving in the Paratroopers Brigade and the elite reconnaissance unit Sayeret Matkal. He took part in Operation Thunderbolt, also known as the Entebbe Raid, to free Jewish and Israeli passengers taken hostage by Palestinian and German terrorists after their Air France plane was hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda. As a major general, Vilnai was the head of the Manpower Directorate, as well as the Deputy Chief of Staff.

Today Vilnai lives in Mevasseret Zion and is a married father of three.

[edit] Political career

In the run up to the 1999 elections Vilnai joined the Labour Party (which was running as part of the One Israel alliance), hoping to win a place on its Knesset list. He succeeded, and was voted in to the Knesset. Ehud Barak appointed him Minister of Science, Culture and Sport. Vilnai gave up his Knesset seat six months after the election (he was replaced by Colette Avital), but remained a minister. After Ariel Sharon beat Barak in the 2001 election for Prime Minister, Vilnai was reappointed to his post in the new government.

He re-entered the Knesset after the 2003 elections second on Labour's list,^[2] but lost his ministerial post as Sharon formed a right-wing coalition that excluded Labour. However, when several parties left the coalition in the face of the disengagement plan, Labour was invited into the government in January 2005. Vilnai was initially appointed Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. In August 2005 he was appointed Acting Minister of Science and Technology, and the post was made permanent in November.

In the run-up to the 2006 elections, Vilnai competed in the election for Labour Party leader alongside Shimon Peres and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,^[3] but was beaten by Amir Peretz. However, he did retain his Knesset seat in the elections, placing 11th on Labour's list.

After Ehud Barak won the party leadership election in 2007 he appointed Vilnai as Deputy Minister of Defense. In February 2008, Vilnai threatened that Gazan Palestinians "will bring upon themselves a bigger 'shoah' because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." The word shoah (שואה), literally "disaster", is used in Israel to refer to the "holocaust".^[4]

Vilnai won sixth place on the Labor list for the 2009 elections, and retained his seat in the subsequent election.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Matan Vilnai Knesset website

v • d • e Science and Technology Ministers of Israel Ne'eman (1982-84) · Patt (1984-88) · Weizman (1988-90) · Ne'eman (1990-92) · Rubinstein (1992) · Sheetrit (1992-93) · Aloni (1993-96) · Begin (1996-97) · Netanyahu (1996-97) · Eitan (1997-98) · Shalom (1998-99) · Barak (1999) · Vilnai (1999-2001) · Sandberg (2003-04) · Shalgi (2004) · Brailovsky (2004) · Vilnai (2005) · Bar-On (2006) · Pines-Paz (2006) · Majadele (2007-09) · Hershkowitz (2009-)

v • d • e Heads of the Manpower Directorate Moshe Zadok (1947–49) · Shimon Maz'ah (1949–52) · Tzvi Tzur (1952–56) · Gideon Shoken (1956–61) · Aharon Doron (1961–63) · Haim Ben David (1963–66) · Shmuel Eyal (1966–70) · Shlomo Lahat (1970–73) · Herzl Shafir (1973–74) · Moshe Gidron (1974-76) · Rafael Vardi (1976–78) · Moshe Nativ (1978–83) · Amos Yaron (1983–85) · Matan Vilnai (1986–89) · Ran Goren (1989–92) · Yoram Yair (1992–95) · Gideon Scheffer (1995–98) · Yehuda Segev (1998–2001) · Gil Regev (2001–04) · Elazar Stern (2004–08) · Avi Zamir (2008–)

v • d • e Heads of Southern Command Allon (1948–49) · Rabin (1949) · Dayan (1949–51) · Tzadok (1951–54) · Peri (1954) · Amit (1955–56) · Simhoni (1956) · Laskov (1956–58) · Herzog (1958) · Yoffe (1958–62) · Zamir (1962–64) · Gavish (1965-69) · Sharon (1969-73) · Gonen (1973) · Bar-Lev (1973) · Tal (1973-74) · Adan (1974) · Adam (1974–76) · Shapir (1976–78) · Shomron (1978–82) · Erez (1982–83) · Bar Kokhva (1983–86) · Sagi (1986) · Mordechai (1986–89) · Vilnai (1989–94) · Mofaz (1994–96) · Yanai (1996–97) · Samia (1997–2000) · Almog (2000–03) · Harel (2003–05) · Galant (2005–2010) · Russo (2010–)

v • d • e Deputy Chiefs of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Tzvi Ayalon (1948–49) · Mordechai Maklef (1949–52) · Haim Laskov (1955–56) · Tzvi Tzur (1958) · Yitzhak Rabin (1961–63) · Haim Bar-Lev (1967–68) · Israel Tal (1973) · Yekutiel Adam (1978–82) · Moshe Levi (1982–83) · David Ivry (1983–85) · Dan Shomron (1985–86) · Amir Drori (1986–87) · Ehud Barak (1987–91) · Amnon Lipkin-Shahak (1991–94) · Matan Vilnai (1994–97) · Shaul Mofaz (1997–98) · Uzi Dayan (1998–99) · Moshe Ya'alon (1999–2002) · Gabi Ashkenazi (2002-04) · Dan Halutz (2004–05) · Moshe Kaplinsky (2005–07) · Dan Harel (2007–09) · Benny Gantz (2009–10) · Yair Naveh (2010–present)