Ex-Israeli President Weizman Dies

Former Israeli President Ezer Weizman, a political moderate who pioneered contacts with Palestinian leaders and helped bring about the Jewish state's first peace treaty with an Arab country, has died. He was 80.

Weizman, who was president from 1993 to 2000, had suffered from respiratory infections in recent months and was repeatedly hospitalized. He died shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday at his home in the northern Israeli resort town of Caesarea, according to a statement by Weizman's successor, President Moshe Katsav.

Israeli radio said the funeral was tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.

Weizman was a former air force hero who underwent a political transformation from hardliner to dove who supported territorial compromise with the Palestinians, saying the Jews had to learn to "share this part of the world" with the Arabs.

He was best known for playing an instrumental role in the 1979 Camp David Accords, the peace treaty with Egypt that was Israel's first with an Arab state, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

As defense minister in 1979, he was instrumental in negotiating Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.

Weizman later resigned from then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin's Cabinet, complaining about his strict interpretation of interim peace accords with Egypt. Ariel Sharon, now Israel's premier, replaced Weizman as defense minister.

Weizman's casual style breathed life into the presidency, a largely ceremonial office, and endeared him to the Israeli public. His vacillation on issues of peace reflected the uncertainty of ordinary Israelis — he cooed dovish when they favored territorial concessions and called for a slow-down when they feared things were moving too fast.

His brash style of saying exactly what he thought, and doing it, ruffled many feathers, reports Berger. Among his controversies:

• He told high school students he opposed homosexuals coming out of the closet.
• He outraged religious Jews by saying the Bible contained "unpleasant" passages that needn't be read.
• Feminists were furious when he called a female soldier trying to become a pilot "missy" and asked her if she had ever seen a man darning socks.

"Weizman went too far this time," Shamir said.
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, a one-time political ally, said Weizman was unique. "In war, he showed incredible bravery, and when peace appeared on the horizon, he enlisted for it," Peres told Israel's Channel Two TV.

His last year as president was marred by scandal when he became the target of a police investigation into fraud and breach of public trust.

Weizman was born in the northern port city of Haifa on June 15, 1924. His uncle, Chaim Weizmann, was Israel's first president.

He learned to fly at 16 and in World War II underwent flight training in the British army, later serving as a fighter pilot in Egypt and India.

In 1977, Weizman made a secret trip to Egypt. That trip — and the friendship he formed with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat — served as a catalyst to the negotiations that culminated in the U.S.-sponsored Camp David agreements between Israel and Egypt in 1978.

Weizman's natural rapport with people and his untiring diplomacy helped keep the leaders of the two enemy countries at the negotiating table through many crises, as he recounted in a gossipy account entitled "The Battle for Peace" published in 1980.

Weizman believed unremittingly in the need to expand the peace with Egypt to include Jordan and Israel's other neighbors.

After the Palestinian uprising began in 1987, Weizman broke party line and advocated negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, then outlawed in Israel as a terrorist organization, and its leader, Yasser Arafat.

"Nothing contributes more to defense than peace," he said. "Let's try to talk to Arafat. We have one of the best air forces in the world, we have one of the best armies in the world. What the hell are we worried about?"

Israeli peace crusaders were delighted when the Knesset elected Weizman as president in 1993. But when Israel signed a peace accord with the PLO later that year, Weizman complained that it was done in haste. After a series of deadly suicide bombs by Islamic militants, Weizman defied the Labor government line by calling for the suspension of peace talks.

After the election of hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, however, Weizman pushed Netanyahu to meet with Arafat by inviting the Palestinian leader to a meeting at the president's seaside villa in Caesarea — Arafat's first public visit to Israel.

When Israel and Syria held peace talks in the winter of 1999-2000 Weizman threatened to resign if Israelis voted against returning the Golan Heights to Syria in a national referendum.

"It's very difficult to be the president of the entire nation," Weizman said at the time, "unless you're willing to be deaf, mute and preferably blind."

During his last year in office, his glee was dampened by a police investigation into his acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a French millionaire friend. Police recommended he not be indicted, but only because the statute of limitations had run out on charges of fraud and breach of public trust.