Chaim Herzog; Israeli Soldier, Statesman

Chaim Herzog--diplomat, soldier, spymaster, barrister, author and Israel’s longest-serving president--died Thursday. He was 78.

Herzog died of complications from pneumonia contracted during a recent visit to the United States, said Rachel Sofer, spokeswoman at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Herzog was “a man of war who loved peace,” according to Shimon Peres, the former Israeli premier and Labor Party leader.

“Herzog was the most statesmanlike man in Israel. He was a military man, a president, son of rabbis and man of the modern age,” Peres said on Israel radio.

Herzog’s military career included serving as a British officer during World War II, when he landed with Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. He later founded Israel’s military intelligence service in 1948.

He chronicled Israel’s wars in historical works that were critically acclaimed, including “The War of Atonement,” about Israel’s 1973 Middle East War, and “Israel’s Finest Hour” about the Six-Day War in 1967.

As a politician, Herzog joined the Labor Party and became a member of Israel’s parliament before he was chosen to be the nation’s sixth president, a post he held from 1983 to 1993.

As a diplomat, Herzog served as U.N. ambassador and earned fame campaigning, unsuccessfully, to halt passage of a U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with racism. During one debate in 1975, he dramatically tore up the resolution.

When he became president in 1983, the nation was divided by a war in Lebanon and facing international isolation. During his 10 years in office, Herzog made 45 visits abroad and addressed 13 foreign parliaments and was credited with helping to shape Israel’s image internationally.

He got a mixed response in 1986, however, when he set free Shin Bet agents who were accused of murdering two Palestinian bus hijackers. Four years later, he pardoned members of the Jewish underground who were convicted of attacking Palestinians.

Herzog said the pardons restored the morale and esprit de corps of the Shin Bet secret service after the scandal known as “Bus 300.”

“I saved the Shin Bet. I got 95% negative feedback from the press. But 87% of the public supported me,” he recalled in a 1993 interview with the Jerusalem Post.

Born Vivian Herzog in Belfast on Sept. 17, 1918, Herzog was Ireland’s bantamweight boxing champion before immigrating to pre-state Palestine in 1935. His father, Isaac Herzog, became the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi when Israel gained independence in 1948.

During World War II, Herzog served in British intelligence and helped liberate the Bergen-Belsen death camp in Germany. He was one of the last British officers to question Nazi Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler before Himmler committed suicide in prison.

Herzog is survived by his wife, Aura, three children and six grandchildren.

Herzog was to be buried today at Mt. Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem.