Shamir. Schlimazel. Undertaker. Necessitated.

Yitzhak Shamir, whose idea of a two-state solution was for Israelis to occupy Israel while all Palestinians would be found 6 feet below it, has died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 96. The former militia member served as Israel’s prime minister from 1983–84 and from 1986–1992, longer than anyone except David Ben Guiron. A native of Poland whose family died in the Holocaust, Shamir became a bulwark of the right wing that came to prominence in the 1970s led by Menachem Begin. To consolidate military gains, Shamir promoted expansive settlement of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ironically, Shamir himself started his career as a terrorist in the eyes of the British military occupying Palestine, as he was sending his underground Jewish fighters to kill the British occupiers. He later put his assassination skills to good use with the Mossad, directing the deaths of several Nazi scientists who were developing Egypt’s missle program. His career as a politician was largely accidental – his political approach was less flowery oratory and more stoicism while waiting for opponents to say something stupid that hurt them. His approach was strength, patience and cunning – never compromise. Well almost never. During the Persian Gulf, he held back from responding to Iraqi Scud missiles falling on Tel Aviv to earn more promises of financial aid from the United States, strengthening the alliance that never ever comes back to bite us in the ass.