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Tzachi Hanegbi

(1957 - )

Tzachi Hanegbi is an Israeli politician and security expert.

Hanegbi (born February 26, 1957) was born in Jerusalem. From 1974 to 1977, Hanegbi served in the paratroopers brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. After his military service, he received a B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in international relations and law.

Hanegbi served as president of the Hebrew University Student Union (1979-80), president of the National Union of Israeli Students (1980-82), advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1984-86), and bureau director in the Prime Minister’s Office (1986-88).

A Member of the Knesset since his first election in 1988 as part of the Likud Party ticket, Hanegbi has served as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Committee on Constitution, Law and Justice, the Knesset House Committee, the Committee on Labor and Social Welfare, and the Committee on Education and Culture.

In 2006, Hanegbi moved to the newly formed Kadima Party and was reelected to the Knesset.

In 2006, Hanegbi was put on trial for charges of election bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. In July 2010, after a four-year trial, he was cleared on all the charges, though the panel found him guilty of perjury, and he was fined 10,000 shekels. He voluntarily suspended himself from the Knesset.

Hanegbi resigned from Kadima and returned to Likud when Kadima decided to leave the short-lived unity government in July 2012. Hanegbi explained that he believed Kadima’s decision to quit the unity government was irresponsible.

Following his decision, Hanegbi was reelected on the Likud list in the January 2013 elections. In June 2014, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and, in 2016, minister for regional cooperation. For a brief time in 2017, he served as Acting Minister of Communications. In 2022, after failing to win a Knesset seat, incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made Hanegbi head of the National Security Council.

Hanegbi has held multiple ministerial positions in the Israeli Cabinet - Minister of Health (1996), Minister of Justice (1996-1999), Minister of the Environment (2001-2003), Minister of Transportation (2002-2003), Minister of Internal Security (2003-2005) and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (2004-2006).

He has also been a minister responsible for overseeing the Mossad and Shin Bet, the Atomic Energy Agency, and security ties with the United States.

Hanegbi is married and has three children.


Sources: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wikipedia.
Lazar Berman, “Netanyahu taps veteran Iran hawk Tzachi Hanegbi to lead National Security Council,” Times of Israel, (December 27, 2022).

Photo used with permission of the Knesset.