Yossi Beilin
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Dr. Yossi Beilin (born June 12, 1948) is a dovish Israeli politician, a former Knesset member, deputy foreign minister and justice minister within the Israeli Labour Party. He is currently chairman of Yachad. He is most famous for his involvement with the Oslo accords, the Geneva accords and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in general.
Political Career
The majority of Beilin's political career, from 1977 until 2003 is associated with the Labour party. He served as its spokesman from 1977 until 1984, at which point his career in the public service began. He was a Cabinet Secretary until 1986 and a Director General of the Foreign Ministry until 1986-1988. In 1988 he was elected to the Knesset in which he was to serve until 1999. During this period he was Deputy Finance Minister (1988-1990) and Deputy Foreign Minister (1992-1995) under Shimon Peres. Following that he served in two minor ministerial positions, Minister of Economy and Planning (1995) and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister (1996). From then until 2001 he served as the Minister of Justice.
In 2003, increasingly tainted by his leftist image, he was given an unrealisiticly low position on the Labour party slate which offered him little chance for election as a Labour Knesset member. Together with Yael Dayan they promptly quit the Labour and joined Meretz, where they were received enthusiastically but without realistic positions either. Following the election he founded the Shachar movement which finally joined with Meretz to form Yachad which he now heads.
His association with the peace process is the most notable element in his career. Backed by Shimon Peres, he initiated secret negotiations in 1992 which led to the Oslo accords in 1993. Together with Abu Mazen, another architect of the Oslo accords, he signed in 1995 the Beilin-Abu Mazen agreement, a 'non-paper' of guidelines for a permanent solution to the conflict. During 1992-1995 he headed the Israeli delegation to the Multilateral peace process working groups. In 2001 he participated in the Israeli-Palestinian Taba talks and, the initiative that he is currently most famed for, signed the Geneva accords with Yasser Abed Rabbo.
Beilin holds a soft capitalist agenda, which did not stop him from joining forces with the mainly socialist Meretz. He rarely speaks publicly on social issues, but instead focuses his efforts on promoting negotiations with the Palestinians. In fact, his victory over Meretz's own Ran Cohen was construed as a vote of Meretz electorate of giving precedence to the conflict over socioeconomic issues.
Beilin is also one of the founders and a current employee of the Economic Cooperation Foundation.
Public perception
His long time involvement with Shimon Peres earned him the derogatory nickname "Peres' poodle". In the famous Israeli political satire of the 90s, HaHartzufim he is depicted as a poodle. In recent years Peres and Beilin moved apart, and consequently the nickname is no longer widely used. Nowadays he is more known for his involvement with the Oslo accords and the Geneva accords — some would say that he came to epitomize them more than any other current politician.