Shaul Mofaz

Shaul Mofaz was born in 1948 in Tehran

Mofaz was born Shahram Mofazzazkar in Tehran, Iran, in 1948, to Jewish parents. His family immigrated to Israel in 1957 and settled in Eilat, where he attended a religious elementary school. As a teenager he studied at the agricultural boarding school in Nahalal.

He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in business administration from Bar-Ilan University. He also graduated from the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Virginia.

He joined the IDF in 1966 and served in the Paratroopers Brigade, later commanding it. He rose to head the Southern Command and became Chief of the General Staff in 1998. During his term the IDF withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 and faced the Second Intifada.

In 2002 Ariel Sharon appointed him Minister of Defense, a post he held until 2006. He left Likud for Kadima in 2005 and was elected to the Knesset in 2006, serving as Minister of Transportation. He lost the 2008 Kadima leadership race to Tzipi Livni.

In 2012 he won the Kadima leadership and briefly brought the party into Benjamin Netanyahu's government before leaving it. He retired from politics shortly before the 2015 elections.