Former president Chaim Herzog dies at age 78

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

An army general, jurist, diplomat and politician, the native of Ireland was mourned and saluted by Israel and the Jewish world.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, "Chaim Herzog endowed the presidency with majesty and nobility. We will remember Chaim Herzog as a shining diplomat and a soldier who made decisive contributions to the establishment of the State of Israel, both as a man and as a president."

President Ezer Weizman, in his tribute to Herzog, described him as "a true Zionist, a warrior, a scholar and a good man."

"He got up each morning with one thought in his head," said Labor Party leader and former Premier Shimon Peres. "What's good for the State of Israel?"

American Jews were shocked and saddened by the news. Some had worked closely with Herzog when he was the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in the 1970s and was a key combatant in the fight against the U.N. resolution equating Zionism with racism.

"A giant has fallen," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "Israel and the world Jewish community have lost a dedicated and eloquent champion. He was a rare combination of someone with high principles and intellectual achievement, as well as a man of action when action was needed."

Born Vivian Herzog in Belfast, Ireland, on Sept. 17, 1918, Herzog was the second son of Yitzhak Herzog, who was later to become the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel.

Herzog fought in Israel's 1948 War of Independence and later became the first head of the intelligence branch of the Israeli army. He rose to national and international prominence during the 1967 Six-Day War, when as a reservist general, he provided articulate and credible military commentaries on the fighting for a worldwide radio and television audience.

Herzog was a Labor Party Knesset member in the 1980s, and, from 1983 to 1993, served as Israel's sixth president.