Yitzak Shamir (born 1914) was prime minister of Israel (1983-84, 1987-88), leader of the Likud Party and vice premier and minister of foreign affairs in the National Unity government (1984-86).

Yitzak Shamir (Yizernitsky) was born in 1914 in eastern Poland. While a student at the Hebrew "gymnasium" in Bialystok he was also involved with the Revisionist Zionist movement known as Brit Trumpeldor, or Betar. In 1935 instead of pursuing law studies in Warsaw he immigrated to Palestine, where he worked as a construction worker and accountant in addition to studying at the Hebrew University. During the next decade Shamir was involved with the Jewish underground movement as a member of the more militant and nationalist groups pledged to resisting the British mandate authorities as well as retaliating against acts of Arab violence directed at the Jewish community.

Unlike most of the Jewish underground, which chose to fight alongside of the British...