John O. Brennan Counterterrorism advisor to President Obama What did Brennan do as an advisor to Obama? In late 2008, Brennan was reportedly the top choice to become the next Director of the CIA in the incoming Obama administration.
When did he begin in that position?
When did John Brennan begin the position of Counterterrorism advisor to President Obama?
In late 2008, Brennan was reportedly the top choice to become the next Director of the CIA in the incoming Obama administration. However, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration because of opposition to his CIA service under President George W. Bush and past public statements he had made in support of enhanced interrogation and the transfer of terrorism suspects to countries where they might be tortured (extraordinary rendition). President Obama then appointed him to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the President's chief counterterrorism advisor and a position that did not require Senate confirmation.  In August 2009, Brennan criticized some Bush-administration anti-terror policies, saying that waterboarding had threatened national security by increasing the recruitment of terrorists and decreasing the willingness of other nations to cooperate with the U.S. He also described the Obama administration's focus as being on "extremists" and not "jihadists". He said that using the second term, which means one who is struggling for a holy goal, gives "these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek" and suggests the US is at war with the religion of Islam.  In an early December 2009 interview with the Bergen Record, Brennan remarked, "the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities have to bat 1.000 every day. The terrorists are trying to be successful just once". At a press conference days after the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Brennan said U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss any signs that could have prevented the attempt but later said he had let the President down by underestimating a small group of Yemeni terrorists and not connecting them to the attempted bomber. Within two weeks after the incident, however, he produced a report highly critical of the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies, concluding that their focus on terrorist attempts aimed at U.S. soil was inadequate. In February 2010, he claimed on Meet the Press that he was tired of Republican lawmakers using national security issues as political footballs, and making allegations where they did not know the facts.  Brennan was present in the Situation Room in May 2011 when the United States conducted the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He called President Obama's decision to go forward with the mission one of the "gutsiest calls of any president in memory." In the aftermath of the operation, Brennan said that the U.S. troops in the raid had been "met with a great deal of resistance," and bin Laden had used a woman as a human shield. CANNOTANSWER
President Obama then appointed him to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism,
25 meter standard pistol is one of the ISSF shooting events, introduced at the ISSF World Shooting Championships in 1970. It has its roots in the NRA conventional pistol competitions.

The standard pistol match is shot with a regular sport pistol (also called a standard pistol) in caliber .22 LR. As with all ISSF pistol disciplines, all firing must be done with one hand, unsupported.

The 60-shot match is divided into 5-shot strings with different timings:

 4 strings within 150 seconds each - competitor can begin the series in any fashion he/she chooses.
 4 strings within 20 seconds each - competitor must begin each string with pistol in one outstretched arm from the 45-degree angle starting position.
 4 strings within 10 seconds each - competitor must begin each string with pistol in one outstretched arm from the 45-degree angle starting position.

Just like 25 meter center-fire pistol, standard pistol is a non-Olympic event and so gains little attention. It is one of the few events where targets did not change in 1989, so no resetting of records has been made. As a result, many records are rather old.

World Championships, Men

World Championships, Men Junior

World Championships, Men Team

World Championships, total medals

Current World Records

World champions

ISSF shooting events
Handgun shooting sports Zvi Harry Hurwitz (; August 29, 1924 – October 1, 2008), also known as Harry Zvi Hurwitz, was a noted South African Jewish journalist and community leader who moved to Israel, where he served as an Israeli diplomat and adviser to prime ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir before founding the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

Early years
Hurwitz  was born in 1924 in Liepāja, Latvia to Maishe and Malshen (Kutisker) Hurwitz, who migrated to Johannesburg in what was then the Union of South Africa with their two sons when Harry was ten-years-old. In so doing, the family avoided what would have been almost certain death during the Holocaust, when all but 20 or 30 of the city's 7,000 Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany and Latvian collaborators.

Zionist activity
Latvia was the birthplace of Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement, which the young Hurwitz joined when he heard Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of Revisionist Zionism, speak a year before his family's departure. Hurwitz went on to become a national leader of Betar and Revisionist organizations in South Africa, and later headed the South African Zionist Federation. A professional journalist, he served for 25 years as the editor of The Jewish Herald, a weekly that was the organ of the United Zionist Revisionist Party of Southern Africa, and was a frequent broadcaster, television commentator and public speaker.

In 1964, Hurwitz was one of Jabotinsky's pallbearers when he and his wife were reburied on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

A long-time supporter of Menachem Begin, Hurwitz first met the future Prime Minister of Israel in 1946 during a visit to Mandatory Palestine following the 22nd Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, when Begin, as the commander of the Irgun, was still in the underground hiding from British authorities. The two continued to maintain contact after Israel gained independence and throughout Begin's two stints as Leader of the Opposition and his service as Minister without Portfolio in a national unity government.

Government service
Following Begin's 1977 election as Prime Minister, Hurwitz and his wife, Freda, made aliyah, settling in Jerusalem. He subsequently joined the Prime Minister's Office as Adviser for External Information, and served in that capacity until 1980, when he was appointed Minister of Information at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. He returned to Jerusalem in mid-1983 to become Adviser to the Prime Minister for Diaspora Affairs, first under Begin and then, following Begin's resignation, under Yitzhak Shamir. He held that position until Shamir was replaced as prime minister by Yitzhak Rabin in July 1992.

Menachem Begin Heritage Center
Upon Begin's death in March 1992, Hurwitz proposed the establishment of a living memorial to Israel's sixth prime minister based on the American presidential library concept. It was the first such institution in Israel. To bring that project to fruition he organized the Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation which, under his leadership, raised $20 million to construct the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, opposite Mount Zion.

In 1998, at Hurwitz's urging, then-Knesset member Reuven Rivlin proposed the Menachem Begin Commemoration
Law, which was adopted with support from almost 100 of the Israeli parliament's 120 members. The law established the future Begin Center as the official, state-funded memorial for Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Opened in 2004, the Center provides a framework for students, soldiers, citizens, and tourists to learn about and experience the life of Menachem Begin, identify his place in history and examine his life's work. The Begin Center houses a museum, archives, library, and research center and hosts a variety of programs "to achieve its goal of passing on to future generations Begin's belief in democracy and parliamentarianism, his vision of peace for a secure Israel, social justice, and the return of Jews to Israel."

Awards
Hurwitz was presented with the 2005 Prime Minister's Prize by Israel's Presidents and Prime Ministers Memorial Council in recognition of his role in establishing the Center and, in 2008, a Yakir Zion Award by the South African Zionist Federation in Israel.

Death
Hurwitz served as head of the center until he died on October 1, 2008, at the age of 84 after suffering a massive heart attack at his son's home on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. He was buried in the section reserved for Irgun veterans at the Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem. Eulogies were delivered by Moshe Arens, Benny Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuven Rivlin, family members, and Begin Center colleagues.

The Center later named its foyer in honor of the Hurwitz family and annually awards the Harry Hurwitz Hasbara in Action Prize.

Published works
Hurwitz was the author of Begin: His Life, Works and Deeds, Gefen Publishing House, 2004, , which was previously issued as Begin: A Portrait by B'nai B'rith Book Service, 1994, . It was a revised and updated version of Begin: A Portrait, The Jewish Herald (PTY) Ltd., 1977, , which was the first Begin biography ever written.

He also co-edited (with Yisrael Medad) the posthumously-published Peace in the Making: The Menachem Begin-Anwar Sadat Personal Correspondence, Gefen Publishing House, 2011, .

Trivia
Due to a case of mistaken identity after a different man with the same name died, The Jerusalem Post published an obituary of Hurwitz on January 15, 2001 entitled "A Noble Spirit," written by Shmuel Katz, who was his predecessor as Begin's Adviser for External Information. "The first thing I did after reading my own obituary was call up my friend Shmuel Katz who wrote it and thank him for all the lovely things he said about me," Hurwitz, who had a sense of humor, told the Post afterwards. "Not everyone has the privilege of reading their own obituary, and it was a lovely one." A few days later, at a special meeting on the subject of South African Jewry held at the Jewish Agency, participants were asked to introduce themselves and state where they resided. When his turn came, Hurwitz announced "Harry Hurwitz from heaven."

Hurwitz later framed a copy of the subsequent Post article in which the newspaper acknowledged the error and hung it on his office wall. (In the end, Hurwitz outlived Katz by almost five months and it was he who attended the other's funeral.)

References

External links
Menachem Begin Heritage Center

1924 births
2008 deaths
Latvian emigrants to South Africa
Latvian Jews
South African Jews
South African Zionists
Betar members
Irgun members
South African newspaper editors
South African people of Latvian-Jewish descent
Israeli Jews
Israeli people of Latvian-Jewish descent
South African emigrants to Israel
Israeli civil servants
Israeli diplomats
Israeli biographers
Burials at Har HaMenuchot
20th-century biographers Ze'ev Binyamin "Benny" Begin, (; born 1 March 1943) is an Israeli geologist and politician. He is a member of the Knesset for New Hope, having previously served as a member for Likud and Herut – The National Movement. He is the son of former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin.

Biography
Ze'ev Binyamin (Benny) Begin was born in Jerusalem to Aliza and Menachem Begin. He studied geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing his undergraduate and graduate studies, he worked for the Geological Survey of Israel. He completed his doctorate in geology at Colorado State University in 1978.

Political career
First elected to the Knesset in 1988 as a Likud MK, Begin ran in the Likud primary in 1993 to succeed Yitzhak Shamir as party leader but was defeated by Benjamin Netanyahu. Under Netanyahu's government (1996–1999), Begin served as Science Minister until 1997 when he resigned in protest against the Hebron Agreement.

He subsequently led hardliners out of the Likud with the hope of reviving the Herut political party founded by his father. With full support from former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Herut – The National Movement departed from the Likud and joined other right-wing parties to form the National Union, an alliance opposing the Oslo Accords. Owing to the National Union's poor showing in the 1999 elections, Begin resigned his seat and quit politics. He resumed his career in science and education, and was appointed Director of the Geological Survey of Israel.

Begin announced on 2 November 2008 his return to politics and the Likud party, as well as his intention to seek a place on the Likud list for the 2009 elections. He ultimately won fifth place on the party's list, and returned to the Knesset with Likud winning 27 seats. Netanyahu had promised Begin a ministerial position if Likud won the election and honored that promise by appointing Begin a Minister without Portfolio in the new government.

Begin did not run in the 2013 elections, but returned to politics in the 2015 elections running on the 11th place on the Likud party list, the spot reserved for a candidate appointed by party leader Netanyahu. Following the elections, he was appointed Minister without Portfolio in the new government. His term with the government lasted only eleven days. After Prime Minister Netanyahu convinced Gilad Erdan to join the government as Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, Begin was forced to resign as Likud's coalition agreement limited the party to 13 ministers.

Benny Begin officially left Likud and joined Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party on 21 January 2021. Begin was placed sixth on New Hope's list for the 2021 elections. He gained a seat in the 24th Knesset as New Hope won six seats.

Views and opinions
In an interview with Haaretz in 2009, Begin explained his opposition to a Palestinian state, proposing instead an Arab autonomy under Israeli control, since "without security control in Samaria, Judea and Gaza there will be no security in Tel Aviv, either." He concluded with his belief that we must "live together with people who do not want us...[and] behave humanely and decently both with the Israeli citizens who are not Jews and with those who are not citizens. Is there a contradiction between my nationalism and my liberalism? I believe that this is a day-to-day effort to which I and he is obligated."

On 3 March 2019, Begin said that he was "deeply troubled" after reading the Israeli attorney general's 57-page document detailing the suspicions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Begin was one of the few members of the then governing coalition to support the attorney general.

Personal life
Begin is married, and had six children. One son, Yonatan, was a fighter pilot with the Israeli Air Force who was killed when his F-16 fighter jet crashed in 2000. Another son,
Avinadav is a writer, and has become a social activist, out of a general anti-nationalist ideology. He was engaged in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

References

External links

Thoughts of a National Liberal: an interview with Benny Begin - Fathom Journal

1943 births
Living people
Children of prime ministers of Israel
Colorado State University alumni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Herut – The National Movement politicians
Israeli geologists
Israeli Jews
Jewish Israeli politicians
Jews in Mandatory Palestine
Leaders of political parties in Israel
Likud politicians
Members of the 12th Knesset (1988–1992)
Members of the 13th Knesset (1992–1996)
Members of the 14th Knesset (1996–1999)
Members of the 18th Knesset (2009–2013)
Members of the 20th Knesset (2015–2019)
Members of the 24th Knesset (2021–present)
New Hope (Israel) politicians
Politicians from Jerusalem