Yoram Aridor

Yoram Aridor (Hebrew: יורם ארידור‎, born 24 October 1933) is an Israeli former politician, who served as a member of the Knesset from 1969 until 1988, as well as holding two ministerial posts.

Yoram Aridor
Ministerial roles
1981Minister of Communications
1981–1983Minister of Finance
Faction represented in the Knesset
1969–1974Gahal
1974–1988Likud
Personal details
Born (1933-10-24) 24 October 1933
Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine

Biography

Born in Tel Aviv, Aridor studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and practiced law while being active in the Herut movement. He was first elected to the Knesset in 1969 as a member of Gahal, an alliance of Herut and the Liberal Party. Following the 1977 elections he became a deputy minister in Menachem Begin's government.

Aridor's first ministerial appointment was the Minister of Communications, in 1981. In this position, Aridor immediately restored television color broadcasting.[1] In the 1970s, color bursts (the signals encoding colors) were actively removed from IBA transmissions, in an attempt to discourage the population from buying new television sets.[2] Aridor's action led to an increase of his popularity, and boosted his political career.

Two weeks later he was appointed the Minister of Finance,[3] and again took a populist approach, lowering taxes on automobiles and household appliances.[4] As such, his days as finance minister were called the "Merry Aridor Days". The lowering of inflation in Israel during his first years in office is attributed in part to this policy, leading to an increase in government's income from taxes. In subsequent years however, the inflation rose sharply (from 102% in 1981 to 191% in 1983), and as a countermeasure Aridor proposed to peg the Israeli shekel to the US dollar at a fixed exchange rate. He resigned his position on 15 October 1983 due to widespread criticism of his "dollarization plan".[5]

Between 1990 and 1992, Aridor served as the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations.[6] In 2002, he was appointed to the board of directors of Bezeq, by then Minister of Communications Reuven Rivlin.[7] In February 2004, Aridor was appointed chairman of a commission examining state assistance to public institutions, created by the Ministerial Committee on State Audit Affairs.[8]

References
  1. Lior, Gad. "Israeli Economic Figures" (PDF). Miksam. Retrieved 23 June 2007. Attorney Yoram Aridor, who served as Minister of Finance from 1981, is remembered for the important reforms he initiated, but mostly for approving the first color broadcast, which led to a dramatic increase in the number of TV sets purchased.
  2. Eden, Vivian (1 December 1989). "Bird with Bound Feet". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
  3. "Israeli Cabinet Names New Finance Minister". The New York Times. 2 January 1981. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
  4. "Familiar Field". Time. 2 April 1981. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
  5. "Unhatched Egg". Time. 2 October 1983. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
  6. "Israel Approves Ex-Minister As Envoy to United Nations". The New York Times. 1 September 1990. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
  7. "Yoram Aridor and Galit Bar'on are Appointed to the Bezeq Board of Directors" (in Hebrew). 1 August 2002. Archived from the original on 7 June 2007. Retrieved 23 June 2007.
  8. Ilan, Shahar (2 September 2005). "Baby, it's cold outside". Haaretz.
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