Ezer Weizman was born in Tel Aviv in the British Mandate of Palestine on 15 June 1924 to Yechiel and Yehudit Weizmann.

During 1947, in the midst of his studies, he became involved in a plot to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, commander of the British forces in Mandatory Palestine at the time.

He and another Irgun operative had planned to mine the road outside Barker's house in London, but after attracting the suspicions of Scotland Yard, he left England, ending the plot.

In May 1948, he learned to fly the Avia S-199 (Messerschmitt Bf 109) at the České Budějovice air base in Czechoslovakia (Operation Balak) and participated in Israel's first fighter mission (executed by its "first fighter squadron"), a ground attack on an Egyptian column advancing toward Ad Halom near the Arab town of Isdud south of Tel Aviv.

[7][8] After Donald Neff wrote an article for Time magazine reporting an incident at Beit Jala, where a school was surrounded, the doors shut and canisters of gas fired into it, Weizman had a commission investigate Palestinian claims that it was part of an Israeli army campaign against youths in the West Bank which resulted in numerous Palestinians having their arms and legs broken and their heads shaved.

When the commission confirmed that the Beit Jala story was true he fired the military governor of the West Bank, Brigadier General David Hagoel, for abusing Palestinians.

After the visit to Jerusalem of Egypt's president Anwar Sadat in 1977, Weizman (who spoke Arabic[7]) developed a close friendship with him and the Egyptian negotiators Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Hosni Mubarak.

The party joined a national unity government in which Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir served as prime ministers in rotation.

[citation needed] On 24 March 1993, the Knesset elected Weizman, by a majority of 66 to 53 (against Dov Shilansky, the Likud candidate), to serve as the next president of Israel.

[citation needed] In 1996, in an attempt to promote the peace process, Weizman invited Yasser Arafat for a private visit to his home in Caesarea.

In 1999, he met with the DFLP leader Nayef Hawatmeh, declaring "I am even prepared to meet with the devil if it helps [to bring peace].

[citation needed] At the end of 1999, newspapers published allegations that Weizman had accepted large sums of money from businessmen before becoming president, without reporting this to the proper authorities.