[2][3] Moshe Sharett was born in Kherson in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine) to the family of Yaakov Chertok [he] and Fanya née Lev (לב).

[citation needed] He graduated from the first class of the Herzliya Hebrew High School, even studying music at the Shulamit Conservatory.

[8][11] During World War II, via his wife Zipporah, Sharett became embroiled in the question of emigration of refugee Jews stranded in Europe and the East.

He met with Tel Aviv-bound Hungarian Jewish refugee representative Joel Brand, fresh off the plane from Budapest.

Like Weizmann, whom he admired, Sharett was a principled Zionist, an implacable opponent of fascism, and a practical realist, prepared to co-operate fully with the Mandate authorities.

[15] Sharett, as Ben-Gurion's ally, denounced Irgun's assassination squads on 13 December 1947, accusing them of playing to public feelings.

International negotiations hosted by Britain took place on the Greek island of Rhodes at Suneh, King Abdullah's residence when Israel's emissaries, Yigael Yadin and Walter Eytan signed with Transjordan.

Knowing the Jordanian position on the Hebron Hills, Yadin told Sharett that surrounded by hostile Arab states, Israel had to sign the Transjordan over to Iraq.

American Dr. Ralph Bunche, who drafted the United Nations (UN) treaty for Sharett's office, received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ominous violence lay ahead for the new state, warned Sharett during a debate on 15 June, in which he reminded the Jewish people of their vital interests.

[18] As Foreign Minister, Sharett established diplomatic relations with many nations, and helped to bring about Israel's admission to the UN.

[17] During his time as Prime Minister (the fifth and sixth governments of Israel), the Arab-Israeli conflict intensified, particularly with Nasser's Egypt.

[17] In 1954, three cells of local Jews living in Egypt and one from Israel proper were activated as terror groups to sabotage in Alexandria and Cairo on the orders of a secretive Unit 131 of Israeli Intelligence.

[citation needed] A group of Israeli youths were ardent Zionist military trainees, but had little real experience of war.

When the news broke over Cairo Radio in summer 1954, Sharett turned to Minister for Labour Golda Meir for help.

The Minister of Defense, Pinchas Lavon, and his Head of Military Intelligence, Benjamin Gibli, both declared each other as the responsible party.

Sharett called for a Public Inquiry led by a Judge of the Supreme Court, Yitzhak Olshan, and a former Chief of Staff, Ya'akov Dori.

[23] Lavon offered to resign from the Defense Ministry on 2 February 1955, the same day Sharett and Golda Meir traveled to Sde Boker to see Ben-Gurion.

[24] Olshan-Dori's final judicial report exposed the difficulty of political management in the Defense Ministry with the cabinet conflicts emerging from Ben-Gurion's stewardship.

Ben-Gurion and Dayan immediately demanded approval of the planned Operation Black Arrow, which involved attacking Gaza.

Sharett had attempted to be pacifistic and restrained during his premiership, but was overtaken by the vocal elements in Mapai and their growing electoral support in the run-up to a General election.

An adjutant at the ministry, Nehemia Argov, wrote to Foreign Minister and PM Sharett to report the Gaza Raid as 8 dead and 8 wounded.

He harked back to the days of Havlagah when in the 1930s both he, Sharett and Ben-Gurion had pursued a policy of self-restraint in matters military.

[29] Sharett's pacific doctrine was diluted by both Ben-Gurion and Minister of Defense Dayan, and Operational commander of the Paratroop Brigade, Sharon.

[citation needed] After stepping down as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 18 June 1956, in protest at the new government's bellicose policy which he thought dangerously precipitate, Sharett decided to retire.