Benjamin Netanyahu, elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) as a Likud member in 1988, has served as deputy minister of foreign affairs and from 1991 as a deputy minister in Yitzhak Rabin's coalition cabinet.

During the Persian Gulf War, Netanyahu had become internationally known as the Israeli spokesman in television interviews.

Ehud Barak, who has served as head of military intelligence, in April 1991 becomes the fourteenth chief of Israel's General Staff and is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, the highest in the Israeli military.