Blending Sincerity with Style

He favors regular hours and punctilious habits, but admires, and often exemplifies, a debonair style. He savors jokes, but does not tell them. And even though he rarely raises his voice, he has always been fired by passionate convictions. As Menachem Begin's successor, Yitzhak Shamir, 67, is at once less strident and more uncompromising than his former boss. Instead of denouncing or defending Begin's policies, the small (5 ft. 4 in.) man with deep-set eyes and a shock of gray-black hair may simply take to investing them with his distinct brand of...