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Eli Zeira | |
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| Native name | אלי זעירא |
| Born | (1928-04-04)April 4, 1928 Haifa, Mandatory Palestine |
| Died | November 21, 2025(2025-11-21) (aged 97) |
| Allegiance |  Israel |
| Branch | Israel Defense Forces |
| Years of service | 1946–1974 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands | Director ofAman |
Eli Zeira (Hebrew:אלי זעירא; April 4, 1928 – November 21, 2025) was amajor general in theIsrael Defense Forces. He was director ofAman, Israel's military intelligence, during the 1973Yom Kippur War. He is most remembered for his ill-conceived prewar assessment thatEgypt andSyria would not attack (also known as "The Concept"),[1][2] despite intelligence to the contrary.
The postwarAgranat Commission, set to investigate the reasons for the costly war, found Zeira to be negligent of his duty, and he resigned.[3]
In 2004, formerMossad Director-GeneralZvi Zamir accused Zeira of leaking the identity ofAshraf Marwan, an Egyptian billionaire who served as a Mossad informant.[4] The State Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal investigation, which proved inconclusive and was closed in 2012.[5]
Zeira was born inHaifa, Mandatory Palestine, on April 4, 1928, where he received elementary and high school education at theHebrew Reali School.[6] In 1946, when he was 18, he joined theYiftach Brigade, then part of thePalmach. He fought for the brigade during the1948 Palestine War, serving as both a company and platoon commander for its 1st Battalion. During the war, he fought against theArab Liberation Army (ALA) in theGalilee, theArab Legion atLatrun, and theEgyptian Army in theNegev.[7][8] He also participated in repelling an offensive by the ALA in kibbutzTirat Zvi.[9]
Between 1949 and 1950, he led theSouthern Command's squad leaders' school. He then enrolled in theUnited States Army's company commander's school for a year, becoming the first IDF officer to do so, where he learned to fly.[9] When he returned to Israel, he attended theHebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a bachelor's in economics and statistics.[7][8] In 1951, he became an instructor at a battalion commander's school inTzrifin.[9]
Between 1953 and 1954, he commanded the Planning Department of theGeneral Staff. Between 1954 and 1955, he headed IDF chief of staffMoshe Dayan's office, where he was present at weekly meetings with Dayan, then-Defense MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion, and then-director general of the ministryShimon Peres.[9] He led theGivati Brigade's 51st Battalion in 1956, and after the brigade's disbandment, served as the General Staff's operations head, a role he held during that year'sSuez Crisis. He then finished a command and staff course for the US Army inFort Leavenworth, before serving with theMossad in an advisory mission for theEthiopian Army for a year.[7][8]
Between 1960 and 1962, he commanded the35th Paratroopers Brigade, before heading theOperations Directorate's Operations Department from 1962 to 1963. He joined theMilitary Intelligence Directorate (Aman) in 1963, heading its intelligence collection department until 1968. He wrote in an autobiography that at this time, he focused on developing technological innovations for Aman, including for intelligence collection at long-ranges in countries such as Egypt and Syria. His innovations helped the IDF achieve intelligence that led to its victory in theSix-Day War, which he was commended for by theIsrael Defense Prize Committee.[9] He became themilitary attaché to the US and Canada in January 1970.[7][8]
In October 1972, Zeira was appointed as the director of Aman. Before theYom Kippur War, he assessed in what is known as "The Concept" that Egypt would not declare war on Israel without air superiority, despite intelligence suggesting the contrary, including an October 6, 1973, warning by Mossad headZvi Zamir.[10] A day after a secret meeting by KingHussein of Jordan to the Mossad guesthouse north ofTel Aviv on September 25, 1973, in which he warned of an imminent war, defense minister Dayan held a meeting with Zeira and his deputy,Aryeh Shalev, where they dismissed his warning as too vague.[11] During a General Staff meeting on October 5, one day before the war, Zeira assessed that the probability of Egypt and Syria declaring war was "lower than low".[12]
On October 6, Egypt and Syria began a coordinated attack on Israel in the first stage of the Yom Kippur War, catching Israel off guard and leading to heavy losses.[8] After the war, theAgranat Commission was formed to investigate Israel's failures. The commission cleared the political leadership of wrongdoing and found that the key shortcomings stemmed from intelligence failures, particularly Zeira's concept.[9] It also found that Zeira failed to activate Aman's "special means" of collecting intelligence in time, despite the fact that they could have warned of Egypt's offensive. The commission further suspected that Zeira misled Israel's political leadership, including prime ministerGolda Meir, IDF chief of staffDavid Elazar, and defense minister Dayan, into believing that he had activated those "special means".[13] Zeira did not activate these means despite requests from his own staff and Elazar because he was convinced that Egypt would not attack Israel, and believed that activating the means would risk exposing them.[14]
Zeira called the findings baseless, and wrote in his autobiography that, "thus the entire blame was placed on those in uniform, and the political leadership came out clean." He argued that the Mossad was responsible for Israel's shortcomings by listening toAshraf Marwan, who he claimed was a "double agent" that misguided Israel.[11] The commission did not directly call for Zeria's dismissal, but he left Israel to study atStanford University and resigned from the IDF anyway, at the age of 47.[8][9]
In 2004, former Mossad headZvi Zamir accused Zeira of leaking the identity ofAshraf Marwan, an Egyptian billionaire and senior advisor to presidentAnwar Sadat who covertly provided Israel with valuable intelligence, including a warning of Egypt's 1973 attack. Zeira said that he had relied on news publications that had already named Marwan, and filed a libel lawsuit against Zamir in April 2005.[15] A criminal probe into Zeira was conducted by theState Prosecutor's Office. Retired judge Theodore Orr declared in 2007 that Zeira had leaked Marwan's identity and ordered him to pay compensation. TheAttorney General closed the case with no charges in 2012, due to Zeira's age and his contributions to Israel’s security.[8][10]
Zeira died on November 21, 2025, at the age of 97.[16]
Heads of theIsraeli Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) | |
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