Zvi Zamir

Zvi Zamir
Zvi Zamir
צבי זמיר‎
	Zamir in 1979
Born	Zvicka Zarzevsky; 3 March 1925; Łódź,Poland
Died	2 January 2024(aged 98); Tel Aviv,Israel
Nationality	Israeli
Occupation	Director of Mossad
	Espionage activity
Allegiance	State of Israel
Service branch	Palmach; Israel Defense Forces; Mossad;
Service years	Palmach: 1942–1948; IDF: 1948–1968; Mossad: 1968–1974;
Rank	Major general

Zvi Zamir(Hebrew:צבי זמיר;bornZvicka Zarzevsky;3 March 1925 – 2 January 2024) was a major general in theIsrael Defense Forcesand the director of theMossadfrom 1968 to 1974.

Early life[edit]

Born in Poland on 3 March 1925,^[1]^[2]Zamir immigrated with his family to the thenBritish Mandate of Palestinewhen only seven months old. At the age of 18, Zamir began his military career, first as a soldier in theHaganah's Palmach,a unit that included future Israeli leaders such asMoshe DayanandYitzhak Rabin.

Intelligence career[edit]

IDF posts[edit]

During the1948 Arab–Israeli War,Zamir fought in the newly createdIsrael Defense Forcesas an infantry platoon leader. After the war he continued climbing thechain of command,becoming a licensedreconnaissancepilot for the Artillery branch, and was eventually promoted to the commander of theSouthern Command.His final IDF post before being appointed Mossad director came in 1966, when he was appointed the military attaché toLondon.

Mossad[edit]

During his tenure at the Mossad, he helped carry out anassassination campaign,the Israeli response to theMunich Massacre,and dealt with the lead up and aftermath of theYom Kippur Warin 1973. After theWest Germangovernment refused to accept an Israelispecial forcesteam during the Munich hostage crisis, Zamir was sent to observe activities. He was at theFürstenfeldbruckairbase the night that the failed rescue attempt left all nine remaining Israeli hostages dead. Zamir was interviewed about the incident in 1999 when he spoke with the producer ofOne Day in September,a documentary on the massacre. In it he strongly criticized the German rescue effort for its complete lack of coordination. He had previously been interviewed on this subject for anNBCprofile during their coverage of the1992 Barcelona Olympics,and he discussed the massacre several times thereafter.

Later life[edit]

Zamir was played by Ami Weinberg inSteven Spielberg's2005 movieMunich.

His memoirs were published inHebrewin 2011 under the titleWith Open Eyes(Be'einaim Pekuhot,בעיניים פקוחות‎).^[3]

Zamir lived in Zahala, a neighborhood in the north ofTel Aviv.He died on 2 January 2024, at the age of 98.^[4]

References[edit]

^Profile of Zvi Zamir
^"צבי זמיר".Archived fromthe originalon 14 November 2020.Retrieved3 April2018.
^Bar-Joseph, Uri; McDermott, Rose (3 March 2017).Intelligence Success and Failure: The Human Factor.Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-934175-7.
^Zvi Zamir, Mossad director during Yom Kippur War, dies at 98

External links[edit]

Itamar Eichner,Mossad chief in Yom Kippur War: Tell CIA No. 2 to kiss my ass,Ynetnews,17 December 2019

[1] Profile of Zvi Zamir

[2] "צבי זמיר".Archived fromthe originalon 14 November 2020.Retrieved3 April2018.

[3] Bar-Joseph, Uri; McDermott, Rose (3 March 2017).Intelligence Success and Failure: The Human Factor.Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-934175-7.

[4] Zvi Zamir, Mossad director during Yom Kippur War, dies at 98

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