Dani Arditi

Dani Arditi was born in 1951 in Yir'on

Arditi was born in 1951 in Kibbutz Yir'on in the Upper Galilee, to parents who came from Egypt. He and his twin sister were the first children born on the kibbutz after its founding.

He enlisted in the IDF in 1970 and volunteered for Sayeret Matkal. He took part in the 1972 Sabena hijacking rescue, fought in the Yom Kippur War, and led a team in the 1976 Entebbe operation. He later served as a company commander and deputy unit commander around the First Lebanon War.

From 1984 to 1994 he held command posts in the Intelligence Corps and headed its special operations unit. In 1998 he became a brigadier general and commander of the Liaison Unit for Foreign Forces, and in 1999 he took over the External Relations Division. He left the army in 2002.

In 2002 he became head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council. After Ilan Mizrahi resigned in 2007, he led the council, and Uzi Arad replaced him in 2009. He later ran the security firm IFG Security and joined the Labor Party in 2017.

He held degrees from the Hebrew University and the University of Haifa. He died on 12 February 2026 and was buried in Modiin.