Eli Zeira

Eli Zeira was born in 1928 in Haifa

Zeira was born in Haifa on April 4, 1928, to parents who came from Poland. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was a housekeeper. He studied at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa.

In 1946 he joined the Palmach and served in the Yiftach Brigade in the 1948 war as a platoon and company commander. He was the first IDF officer sent to the US Army company commanders' school. He later earned a bachelor's degree in economics and statistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He headed the office of chief of staff Moshe Dayan from 1954 to 1955 and led the operations branch of the General Staff during the 1956 Suez Crisis. From 1960 he commanded the 35th Paratroopers Brigade. In 1963 he joined Aman and headed its collection department, and in 1970 he became military attaché to the US and Canada.

In October 1972 he became head of Aman. Before the Yom Kippur War he held the assessment known as "The Concept," that Egypt would not attack without air superiority. The Agranat Commission found intelligence failures central to the surprise, and in April 1974 it recommended removing him from his post.

He studied at Stanford University and then left the IDF. In 1993 he published a book giving his account of the war. In 2004 Zvi Zamir accused him of exposing the identity of Ashraf Marwan, and in 2012 the case was closed with no charges. He died on November 21, 2025.