Mickey Edelstein

Mickey Edelstein was born in 1967 in Jerusalem

Michael (Mickey) Edelstein was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Omer. He was a member of the Scouts and did a year of service in a poor neighborhood before enlisting. He is married to Hadar and has 2 children.

He holds a bachelor's degree in law and business administration from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. He also earned a master's degree in national resource management from the National Defense University in Washington.

He joined the IDF in 1986 and volunteered for the Shaldag unit, where he later became an officer. He went on to command the Duvdevan unit, Battalion 202 of the Paratroopers, the Binyamin Brigade and the Nahal Brigade, which he led in the Second Lebanon War. He later served as chief infantry and paratroopers officer.

In 2012 he took command of the Gaza Division and led it in Operation Pillar of Defense and Operation Protective Edge. He worked on methods to find and destroy tunnels from Gaza. In 2016 he was promoted to major general and became the IDF attaché in the United States.

He retired from the IDF in 2020. That year he helped manage the coronavirus crisis in the Haredi sector. He then joined Elbit Systems as a senior vice president and served in the reserves in the Swords of Iron war.