Uri Milstein

Uri Milstein was born in 1940 in Tel Aviv

Uri Milstein was born in Tel Aviv on 29 February 1940 to Avraham Milstein, a volunteer in the British army in World War II, and Sarah Milstein, a kindergarten teacher. His parents were among the founders of Kibbutz Afikim. His older brother served in the Palmach.

He studied at the Hayil school in Tel Aviv, at Hadassim, and at Ironi He High School. After his army service he studied economics, philosophy and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He wrote his PhD on religion and legislation in Israel.

He was drafted in 1958 and served with the paratroopers as a combat medic. Rafael Eitan appointed him historian of the paratroopers, a post he lost in 1974 after writing critically about the Battle of the Chinese Farm.

He published War of the Paratroops after the Six-Day War and By Blood and Fire Judea in 1973. In 1989 he began a series on the War of Independence, which stopped in 1991 after 4 of 12 planned volumes. He also published books criticizing the IDF in the Yom Kippur War and examining Yitzhak Rabin as a commander.

He taught military history at the IDF Command and Staff College in the 1980s and later at Safed College and the Ariel University Center. He founded the Survival Institute and a publishing house. He is married to actress Shifra Milstein and has two daughters.