Zvi Ayalon

Zvi Ayalon was born in 1911 in Russian Empire

Ayalon was born in the Russian Empire in 1911 to Esther and Meir Lashchiner. He immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1923. He studied at the Reali School in Haifa and at the Mikveh Israel agricultural school.

At 16 he joined the Haganah, and he was wounded as a platoon commander in the 1929 riots. From 1936 he held command and training roles in the Haifa area and later in the northern Galilee, which he commanded from 1944. He helped shape the idea of the Field Force and the doctrine of offensive defense.

In January 1948 he became Deputy Chief of Staff and kept the post in the IDF as a major general, while also commanding the Third Front around Jerusalem. During Yaakov Dori's illness he served as acting Chief of Staff and signed arrest warrants in the Altalena affair and for Meir Tobiansky. He later headed the logistics branch and, from 1954 to 1956, the Central Command.

He then held senior posts at the Ministry of Defense, including deputy director-general for economic affairs from 1958. In 1964 he became ambassador to Romania, and he left military service in 1965. He later directed licensing at the Ministry of Transportation, served as Tel Aviv's municipal auditor, and in 1968 co-founded the Council for a Beautiful Israel.

He married Rachel Katznelson in 1931 and had two children. He died in 1993.