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Meir Amit

 

 
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Meir Amit (born 17 March 1921) is a former Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i politician and general. He served as Director of the Mossad
Mossad

The Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution. Membership in the Mossad is very prestigious in Israeli society, and the organization is considered to rank among the most effective intelligence agencies in the world....
 from 1963 to 1968, before entering politics and holding two ministerial positions.

in Tiberias
Tiberias

Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee, Israel. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius....
 during the British mandate, he fought for the Haganah
Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, known by the Israelis predominantly as War of Independence and War of Liberation , and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the Declaration of Independence State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict....
. In the late 1950s Amit studied in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, earning a business degree from Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in New York, New York. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students....
. After returning to Israel, Amit entered the Israeli intelligence community, first as a Major General at the head of IDF Intelligence
Aman (IDF)

The Directorate of Military Intelligence is Israel's central, overarching military intelligence, in the Israel Defense Forces. Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDF's General Staff ; the Intelligence Department itself was composed largely of former members of the Haganah Intelligence Service ....
 in 1961, and then as Mossad Director in 1963.

As Director, he orchestrated some of the Mossad's greatest successes, including the spy Eli Cohen
Eli Cohen

Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy....
 who penetrated the highest levels of the Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
n government.






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Meir Amit (born 17 March 1921) is a former Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
i politician and general. He served as Director of the Mossad
Mossad

The Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution. Membership in the Mossad is very prestigious in Israeli society, and the organization is considered to rank among the most effective intelligence agencies in the world....
 from 1963 to 1968, before entering politics and holding two ministerial positions.

Biography

Born in Tiberias
Tiberias

Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee, Israel. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius....
 during the British mandate, he fought for the Haganah
Haganah

Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces....
 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, known by the Israelis predominantly as War of Independence and War of Liberation , and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the Declaration of Independence State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict....
. In the late 1950s Amit studied in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, earning a business degree from Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School

Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in New York, New York. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students....
. After returning to Israel, Amit entered the Israeli intelligence community, first as a Major General at the head of IDF Intelligence
Aman (IDF)

The Directorate of Military Intelligence is Israel's central, overarching military intelligence, in the Israel Defense Forces. Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDF's General Staff ; the Intelligence Department itself was composed largely of former members of the Haganah Intelligence Service ....
 in 1961, and then as Mossad Director in 1963.

As Director, he orchestrated some of the Mossad's greatest successes, including the spy Eli Cohen
Eli Cohen

Eli Cohen was an Israeli spy....
 who penetrated the highest levels of the Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
n government. It was also during his time that the Mossad engineered the defection of a Maronite Iraqi pilot who flew the then new Mig-21 from Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
 to Israel. Amit is particularly known for his success in expanding Israel's human intelligence (HUMINT
HUMINT

HUMINT, a Syllabic abbreviation#Types of abbreviations of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to Intelligence by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the List of intelligence gathering disciplines such as SIGINT, IMINT and MASINT....
), especially in the Arab world
Arab world

The Arab World refers to Arabic-speaking countries stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast....
. During the lead up to the Six-Day War
Six-Day War

In the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967, Israel defeated the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. In Arabic, the war is called ....
 in 1967, Amit had a network of informants that permeated the entire Egyptian military, providing key details for Israel's pre-emptive strike
Operation Focus

Operation Focus was the opening pre-emptive airstrike by Israel at the start of the Six-Day War of 1967. It is sometimes referred to as "Sinai Air Strike" since the focus was primarily on airfields around the Sinai Peninsula....
 on Egyptian air bases and subsequent ground offensive. Amit also built close personal ties with the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States. It is the successor of the Office of Strategic Services formed during World War II to coordinate espionage activities between the branches of the US military services....
.

Since his retirement from the Mossad, he has continued to be an active voice in the intelligence community, and done work for the Israeli government. Following the lead of other former generals, Amit joined the Dash
Democratic Movement for Change

The Democratic Movement for Change , commonly known by its Hebrew acronym Dash was a short-lived and initially highly-successful centrist List of political parties in Israel in Israel....
 party and served in the Knesset
Knesset

The Knesset is the legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem....
.

He is currently the chairman of Israel's Center for Special Studies. In a recent 2006 interview with reporter Aaron Klein
Aaron Klein

Aaron Klein is an United States author. He is a Middle East correspondent and head of the Jerusalem bureau for WorldNetDaily and a columnist for The Jewish Press....
, Amit assessed the current problem of Islamic terrorism. He said that he views the conflict as World War III
World War III

World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would likely be nuclear war and devastating in nature....
, a widespread attempt to impose Islamic beliefs across the world. He has also called for the assassination of Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
ian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the sixth and current President of Iran of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became president on August 6, 2005, after winning the Iranian presidential election, 2005....
 who has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel. In a 2008 interview with Klein, Amit advocated military action to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The comments from Amit were considered significant since, until the interview, he had refused to support an attack against Iran.

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