Moshe "Muki" Betser (born 14 October 1945) is a retired

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

who served from 1964 to 1986. Considered "one of Israel’s legendary commandoes", while Betser was deputy commander of

Sayeret Matkal General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (formerly Unit 269 or Unit 262), more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal ( he, סיירת מטכ״ל) is the special reconnaissance unit (''sayeret'') of Israel's General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, General ...

, he helped plan, was the deputy commander of the ground element, and he was the commander of the break-in teams during Israel's

Operation Entebbe Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week earl ...

. He was also involved in

1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon The 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon (known as Operation Spring of Youth, Hebrew: מבצע אביב נעורים, ''Mivtsa Aviv Ne'urim'') took place on the night of April 9 and early morning of April 10, 1973, when Israeli army special forces un ...

and the failed hostage rescue operation during the

Ma'alot massacre The Ma'alot massacreSources describing the event as a "massacre": * "The day after the Ma'alot massacre, condemned by Pope Paul VI and most Western leaders as 'an evil outrage…'" Frank Gervasi. ''Thunder Over the Mediterranean'', McKay, 1975 ...

. The

Shaldag Unit Unit 5101, more commonly known as Shaldag ( he, שלדג, ''Kingfisher''), is an elite Israeli Air Force (IAF) special forces unit and one of the main Israeli special forces units. The unit is part of the Special Air Forces Wing (Wing 7) in the IAF ...

was founded in 1974, in the aftermath of the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...

, by Betser, who brought several Matkal veterans with him. Initially operating as a Sayeret Matkal reserve company, it was eventually transferred to the IAF.

Early life

Muki Betser was born in 1945 in his grandparents' house in

moshav A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...

Nahalal Nahalal ( he, נַהֲלָל) is a moshav in northern Israel. Covering 8.5 square kilometers, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a population of . Nahalal is best known for its general layout, as d ...

. They were among the seven people (along with

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...

's father) who established Israel's first

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

, Degania. His mother, Sarah Hurvitz, was born and raised in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

; her family lived in the area for five generations. His father, Nahman Betser, was born in the second kibbutz in Israel, Merhavia, that his grandparents also helped establish. Betser lived in Nahalal until he was four, then moved with his family to

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, where his father worked as a major construction contractor. His family's return to the

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...

to live in Beit She'arim when he was eight, was one of the "happiest days" of his life.

Private life

Betser married in February 1967. They lived in the house that his wife Nurit inherited in Nahalal, the childhood home of Moshe Dayan, only a few houses away from where Betser was born. They had one son, Saul, who followed Betser into "The Unit". Nurit died when she was 29. Betser remarried in 1982, and had two daughters, Tamar and Shani. Betser established a pre military program in the kibboutz Maagan Michael, considered one of the best in Israel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betser, Muki Living people Israeli colonels Israeli Jews Israeli people of the Six-Day War Israeli people of the Yom Kippur War Jewish military personnel Operation Entebbe People from Nahalal 1945 births