Uzi Eilam is a

retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

brigadier general Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

and former director of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. Closely involved in many of the most crucial decision-making events in the State of Israel’s history, he had commanded various Israeli military units during his service to IDF.

Early life

He was born and raised in Kibbutz Tel Yosef, where he had to fight the elders to be allowed to study. He did his

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

bachelor's degree at Technion and got a M.Sc. in

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information a ...

. Alongside Ariel Sharon, he served in Israel's southern borders as a combat

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

during 1950s. In the 1956

Sinai campaign The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 W ...

, Eilam was a

company commander A company commander is the commanding officer of a company, a military unit which typically consists of 100 to 250 soldiers, often organized into three or four smaller units called platoons. The exact organization of a company varies by countr ...

of paratroopers. He was also a

battalion commander A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

in the paratroop brigade fighting in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

during the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

and the commander of a paratroop brigade in the

Jordan Valley The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...

in 1969 and 1970. Eilam was selected in 1973 to head the Military Research and Development Unit in the IDF and was promoted to Brigadier General. In 1976 he was appointed by Prime Minister

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...

to serve for 10 years as Director General of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. From 1986 to 1997 eilam was the Chief Scientist of the MOD and the director of the defense R&D. After 12 years of leading the R&D Eilam was sent to Paris to head the MOD mission to Europe. General Eilam retired from the Government on 2001.

Views

Nuclear program of Iran

Coming from "the heart of Israel's secret security mechanisms", he believes that

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

is using the threat of atomic Iran as a means of reaching "his own political aims". He said: "Netanyahu and other politicians have struck terrible, unnecessary fear into the hearts of the Israeli public, and thankfully the flames fanned over the issue seemed to have died down for now." He does not believe that

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

is even close to having a bomb. "The Iranian nuclear program will only be operational in another 10 years," declares Eilam. "Even so, I am not sure that Iran wants the bomb," he added.

Books

* ''Eilam's Arc: How Israel Became a Military Technology Powerhouse'', Sussex Academic Press (September 1, 2011) California Triangle: A fiction thriller on countering the efforts of Iran to spy on Israeli-American missiles defense in the Silicon Valley. A Trap in Paris: A fiction thriller on french-American-Israeli task force blocking the illegal purchasing of strategic materials for Iran in Europe. Singapore under Attack: A fiction thriller on Iranian effort to terrorize Singapore.

References

{{Authority control Military of Israel Politics of Israel Nuclear program of Iran Zionists Controversies in Israel Israeli generals Israeli Security Forces

Early life

Views

Nuclear program of Iran

Books

See also

References