Tzvi Ayalon (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: צבי איָילון; June 15, 1911 - March 4, 1993) was a

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...

leader and a major general (

Aluf ''Aluf'' ( he, אלוף, lit=champion or "First\leader of a group" in Biblical Hebrew; ) is a senior military rank in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or admiral. ...

) in the

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 ...

, he served as the first Deputy Chief of General Staff as well as the commander of the

Central Command (Israel) The Central Command ( he, פיקוד מרכז, ''Pikud Merkaz''), often abbreviated to Pakmaz (פקמ"ז), is a regional command of the Israel Defense Forces. It is responsible for the units and brigades located in the West Bank (under the West B ...

. After his military service he served as the deputy director-general of the

Ministry of Defense (Israel) The Ministry of Defense ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַבִּטָּחוֹן, Misrad HaBitahon, Ministry of Security, acronym: he, משהב"ט) of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Isra ...

and Ambassador of Israel in Romania.

Biography

Early life

Ayalon was born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in the summer of 1911, son of Esther and Meir Lashchiner. In 1923, as a young teenager, he immigrated to the

British mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...

. Studied at the Reali School in Haifa and at the Mikveh Israel Agricultural School.

Haganah service

At the age of 16, he joined the Jewish paramilitary organization

. He served as a platoon commander during the

1929 Palestine riots The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising ( ar, ثورة البراق, ) or the Events of 1929 ( he, מאורעות תרפ"ט, , ''lit.'' Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longst ...

; in which he was injured. He served from 1936 in the permanent apparatus of the

in the Haifa area, and held command and training positions in the area, and later in the northern Galilee area. In 1943 he instructed the officers' course of the

organization in

Joara Joara was a large Native American settlement, a regional chiefdom of the Mississippian culture, located in what is now Burke County, North Carolina, about 300 miles from the Atlantic coast in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Joara is n ...

. In 1944 he was appointed commander of the Northern Galilee. Later he was a senior staff officer in the General Staff. He was a partner in formulating the idea of the Field Force ( Hish) and the combat theory of 'offensive defense'. On the eve of the outbreak of the War of Independence, he served as a planning officer at the General Staff. Ayalon_avidar

IDF service

In January 1948, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, and with the establishment of the

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 ...

in May of that year, he continued in his position, with the rank of Major General (

). At the same time as his position as Deputy Chief of Staff, he was the commander of the Third Front (today the Central Command), which commanded the forces that fought in and around Jerusalem. Due to the illness of the

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

Yaakov Dori Yaakov Dori (; October 8, 1899 – January 22, 1973), born Yaakov Dostrovsky, was the first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He was also the President of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Biography Yaakov Dostr ...

, he was the acting

for a while. While acting as Chief of Staff, he signed arrest warrants for the

Altalena The ''Altalena'' Affair was a violent confrontation that took place in June 1948 by the newly created Israel Defense Forces against the Irgun (also known as IZL), one of the Jewish paramilitary groups that were in the process of merging to form ...

defendants as well as Meir Tobiansky's arrest warrant. After the war he was responsible for the creation of the IDF parade in July 1949, which took place after the failure of the parade that did not march on the

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...

. In 1952 he was appointed head of logistics department (today

Technological and Logistics Directorate The Israeli Technological and Logistics Directorate (acronym: Atal) is a directorate in the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, responsible for its logistics responses and tasks, and in particular: the building of military bases, maintaini ...

) and in 1954 he was appointed as commander of the

, a position which he served in until February 1956. In August 1957 he was appointed head of the Construction and Assets Division at the

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

, in July 1958 he was appointed by then Prime Minister and Minister of Defense David Ben-Gurion as Deputy Director of the economic affairs of the

, and in 1964 he served as the

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Other work

He officially left his military service in 1965 and became the director of the licensing department at the

Ministry of Transportation A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...

and as auditor of the

Tel Aviv Municipality Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality ( he, עיריית תל אביב-יפו) is the arm of local government responsible for the administration of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality handles such municipal affairs as education, cu ...

. in 1968 he co-founded the Council for a Beautiful Israel.

Awards and decorations

Tzvi Ayalon was awarded one campaign ribbons for his service. {, class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto; text-align:center;" , - , Israeli Independence war

Personal life

In 1931 he married Rachel Katznelson (who died in the spring of 1970), and was the father of two.

References

1911 births 1993 deaths Haganah members Israeli soldiers