Dan Harel (; born 1955) is a retired general in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

and a former Deputy Chief of the General Staff. Harel served as the Director General of the Ministry of Defense from 2013 to 2016.

Biography

Born in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, 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 metropolitan area i ...

, Harel began his military career in 1974 at the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

flight school Flight training is a course of study used when learning to aviator, pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted un ...

, however, in 1976 switched to the Israeli Artillery Corps. As he advanced up the

chain of command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. Military chain of command In a military context, the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders ...

, Harel participated in the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

as a battalion commander. He left the Artillery Corps in 1993 to become the Head of the Operations Department for the

General Staff A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, Enlisted rank, enlisted, and civilian staff who serve the commanding officer, commander of a ...

but returned in 1995 as its overall commander. He then served successively as Military Assistant to the

Minister of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

in 1998, an Armored Division commander in 2000, and head of the

Operations Directorate The Israeli Operations Directorate (, ''Agaf HaMivtza'im'', abbreviated as ( ''Agam'') is the Operations (military staff), operations branch in the Israeli General Staff, General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. It was established in 1999, al ...

in 2001. During this time Harel attended the US Advanced Artillery Officers' Course and the IDF Brigade Commanders' Course and also received a B.A. in Political Science from the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

Harel was later appointed head of the Southern Command, a position he held from 2003 to 2006. In this capacity, he not only implemented

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence ...

measures but was also the commander in charge of Israel's Gaza pull-out in the summer of 2005. The withdrawal was largely non-violent, although there was a last-stand of Israeli protesters at the community of Kfar Darom. While he did not aspire to conduct the operation, Harel carried out the assignment as a self-described "envoy of Israeli democracy". He later credited the mission's success to the nobility of the settlers and the restraint of the IDF troops, stating that now "the unity begins". Yet as rocket and mortar attacks have continued to be launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel, some Israeli papers have begun to criticize him for not planning for this predicted aftermath. Though it was expected that he would retire after the disengagement, Harel was appointed Israel's Defense & Defense Cooperation attaché to Washington in January 2006, replacing Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin. On October 1, 2007, he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff replacing Maj. General Moshe Kaplinsky. In 2011, Harel was the CEO of the Israeli Ministry of Transportation. He resigned in October 2011.

Notes

References

Bio from Embassy of IsraelBiof from IDF"Harel appointed next attache' in Washington" by Arieh O'Sullivan ''The Jerusalem Post''
- IDF Spokesman's Unit.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harel, Dan Living people Israeli generals 1955 births University of Haifa alumni Military personnel from Haifa Israeli expatriates in the United States