Meir Dagan

Aluf Meir Dagan מאיר דגן‎
Director of the Mossad
In office 2002–2010
Prime Minister	Ariel Sharon Ehud Olmert Benjamin Netanyahu
Preceded by	Efraim Halevy
Succeeded by	Tamir Pardo
Personal details
Born	Meir Hubermann (1945-01-30) January 30, 1945 (age 67) []
Military service
Allegiance	Israel
Service/branch	Israeli Defense Forces
Years of service	1963–1996
Rank	Aluf
Battles/wars	Six Day War Yom Kippur War 1982 Lebanon War
Awards	Medal of Courage

Aluf Meir Dagan (Hebrew: מאיר דגן‎; born 30 January 1945) is a former Israel Defense Forces officer and former Director of the Mossad.^[1]

Biography

Meir Huberman (later Dagan) was born to parents from Novosibirsk on a train in 1945, while they were being deported to a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. His maternal grandfather, Ber Erlich Sloshny, was murdered in the Holocaust. In 2009, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published two photos of Nazi soldiers standing next to a kneeling Sloshny shortly before they shot him. During his term as Director of the Mossad, Dagan kept one of the photographs hanging in his office.^[2] In 1950, Meir and his family made aliyah to Israel.^[3]Dagan is a vegetarian and an amateur painter, who studied painting and sculpture at the Tel Aviv University.^[4]

Military career

IDF chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi honoring outgoing Mossad director, Meir Dagan

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Dagan served as an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade. In the early 1970s, he commanded an ad hoc undercover commando unit, known as Sayeret Rimon, whose task was to combat the increasing violence in the Palestinian territories.^[5] He received a Medal of Courage for disarming a terrorist in 1971. Dagan later fought in the Yom Kippur War. During the 1982 Lebanon War, he commanded an armored brigade.^[3]

Dagan was appointed Director of the Mossad by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August 2002, replacing outgoing Director Ephraim Halevy. He was reconfirmed until the end of 2008 by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in February 2007,^[6] and in June 2008 Olmert again extended his tenure until the end of 2009.^[7]

In mid 2007 Dagan had a "spat with the Deputy Director N,^{[clarification needed]} who was thought to be a candidate for replacing Dagan in late 2008. Dagan restored his former deputy T to the post and Dagan was thought likely to recommend T as his replacement.^[8]

He was re-appointed in 2009 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to serve until the end of 2010.^[9] In June 2010 a report from Channel 2 stated that Netanyahu had denied a request by Dagan for another year as Mossad director,^[10] though this was quickly denied by the Prime Minister's Office.^[11] In November 2010, Tamir Pardo was announced as his replacement.

Following his departure, Dagan made several controversial public statements concerning the prudence of an Israeli military attack on Iran's nuclear facilties. He called it a "stupid idea."^[when?] After Dagan voiced criticism of the prime minister, he was asked to return his diplomatic passport before its expiration date.^[12] Dagan repeated the opinion in a March, 2012 interview with Leslie Stahl of CBS News' 60 Minutes, calling an Israeli attack of Iran before other options were exhausted "the stupidest idea" and saying he considered the Iranians "a very rational regime."^[13]

Business career

As of 2011, Dagan serves as the director of the Israel Port Authority.^[14] In 2011 he was also appointed chairman of Gulliver Energy Ltd. (TASE:GLVR), which announced that it intends to mine uranium at a license in the Dead Sea area^[15] and drill in search of gold near Eilat.^[16]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Meir Dagan

v t e Directors of the Mossad Shiloah (1949-52) · Harel (1952-63) · Amit (1963-68) · Zamir (1968-74) · Hofi (1974-82) · Admoni (1982-89) · Shavit (1989-96) · Yatom (1996-98) · Halevy (1998-2002) · Dagan (2002-11) · Pardo (2011-)