Isser Be'eri

Isser Be'eri
איסר בארי
Isser Be'eri in 1949
Head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate
In office 30 June 1948 – 3 July 1949
Nickname(s)	Big Isser

Isser Be'eri (Hebrew: איסר בארי‎‎, born 1901, died January 1958) was the director of the Haganah Intelligence Service in Israel and was responsible for helping to reorganise Israeli intelligence services in 1948, as well as ordering the execution of Meir Tobianski, who had been convicted of treason but was later found to have been innocent. He was the founding director of the Israeli Intelligence Department (between 1948 and 1949), which later became the Military Intelligence Directorate.

Born in Będzin in Germany (today in Poland), Be'eri was one of a group of young men known as the "Six from Bedzin", who were later the founders of Migdal. Be'eri emigrated to Palestine in 1921 and became a member of Kibbutz Artzi. He worked in construction until 1938. Between 1944 and 1945 he managed Israel Military Industries, and from 1946 to 1947 managed the Na'aman factory.

Be'eri joined the Haganah in 1938 and was in its work battalions, before becoming commander of the Kfar Giladi region. In 1947 he joined Shai, and in February 1948 was appointed its head.

On 30 June 1948 Shai was disbanded as part of a reorganization of the Israeli secret service. Three agencies were created: Shin Bet (Shabak), Mossad and Military Intelligence Directorate, with Be'eri appointed the Director of the latter.

Meir Tobianski was a Major in the British army during the Second World War and was a captain in the Haganah. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Tobianski was working for the Jerusalem Electric Corporation and had knowledge of the exact location of several arms manufacturers in Jerusalem. These factories had received direct hits from Jordanian artillery.