Meir Dagan
|
Aluf Meir Dagan |
|
|---|---|
| מאיר דגן | |
 |
|
| Director of the Mossad | |
|
In office 2002–2011 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Ariel Sharon Ehud Olmert Benjamin Netanyahu |
| Preceded by | Efraim Halevy |
| Succeeded by | Tamir Pardo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Meir Hubermann 30 January 1945 |
| Died | 17 March 2016 (aged 71) |
| Awards | Medal of Courage |
| Military service | |
| Nickname(s) | King of Shadows |
| Allegiance |
 Israel |
| Service/branch | Israel Defense Forces |
| Years of service | 1963–1996 |
| Rank | Aluf |
| Battles/wars |
Six-Day War Yom Kippur War 1982 Lebanon War |
Aluf Meir Dagan (Hebrew: מאיר דגן; 30 January 1945 – 17 March 2016) was a former Israel Defense Forces Major General and former Director of the Mossad.
Meir Huberman (later Dagan) was born on a train on the outskirts of Kherson, between the Soviet Union and Poland during World War II to Polish Jewish parents who were fleeing Poland for the Soviet Union to escape the Holocaust. His maternal grandfather, Ber Erlich Sloshny, was killed by the Nazis. 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-General of the Mossad, Dagan kept one of the photographs hanging in his office. Meir and his parents survived the Holocaust, and in 1950, the family made aliyah to Israel. During the ship's approach to Israel, it encountered a storm, during which Meir stood on the stern, praying to reach the shore safely. The family initially lived in an immigrant camp in Lod before settling in Bat Yam, where Meir grew up and his parents ran a laundry business.
Dagan was a vegetarian and an amateur painter, who studied painting and sculpture at Tel Aviv University. He was married with three children.
Dagan was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1963. He was considered for the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, but ended up joining the Paratroopers Brigade. He completed his compulsory service in 1966, but was called up as a reservist in 1967, and fought in the Six-Day War as an officer, commanding a paratrooper platoon on the Sinai front. 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. In 1971, he received a Medal of Courage for tackling a wanted terrorist who was holding a live grenade. Dagan later fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as an officer on the Sinai front, and participated in the crossing of the Suez Canal. During the 1982 Lebanon War, he commanded the Barak Armored Brigade, and was one of the first brigade commanders to enter Beirut. In the 1990s, he held a series of high-level positions in the IDF command, eventually reaching the rank of Major General before retiring from the army in 1995, after 32 years of service.
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