Mordechai Maklef

Mordechai Maklef
Mordechai Maklef
Nickname(s)	Motke
Born	1920 Motza, Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine
Died	1978 Jerusalem, Israel
Allegiance	British Army Haganah Israel Defense Forces
Years of service	1932–1953
Rank	Rav Aluf (highest rank) Chief of Staff
Battles/wars	World War II (North African Campaign & Italian Campaign) 1948 Arab–Israeli War (Operation Hiram)

Mordechai (Motke) Maklef (or Makleff) (Hebrew: מרדכי (מותקה) מקלף‎‎; 1920–1978) was the third Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and later, director-general of many important public companies in the Israeli economy.

Makleff was born in the village of Motza, near Jerusalem in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1920. His parents were among the founders of this first modern village outside Jerusalem, located along the road to Jaffa. During the 1929 Palestine riots, inhabitants of the neighboring Arab village of Qalunya attacked the Makleff home, which was located along the perimeter of Motza, and killed the entire family, except the young Mordechai, who managed to escape the massacre by jumping from a second story window. The murderers included a shepherd employed by the family and the local policeman, who was the only person in the area to own a gun. The murder shocked the Jewish population of Palestine, and was one of the most remembered rioting events. With his immediate family now dead, Mordechai Makleff was raised by relatives in Jerusalem and Haifa.

As a teen, Makleff was active in the Haganah and in Orde Wingate's Night Raiders unit. With the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the Palestine Regiment of the British Army and fought in the North African and Italian campaigns. He was commissioned from the rank of sergeant in July 1942. Upon his release from the army with the rank of major in August 1946, he remained in Europe, engaged in illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine and acquiring arms for the emerging Jewish state. He later returned to Palestine and rejoined the Haganah.