Lt. Gen. Moshe Levi (1983-1987)
Born in Tel Aviv in 1936, Moshe Levi joined the IDF in 1954 and in 1955 he underwent a course for infantry officers and was appointed platoon commander in the 890 battalion in the Paratroopers Brigade. In 1956 he took part in the Sinai War and parachuted with the the 890 Battalion not far from the Mitla Pass.
06.11.17
0
From 1957 till 1963 he filled several positions in the Paratroopers Brigade, then he became the Operations Officer of the brigade. In 1964 he studied at the Command and Staff Academy. In 1965 he served as deputy commander of the School for Parachuting and Guerilla Warfare and in 1966 he became the school’s commander. During his term of office, the Six-Day War took place and he took part in the conquest of the town of Ras Sudar, in the Gulf of Suez. In 1968 he was appointed deputy commander of the Reserve Paratroopers Brigade and in 1969 he commanded the Jordan Valley Regional Brigade. His term of office was characterized by the pursuit of terrorist squads attempting to infiltrate from Jordan and attack Israel (during the War of Attrition). In 1970 he commanded the Reserve Paratroopers Brigade. In 1973 he was appointed Head of the Central Command Staff. In 1974 he served as Head of Operations Department in the General Staff. In 1976 he commanded an Armored division in Reserve (880). In 1977 he commanded the Central Command, later (in 1982) served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Head of Operations Division. During his tenure, the First Lebanon War broke out and he took an active part in the conduct of the war alongside Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan.
In 1983 he was appointed the 12th IDF Chief of Staff. His service was marked by the gradual withdrawal from Lebanon and the establishment of the South Lebanon Security Belt, and important processes in building the IDF’s manpower, including the establishment of two new infantry brigades: the Givati Brigade and the Nahal Brigade. During the course of his term in office, two prominent but distinctly different long-term IAF operations were carried out: the attack on the PLO headquarters in Tunis and the immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
In 1987 he finished his term as Chief of Staff and went to study in England.
Later on, he was a member of a number of boards of directors of leading companies in the Israeli economy, including the head of the Cross Israel Highway Board. He passed away on January 8, 2008.
