and deputy commander of the Operations Department of the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) General Staff. From 1952 to 1954 he was com-
mander of the IDF Planning Department, where he was instrumental
in organizing the IDF as a reservist-based army and devising the mo-
bilization system. He was appointed deputy director of Military In-
telligence(DMI) in 1956 and that summer assigned Mordechai
(Motke) Kedarto an espionage mission in Arab countries.
Prior to the 1956 Sinai Campaign, Ne’eman was appointed MI’s
representative in Paris, where he consolidated the secret link between
the Israeli and the French intelligence communities. In 1958 Ne’e-
man was appointed military attaché at the Israeli embassy in London,
a position he held until 1960. During his stay in Great Britain, he
completed his doctorate in physics. Returning to Israel, he was made
a member of Israeli Committee for Atomic Energy (1960–1961). He
was demobilized from the IDF with rank of colonel in 1961.
During the 1967 Six-Day Warand the1973 Yom Kippur War,
Ne’eman as a reservist was an assistant to the director of MI for spe-
cial tasks. His other posts have included scientific director of Israel’s
nuclear reactor at Nahal Sorek (1961–1963), research associate
(1963–1964), and guest professor in theoretical physics (1964–1965)
at the California Institute of Technology. At times during his stay in
the United States his specialty in physics, combined with his Israeli
national security background, aroused suspicions in the Justice De-
partment and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of his acting for the
Israeli nuclear weapons program.
Ne’eman was also an associate of the Trieste International Institute
of Theoretical Physics (1965); professor and chairman of the Physics
and Astronomy Department at Tel Aviv University (1965–1972); vice
president of Tel Aviv University (1965–1966); a member of the Is-
raeli National Academy of Sciences (1966); a member of the Acad-
emy and director of the Center of Particle Theory at the University of
Texas (1968); winner of Israel Prize for Exact Sciences (1969) as
well as many other international prizes; president of Tel Aviv Uni-
versity (1971–1975); senior adviser to the Israeli minister of defense
(1975); a founder-member of the Tehiya movement (1979–1992);
chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Science and Technology;
alternate chairman of the Joint Committee for Settlement of the Is-
raeli government and the World Zionist Federation; and chairman of204 • NE’EMAN, YUVAL06-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:25 AM Page 204