Historical Dictionary of Israeli Intelligence

SIMAN-TOV, BINYAMIN (1947– ).Born in Iraq, Siman-Tov immi-

grated to Israel in 1950. He was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces

(IDF) in 1968 and served in various intelligence tasks. On 1 October

1973, a few days before the Yom Kippur War, Lieutenant Siman-Tov,

a junior intelligence officer in the IDF Southern Command, sent a doc-

ument he had prepared to Lieutenant Colonel David Gedaliah, chief in-

telligence officer of Southern Command, in which he noted that the

huge Egyptian deployments and exercises along the western bank of the

Suez Canal seemed to be camouflage for a real canal-crossing assault.

This assessment was ignored, so on 3 October he sent another, entitled

“Situation Report on the Egyptian Army: 13 September–2 October

1973.” This was likewise set aside by his superior. Siman-Tov, being

very junior in the IDF hierarchy, was to have no influence on the upper-

level intelligence assessments of Egyptian intentions.

After the war, when the Agranat Commissionpublished its par-

tial report in 1974, the director of Military Intelligence (DMI), Major

General Shlomo Gazit, promoted Siman-Tov to the rank of captain

and instituted the Siman-Tov Procedureto allow junior analysts

with dissenting opinions to be heard. Siman-Tov retired from the IDF

as a lieutenant colonel in 1987. In 1995 DMI Uri Sagieawarded

Siman-Tov a prize for “creative thinking” in his contribution to IDF

intelligence. See alsoCONCEPT.

SIMAN-TOV PROCEDURE.On the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur

War, senior military intelligence officers disregarded warnings submit-

ted by a junior intelligence officer, Lieutenant Binyamin Siman-Tov,

that the huge Egyptian deployments and exercises along the Suez Canal

seemed to be camouflage for a real canal-crossing assault. In fact, the

young officer’s assessment proved right. Accordingly, Director of Mil-

itary Intelligence (DMI) Major General Shlomo Gazit(1974–1978)

initiated a procedure whereby every Israeli army officer who holds a

view different from the prevailing wisdom would be allowed to express

it freely, even bypassing his or her direct commander, even going di-

rectly to the DMI. Normally no soldier or officer is allowed to bypass

his immediate commanders. This innovation became known as the

Siman-Tov Procedure.

SINAI CAMPAIGN (1956).Also known in Hebrew as Mivtza Kadesh

(Kadesh Operation). In September 1955, in violation of international

SINAI CAMPAIGN• 261

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