lowing the reprimand, he downgraded the profile of providing early
warnings. However, the Agranat Commissionlater praised his deed
since it contributed in some way to alerting the Northern Command.
In 1976 and 1977 Ya’ari served as intelligence officer of the North-
ern Command; then he was promoted to brigadier general and became
head of the Research Division in MI, a post he held until 1982. In spring
1981 the Research Division was required by the Israeli government to
prepare a study on the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Because the director of MI,
Major General Yehoshua Saguy, was abroad at the time, Ya’ari was in-
vited to attend the cabinet meeting on the subject, where he presented
his division’s assessment of potential danger. Based on a rigorous study,
Ya’ari portrayed the impending threat in the blackest of colors. This as-
sessment contributed to the government’s decision to bomb the Iraqi re-
actor in the Opera Operation on 7 June 1981. Saguy had a different
opinion about the potential threat of the Iraqi reactor; had he been in Is-
rael at that time, he would probably have vetoed Ya’ari’s assessment.
On 10 May 1982 Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon presented to the government a wide-ranging mil-
itary operation planned for Lebanon known as “Little Pine Trees.” This
was an alternative to an all-out assault right up to Beirut, known as
“Big Pine Trees,” which had been previously proposed by the defense
minister; the change was due to objections by a majority of ministers.
Ya’ari, again standing in for the absent Saguy, assessed that even “Lit-
tle Pine Trees” would still mean war with Syria. Although “Little Pine
Trees” was approved by the government, when Peace for Galilee Op-
eration started in June 1982 it ballooned into a large-scale operation.
In 1982, after Peace for Galilee Operation, Ya’ari was promoted to
major general and was appointed commander of the National Secu-
rity College. He served in this position until 1987, when he retired
from the Israel Defense Forces. As a civilian, he chaired the Security
Division in the State Comptroller’s Office (1987–2000), after which
he retired from public life.YADIN-SHERF COMMISSION.This commission was set up in 1963
by Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion to look into the structure
and functioning of the entire Israeli intelligence community in light of
the 1954 Bad Businessin Egypt and the clash over the German sci-
entists in that country in the Damocles Operation. The commissionYADIN-SHERF COMMISSION• 31106-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 311