master’s thesis was on the Egyptian deception on the eve of the 1973
Yom Kippur War. Ze’evi was awarded by the then DMI a medal for
creative thinking in the field of early warning. He also studied business
administration at Harvard University. Ze’evi speaks Romanian, He-
brew, English, Arabic, and German.ZEIRA, ELIYAHU (ELI) (1928– ).The Israeli-born Zeira served in the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in various command positions, included
head of the chief of staff’s bureau (1954–1955). During the 1956 Sinai
Campaign, Zeira served as head of the IDF Operations Branch. Then
he set up and headed an IDF mission to Ethiopia. On his return, he was
made commander of the Paratroop Brigade; his next position was as
head of the Operations Department. In 1963 Zeira joined Military In-
telligence(MI), where initially he engaged in information collection;
after the 1967 Six-Day War, he became assistant to the director. In
January 1970 Zeira was appointed military attaché at the Israeli em-
bassies in the United States and Canada. After returning to Israel, he
was promoted to major general and appointed the director of MI.
Zeira was mistaken in his assessment of Egyptian and Syrian in-
tentions on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The Agranat
Commissionthat investigated the failures that led to the surprise of
that war recommended that Zeira be removed from his position in in-
telligence. Zeira became known as a commander who was reluctant
to hear, still less accept, assessments by subordinates that were con-
trary to his own. He resigned from MI and the IDF in 1974. In the
course of his career, Zeira had earned a bachelor’s degree in eco-
nomics and statistics from Hebrew University in Jerusalem; he then
took a year’s study in the United States, a privilege granted to every
senior officer. Zeira rejected all offers to serve in Israel in any posi-
tion, including the directorship of a large bank. He preferred to stay
in the United States, initially as a university professor and then as a
consultant to commercial corporations.ZOREA COMMISSION OF INQUIRY.This commission was created
in June 1984 to look into the Bus 300 Affair. Its mission was to de-
termine who had killed the two terrorists that had been captured alive
when a unit of the Israel Defense Forces stormed a bus that the ter-
rorists had hijacked en route from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon on 12 April330 • ZEIRA, ELIYAHU06-102 (04) Q-Z.qxd 3/24/06 7:26 AM Page 330