Tzvi Tzur
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Tzvi Tzur (or Zvi Zur, צבי צור in Hebrew) (1923 - December 28, 2004) was the Israel Defense Forces' 6th Chief of Staff and an Israeli public figure.
Early life
Tvi Tzur was born in Russia in 1923 as Czera Czertenko and immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine when he was very young. In 1936, at the peak of the Great Arab Uprising and the 1936-1939 pogroms he joined the Hagannah in order to help protect the Jews from Arab rioters.Military career
With the outbreak of Israel War of Independence he was appointed as a battalion leader in the Givati Brigade. Tzur was the founder of the fast jeep reconnaissance company "Samson's Foxes" (שועלי שמשון), which waged bitter battles in the southern front. After the end of the war, he undertook organizing roles and went to study manpower management in the United States.In 1956 he was promoted to the rank of Major General and was appointed as the commander of the centeral front. In 1958 he was appointed as deputy chief of staff and went for long period of study in France. He returned on September 1960.
He replaced Chaim Laskov as the IDF chief of staff.
Chief of Staff
In January 1961 Tzur was appointed as the IDF Chief of Staff. One of his first actions was to appoint Major General Yitzhak Rabin as his deputy. Tzur's term was relatively quiet, except for border incidents with Syria which shelled Israeli settlement from the Golan Heights. The biggest IDF operation during Tzur's term was held on March 16, 1962, when the Golani Brigade raided Syrian outposts to the north of the Sea of Galilee in order to stop Syrian shelling. 7 Israeli soldiers and 30 Syrian soldiers were killed during the battle. However, the shelling was not stopped in the area and on August 19, 1963, Syrian forces murdered two civilians in Almagor.Tzur sought to draw quality manpower to the IDF and decided in June 1961 to provide officers with a private car for their personal usage. The model chosen was a Citroën 2CV.
Tzur also prepared the IDF for a war with the Arab armies and built up the defense forces so that it could stop Arab attacks. In August 1961, the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser revealed that Israel obtained Dassault Mirage III jet fighters, to counter Egyptian Soviet-made MiG-19s. The Mirages proven themself very well and served as the Israeli Air Force's main fighter for many years. The Mirages contributed substantially to Israel's victory in the Six-Day War and the elimination of the combined Arab airpower of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, as did other two notable acquisitions by Tzur, the Centurion tanks and MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missile technology.
On July 5, 1961, Israel launched the Shavit missile, igniting great technological pride in Israel, but also adding to the regional arms race.
Tzur retired from duty in December 1963.
Civlian career
After his retirement Tzur was appointed as the general manager of Mekorot, Israel's national water company. In 1965 he became a Knesset memember on behalf of Rafi - David Ben Gurion's party, but retired shortly after he was elected and continued to work in Mekorot.With the appointment of Moshe Dayan as the Minister of Defense in May 1967, Tzur was asked to assist Dayan. Tzur served as an adviser to the Minister of Defense for seven years.
After that, Tzur served at several managing positions, including the Israeli Aicraft Industries, the shipping company ZIM and "Hevra le-Israel".
Tzur was active in public affairs until his last days, and on April 29 2004 he signed a letter of support in Ariel Sharon's Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004.
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See also
- List of Israel's Chiefs of the General Staff
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