Summary:
The article profiles Israeli Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir as the key architect of Israel's military strategy against Iran, detailing his role in ordering a major attack that included targeting Iran's supreme leader. It describes his long-standing focus on Iran as a primary threat and his advocacy for a regional alliance to counter it. The report also notes his leadership during the Gaza conflict and his efforts to rebuild public trust in the military following the October 7 attacks.
Main Topics Covered:
1. The role and background of Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in Israel's war planning.
2. The execution and details of a significant Israeli offensive against Iran.
3. General Zamir's strategic focus on Iran and its proxies, and his push for a U.S.-Arab-Israeli alliance.
4. The context of the Gaza conflict and the aftermath of the October 7 attacks.
Supported by
Who Is Eyal Zamir, the Architect of Israel’s War Plans?
The Israeli general has long been focused on the threat from Iran and its proxies, and has called for a regional alliance against the country.
When Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, sat down for Shabbat dinner on Friday at his mother’s home in central Israel, nobody else at the table knew what was about to unfold.
Hours later, the general was being taken in an unmarked car to an underground military command center in Tel Aviv, where he gave the orders for Israeli forces to attack Iran, according to two Israeli military officials.
Those orders included the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
“You are authorized to execute,” General Zamir said, according to Israel’s military. “Strike your targets — you’re making history.”
General Zamir, 60, has emerged as a key architect of the joint Israeli-American offensive, drafting war plans with his American counterparts, consulting with Israeli political leaders and Arab security officials, and overseeing airstrikes, the officials said.
“He’s managing the operation,” said Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, a former senior Israeli military strategist. The Israeli military said General Zamir was not available for an interview.
Current and former Israeli officials say General Zamir has long been focused on the threat from Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen and on how Israel, the United States and the Arab world can work together to thwart it.
“He considers Iran to be the head of the snake,” said Brig. Gen. Guy Hazut, who previously served under General Zamir and has written about the Israeli military. “The idea is when you pull out the rug from under Iran, you pull out the rug from under all of its proxies surrounding us.”
A native of Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city, General Zamir has served in various senior positions in the military, including as a commander of operations in the Gaza Strip.
Former colleagues say that his years as commander in a tank division proved to be formative, giving him a soldier’s eye view of the battlefield.
He became chief of staff in March last year, and analysts say he was appointed by the Israeli government to help rebuild public trust in the military after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, widely regarded as among the worst intelligence failures in the country’s history.
General Zamir had previously warned about Israel’s preparedness in the face of a “heavy, long, multifront battle,” saying in 2021 that Israel needed a “critical mass” of soldiers that wasn’t there at the time.
He went on to lead a campaign against Hamas in Gaza that has come under intense international criticism. Israel’s bombardments caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians and widespread destruction.
The Israeli military has said it does not deliberately target civilians and accused Hamas of embedding its fighters among them.
Three months into General Zamir’s tenure, Israel carried out a surprise attack on the Iranian nuclear program, igniting a 12-day conflict last June, during which Iran retaliated with volleys of ballistic missiles aimed at Israeli territory.
Hundreds of Iranians were killed in that war, including women and children, according to Iran’s health ministry. Dozens of Israelis were killed by Iran’s retaliatory strikes, the Israeli authorities say.
The conflict was a watershed moment for General Zamir, as Israel was for the first time fighting an open war against Iran, and not one of its regional proxies.
For years, the two sides had traded one-off clandestine attacks by land, sea, air and cyberspace. General Zamir had argued that those attacks should be expanded. In a 77-page paper for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he called for a focused campaign against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and a defensive alliance against Iran among states in the region.
“It is important to act strategically with partners and act unexpectedly to create surprises and uncertainty and generate apprehension both in Iran and among its proxies,” he wrote.
In the weeks leading up to the current campaign, General Zamir held a flurry of meetings with the top leadership of the U.S. military.
In January, he visited Washington to meet with Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And he has discussed intelligence and battle plans with Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of Central Command, a branch of the U.S. military responsible for the Middle East, according to the two Israeli officials.
The commanders have a close working relationship, and General Zamir even hosted Admiral Cooper for Shabbat dinner in Israel, the officials added.
.
Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute, who worked with General Zamir in the 2020s when he was a fellow at the institute, said he was someone known for speaking candidly, laying it down as he sees it.
That has extended to senior politicians. General Zamir served as military secretary for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and, although they appear to be aligned on the need to attack Iran, the two men have been at odds before.
When Mr. Netanyahu set out plans to invade Gaza City in August, which he said was an effort to rout Hamas, General Zamir pushed back, raising concerns about the welfare of Israeli hostages in Gaza and the exhaustion of his soldiers. He has also been vocal about the military’s need to enlist more ultra-Orthodox Israelis in its ranks, even as the government delays passing legislation on the issue.
“He’s not a yes man,” said Moshe Tur-Paz, a centrist Israeli lawmaker and a member of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Professionalism is more important to him than political loyalty.”
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
Related Content
Advertisement
Meridiano
