15 Facts About Amir Drori

Amir Drori was an Israeli general, founder and the first director general of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Amir Drori was born in Tel Aviv in 1937 and graduated from the IDF's Junior Command Preparatory School in Haifa.

Amir Drori was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1955, where he joined the Golani infantry brigade.

Amir Drori was awarded the Medal of Courage for his part in the Israeli raid on the Syrian village of Tawafiq in 1960.

In 1972 Amir Drori was given command of the Golani Brigade, which he was to lead through the intensive fighting of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Amir Drori was wounded during the Third Battle of Mount Hermon, in which his troops recaptured the Israeli post held by Syrian commandos, but returned to lead the brigade during the fighting preceding the final disengagement agreements of May 1974.

In 1976 Amir Drori was appointed to lead the IDF's 36th Armored Division.

Amir Drori went on to command the IDF's training department before given command of Israel's Northern Command in 1981.

Amir Drori played a significant role in the 1982 Lebanon War, leading Israeli forces to the gates of Beirut through fighting with both the Syrian Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Amir Drori served at Northern Command for another year before leaving in December 1983.

Amir Drori returned to Israel in 1984 and was assigned command of IDF ground forces, later went on to head the IDF's Operations Directorate, and in October 1986 became the Deputy Chief of the General Staff.

Amir Drori retired from the IDF in 1988 following his failure to secure the post of Chief of the General Staff.

Between 1961 and 1964 Amir Drori had studied Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, participating in several digs, including that of Yigael Yadin at Masada.

Amir Drori occasionally received death threats and was even reputed to have been the target of a Pulsa diNura, a kabbalistic ceremony supposedly intended to bring about the death of an individual.

Amir Drori died on March 12,2005, after suffering a heart attack during a hiking trip in the Negev.