AMIT (Slutzky), MEIR

AMIT (Slutzky), MEIR (1921– ), Israeli military commander and politician. Member of the Ninth Knesset. Amit was born in Tiberias. From 1939 to 1952 he was a member of kibbutz *Allonim. He joined the *Haganah in 1936, and from 1940 to 1945 served in the supernumerary police. In 1947 Amit participated in the battles for *Mishmar ha-Emek and the *Jezreel Valley. In 1948 he joined the idf and participated in the battle for the liberation of the Lower Galilee and Operation Hiram (see *War of Independence). In 1950 he was appointed commander of the Golani Brigade and in 1951 commander of the Training Command, and chief of operations on the General Staff. After spending a year in an officers' course in England, he was appointed idf chief of operations in 1954, commander of the Southern Command in 1955, and again chief of operations in 1956, in which capacity he coordinated the planning team for the *Sinai Campaign of 1956. In 1958 he became commander of the Northern Command. In 1959 he took time off to study business administration at Columbia University in New York. In 1961 he was appointed head of the Intelligence Section of the idf. From 1963 to 1968 he was head of the Mossad (Israel's intelligence services). From 1968 to 1977 Amit was director-general of Koor Industries, the Histadrut's industrial conglomerate. In 1977 he resigned from Koor to join the Democratic Movement for Change and was elected to the Ninth Knesset on its list. In October of that same year he was appointed minister of transportation and communications but resigned in September 1978 after the dmc disintegrated, and joined the Shinui ve-Yozmah parliamentary group. He later left Shinui to join the Israel Labor Party. After 1978 Amit held various senior management positions in various hi-tech companies.

[Susan Hattis Rolef (2^nd ed.)]