Amir Eshel

Amir Eshel was born in Jaffa in 1959 and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1977.[1] He entered the 88th fighter-pilot training course and completed the Air Force Flight Academy in 1979, beginning a career that would eventually encompass both fixed-wing and rotary-wing flying.[1][2] After qualifying, he flew Skyhawk aircraft, including during the 1982 Lebanon War.[1]

Eshel is a graduate of Israel’s National Defense College and holds a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University in Alabama and a master’s degree from the University of Haifa.[2] He is married to Abigail and has three children.[1]

After his initial service as a Skyhawk pilot, Eshel became an instructor at the Flight Academy and subsequently commanded F-16 and F-4 squadrons at Tel Nof and Ramon air bases.[1] His later commands included Ramon Airbase and Tel Nof Airbase, followed by senior positions directing the air force’s operational activity and staff work.[4] His service ultimately extended across more than four decades and included the 1982 and 2006 Lebanon wars and the Gaza conflicts of 2008–2009, 2012, and 2014.[2]

In 2004, Eshel became head of the Israeli Air Force’s Air Group, giving him command of its operational assets.[1] During that year’s Rainbow operation in Rafah, he intervened in a disagreement between Golani commander Erez Tzukerman and an aircrew over whether to fire near civilians.[4] Eshel went to Tzukerman’s command post, and the arrangement that followed gave the ground commander authority over fire decisions while placing a senior air-force officer in the command center to advise and reduce friction.[4] The episode formed part of his work on improving coordination between air and ground forces.[4]

Appointed air-force chief of staff in January 2006, Eshel held the position during the Second Lebanon War and remained in it until 2008.[1][2] His postwar responsibilities included strengthening the service and improving air-ground integration.[1][2] On March 27, 2008, he was promoted to major general and appointed head of the IDF Planning Directorate, moving from air-force leadership into a General Staff position concerned with national strategy, resources, and international military relationships.[1][2]

As head of the Planning Directorate from 2008 to 2012, Eshel led the formulation of national security strategy for the Israeli government and oversaw regional interfaces and interactions with the United States State Department, Department of Defense, and National Security Council.[2] His responsibilities thus combined the military’s internal planning requirements with engagement across the Israeli government and with American national-security institutions.[2]

In a January 2012 presentation, Eshel described the directorate’s work as having three principal components: strategic planning and interaction with the government on national security, policy, and strategy; annual and multiyear planning for force structure, procurement, organization, and resource allocation; and cooperation with other armed forces.[5] He argued that strategy should determine force structure, but that practical limits on implementing plans also made existing and attainable force structures a factor in shaping strategy.[5] This formulation linked long-term strategic goals with the resources and capabilities needed to carry them out.[5]

Eshel’s presentation also set out his assessment of a changing regional security environment.[5] He argued that Iran’s nuclear ambitions could reshape the Middle East, encourage a regional arms race, and constrain Israel if armed groups operated beneath an Iranian nuclear umbrella.[5] He estimated that Israel faced more than 100,000 surface-to-surface missiles and rockets, which he described as increasingly accurate, lethal, and long-range.[5] Although Israel could strike an adversary very hard, he cautioned that future fighting might continue until the last moment rather than conclude with a decisive knockout: “We have the capability to hit any adversary very hard, but the last rocket may well be fired from the other side.”[5]

Addressing the Palestinian issue in the same presentation, Eshel argued that an agreement without solid security arrangements would not endure, emphasizing the proximity of the Palestinian territories to Israel’s heartland.[5] He also said that the IDF continued to support the Palestinian Authority under the direction of Israel’s political leadership.[5] During this period, Israeli officials were also warning about the danger that Syrian chemical or biological weapons could reach Hezbollah or other non-state actors; a January 2012 report concerning Eshel was cited in the discussion of those concerns.[6]

On February 5, 2012, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz announced Eshel’s selection to succeed Ido Nechushtan as air-force commander.[1] He assumed command in May 2012 and remained in the post until August 2017.[3] During his first year in command, he directed aerial operations in the eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza in November 2012.[3] He subsequently commanded the air force during Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 Gaza war.[3]

In January 2013, Eshel warned that weakening governance in neighboring countries increased Israel’s exposure to hostile activity and required it to address a wider range of adversaries.[7] He emphasized the air force’s readiness to respond across different distances, saying it could exercise force “almost instantly” if a threat emerged at long, medium, or short range.[7] His public comments combined an emphasis on rapid action with concern about the growing variety of threats around Israel.[7]

In May 2014, Eshel said that changes within the air force had increased its firepower by 400 percent over the preceding two years.[8] He claimed that it could now strike in less than 24 hours what had taken 33 days during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, and could complete the equivalent of the 2012 Gaza campaign in less than 12 hours.[8] At the same time, he characterized active missile and rocket defenses as “strategic rather than tactical,” while cautioning that civilian protection was “effective but not hermetic.”[8]

Eshel continued operational flying while commanding the service.[9] In 2016, he was qualified to fly every aircraft then in air-force service and flew a weekly training mission to maintain combat readiness.[9] During Operation Protective Edge, he flew offensive sorties over Gaza and bombed a tunnel that had penetrated into Israel near Kerem Shalom.[9] He also began instructional courses on the F-35’s systems and procedures as part of qualifying to fly the new aircraft.[9]

The air force oversaw the acquisition of the F-35 during Eshel’s command, with the first Israeli aircraft arriving in December 2016.[3] He became the first air-force commander globally to commission and fly the aircraft.[2] His tenure also included the integration of David’s Sling, a missile-interception system, and Iron Dome’s full-scale deployment during two military campaigns, alongside the system’s continuing development.[2][3] These changes accompanied expanded cooperation with ground and naval forces and close integration with the Shin Bet and Mossad.[3]

Eshel’s command also encompassed hundreds of operations associated with the “campaign between the wars,” including covert actions outside Israel intended to hinder the military buildup of Hezbollah and Hamas.[10] As he left office in 2017, he said that over the preceding five years the air force had attacked weapons intended for Hezbollah and other organizations in other arenas close to 100 times, with the operations conducted “under the radar” to avoid war.[11]

In a 2022 interview, Eshel described the campaign between the wars as beginning in late January 2013 with the aim of reducing the risk that advanced weapons would reach Hezbollah.[12] He said that, from 2016, it also addressed Iranian military entrenchment in Syria.[12] In his retrospective account, the objective was to reduce threats and create deterrence rather than completely prevent an adversary’s buildup, and he stressed that the campaign was not necessarily an air campaign.[12]

Eshel retired from the military in 2017 after approximately 40 years of service, roughly a quarter of which he had spent on the General Staff.[3] Amikam Norkin succeeded him as air-force commander in August that year.[3] At the handover, Eshel described the service as possessing “far-reaching and unprecedented capabilities” and credited his predecessors and air-force personnel for its achievements.[10] Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot praised his “courageous and creative stances” and his contribution to the General Staff and the IDF.[3]

After leaving the military, Eshel served on the board of BIRD Aerosystems.[13] He also served as chairman of Intel Tech.[13] A later account of his Planning Directorate work identified initiatives to increase Israeli defense exports and procure medical equipment among his activities in that position.[13]

In May 2020, Defense Minister Benny Gantz selected Eshel as director general of the Ministry of Defense, replacing Udi Adam.[14] A close adviser to Gantz, Eshel said the ministry would act responsibly in light of the socioeconomic situation while preserving the IDF’s strength.[14] He also emphasized supporting the economy through defense industries and acquisitions, with a preference for creating employment in the periphery.[14] His tenure, which lasted until 2023, included defense procurement, research and development with Israeli defense industries, and efforts to expand defense exports.[2]

Eshel was involved in government-to-government defense agreements, which could shorten bureaucratic procedures and accelerate transactions.[15] Security officials attributed part of Israel’s record $11.3 billion in defense exports in 2021 to such agreements.[15] In the months before announcing his departure, he made dozens of overseas visits, many to Arab countries that had signed the Abraham Accords, with the stated purpose of strengthening security cooperation with Israel.[15]

On October 25, 2022, Eshel headed the Israeli delegation to the U.S.-Israel Joint Political-Military Group meeting in Washington.[16] Discussions covered security cooperation, regional and global strategic issues, defense exports, and cooperation concerning Iran.[16] At the meeting, he emphasized the importance of U.S.-Israeli cooperation and thanked the American government for its support.[16]

Within the ministry, Eshel was associated with the “One Soul” reform to improve services for disabled veterans.[15] The reform followed a severe breakdown in relations between veterans and the ministry, amid public attention to veteran Itzik Saidian’s self-immolation outside the Rehabilitation Department.[15] Eshel’s work included reforms intended to help wounded service members recover and rebuild their lives.[2]

After announcing his intention to leave, Eshel said he would remain as long as necessary to ensure an orderly transfer of responsibilities.[15] Eyal Zamir succeeded him in February 2023, after more than two and a half years in office.[17] At the succession ceremony, Eshel said the ministry had implemented plans initiated by his predecessors and laid foundations for further plans, including implementation of the Abraham Accords and agreements with five countries in the region.[17]

Eshel continued to comment publicly on national-security policy after leaving the ministry.[18] In a 2024 conference conversation, he criticized the government’s handling of the war, arguing that Israel lacked an exit strategy and that this could undermine military achievements in the north and south.[18] He also expressed the view that Israel’s defense sector had the potential to grow larger than its cyber sector.[18]

On September 4, 2003, while commanding Tel Nof Airbase, Eshel led three Israeli F-15s over Auschwitz-Birkenau during a visit marking the Polish Air Force’s 85th anniversary.[19][1] The flight formed part of an IDF “Witnesses in Uniform” ceremony, connecting serving Israeli personnel with the remembrance of Holocaust victims.[20] For Eshel, whose relatives had perished in the Holocaust, the flight also had personal significance.[4]

Pages of Testimony commemorating victims transported from Drancy on September 2, 1943, were carried aboard the aircraft.[20] Of the people on that transport, 661 were sent to the gas chambers within hours of their arrival.[20] Eshel explained that the ceremony sought to restore the victims’ names and faces in response to the attempt to erase every trace of them and their murder.[20]

During the flyover, Eshel transmitted a declaration that linked remembrance with the Israeli Air Force’s protective mission: “We, the pilots of the Israeli Air Force, in the skies above the camp of horrors, have risen from the ashes of millions of victims. We carry their silent cry, salute their heroism, and promise to be a shield for the Jewish people and its land—Israel.”[4] His explanation of the flight likewise presented it as a promise that Israel would protect the Jewish people and its land.[4]

Eshel’s military record also includes recognition for cooperation with the United States.[2] In 2017, he received the U.S. Department of Defense’s Legion of Merit for his long-standing partnership with the U.S. Air Force.[2] His command years encompassed the arrival of the F-35, developments in missile defense, and expanded coordination across military and intelligence organizations, while his later ministry service extended into defense-industry cooperation, regional security relationships, and rehabilitation services for wounded personnel.[2][3]

Eshel’s 2012 appointment attracted reporting about possible disagreement over an Israeli strike on Iran and the candidacy of Yochanan Locker.[21][22] Reports characterized Eshel as opposed to such a strike, but also recorded senior officials’ statements that the candidates held identical views or had not been asked to state them.[21] Gantz denied that anyone had pressured him over appointments.[22] In a later interview, Eshel said he had challenged a proposed readiness timeframe for an Iran operation because substantial preparations would have been required, including recalling pilots and aircraft from abroad and returning aircraft undergoing maintenance to service.[12]

His 2017 disclosure of nearly 100 attacks also raised questions about Israel’s policy of ambiguity.[11] The remarks could be read as taking broad responsibility for attacks, although that might not have been his intention; Eshel described the operations as conducted “under the radar” to avoid drawing Israel into war.[11]

A December 1999 safety incident occurred when an Apache carrying Eshel and another pilot launched a live missile during a weapons check near a reserve air-defense unit.[4] An inquiry criticized the pilots, and the incident led to different colors being used for live and practice missiles.[4] The episode prompted differing judgments about whether such an error should halt advancement.[4] Accounts of the 2003 Auschwitz flight also described Eshel flying lower than the altitude agreed with the Polish hosts, amid heavily overcast weather.[4]

During his Defense Ministry tenure, Eshel attended at least one meeting concerning a proposed sale of NSO to L3Harris, a transaction that would have required his approval.[23] The reported meeting concerned a possible acquisition, rather than a completed sale.[23]