David Ivry

Ivry was born in Gedera in September 1934, shortly after his parents, Abraham and Shoshana Kreuz, arrived from Slovakia. They had traveled by train to Italy and then by ship to Haifa. His father, formerly an accountant, found agricultural work in Gedera and changed the family name to Ivry because he thought of himself as “Abraham the Hebrew.” Ivry later described his childhood as simple and happy. A scholarship enabled him to attend high school in Rehovot, an opportunity he believed changed his life and made his air-force career possible.[8]

Ivry enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in 1952 and volunteered for flight training. After graduating, he was posted to Ramat David Air Base, where he flew Spitfires and later Mustangs. He was also selected for an attack-instructor course with the British Royal Air Force. He recalled that his father regarded the trip to England as an unnecessary expenditure of foreign currency by the young state.[2][8]

In 1955, Ivry converted to jet aircraft in 117 Squadron and helped establish 113 Squadron, which flew Ouragans from Hatzor. He instructed at the flight school during the 1956 Sinai Campaign, became a squadron deputy commander in 1957, attended the IDF Command and Staff College in 1960, and trained on the Mirage III with the French Air Force in 1961.[2]

Ivry helped establish 117 Squadron as a Mirage unit in 1962 and commanded 109 Squadron the following year. He led 117 Squadron from 1964 to 1966 and headed the flight school from 1966 to 1968 as it moved from Tel Nof to Hatzerim. During the Six-Day War, he flew Mirages with 101 Squadron and took command of the Fouga squadron after its commander was killed.[2]

From 1968 to 1970, Ivry held senior operations posts at air-force headquarters and played a central role in air planning during the War of Attrition. He commanded Tel Nof Air Base from 1970 to 1973 and headed the Air Department during the Yom Kippur War, when he was regarded as the air force’s second-ranking officer and participated in operational planning and strategic discussions.[2][9]

After heading the Air Group from 1974 to 1975, Ivry studied aeronautical engineering at the Technion and received a B.S. in 1977.[2][9] His personal life included two losses tied to his birthday: his mother died when he turned 20, and his son Gil, an F-16 pilot, was killed in a training accident on Ivry’s 53rd birthday. Ivry said birthdays no longer felt like celebrations after his son’s death.[8]

Ivry commanded the Israel Air Force from October 1977 through December 1982 with the rank of major general.[10][2] During his tenure, Israel evacuated air-force bases from Sinai in implementation of the peace agreement with Egypt and established replacement bases in the Negev.[2]

Operation Opera, Israel’s strike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor, took place on June 7, 1981. The operation was carried out under Ivry’s air-force command, and eight attacking pilots returned safely. Ivry later recalled taking the radio microphone as they approached Israel and warning them, “And be careful on landing,” reflecting his view that the mission was not complete until every aircraft had landed.[3][9]

The raid produced an immediate international backlash. The Reagan administration criticized the operation and suspended a shipment of F-16 aircraft; the United Nations and numerous states also condemned it. The shipment was subsequently renewed, and Congress did not determine that the attack violated U.S. aid laws.[7][11]

A decade later, U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney gave Ivry a satellite photograph of the destroyed reactor. Its inscription thanked him for his work on the Iraqi nuclear program and said it had made the American task in Desert Storm easier.[6]

Ivry’s command also encompassed the 1982 campaign against Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The Ministry of Defense credits the air force under his command with destroying the Syrian missile array and downing dozens of Syrian aircraft during the First Lebanon War.[2] Ivry later portrayed the campaign as the culmination of a technological transformation in air warfare and reported 82 aerial victories, no Israeli losses in air combat, and no aircraft lost in the attack on the missile batteries.[4]

The Osirak and Bekaa operations became the defining military episodes of Ivry’s command. Both depended on long-range planning, intelligence, and coordination between aircraft and emerging technological systems, themes that continued to shape his later work in missile defense and space-based intelligence.[3][4]

Ivry left regular IDF service in 1983 but returned several months later to serve for about two years as deputy chief of staff and head of the General Staff Branch. He left regular service again in 1985. A contemporary account records that Amos Lapidot replaced him as air-force commander effective January 1, 1983, while Ivry became chairman of Israel Aircraft Industries. A later biography describes him as the only air-force officer to have served as deputy chief of staff.[2][12]

In February 1985, while serving as chairman of Israel Aircraft Industries, Ivry met James Abrahamson, head of the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative organization, and proposed several areas of Israeli-American cooperation, including an interceptor for tactical ballistic missiles.[4] A separate account places another Ivry-Abrahamson meeting in 1986 and says Abrahamson encouraged Israel to work on defenses against theater ballistic missiles.[13]

Ivry became director-general of the Ministry of Defense in 1986 and served through 1996, according to the Ministry of Defense and Jewish Virtual Library.[2][9] An INSS publication instead gives the period as 1987–1996.[14] In the ministry post, Ivry arranged for a laboratory at Tadiran to study missile defense and later said its work contributed knowledge used in deploying Arrow and, subsequently, Iron Dome.[4]

Ivry’s advocacy for active defense was strengthened by the use of ballistic missiles during the Iran–Iraq War. In 1988, he wrote a classified paper arguing that Israel needed the ability to intercept ballistic missiles in flight. N12 describes him as a leading advocate of the kinetic-interception concept that became central to the Arrow project and says the idea initially encountered resistance.[3]

Israel joined the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative in 1986, and in 1988 Israel Aircraft Industries signed a contract with the American program to develop an experimental interceptor. The project, called Homa, initially focused on an experimental missile rather than a complete defensive system. Arrow-1 eventually achieved a successful interception in July 1994, helping preserve the program and paving the way for the operational Arrow-2 system.[13]

During the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq fired 40 missiles at Israel. Uzi Rubin was appointed to lead the Arrow program while the country was under missile attack, reinforcing the urgency of active defense.[13] In 1992, Ivry secured American agreement to fund Arrow development and initial procurement, along with plans for an American early-warning radar in Israel and links between American and Israeli systems. Before leaving the ministry in 1996, he arranged for an Arrow-2 production line so that the project would be harder for a successor to cancel.[4]

Ivry also supported Israel’s satellite program. He understood the demand for an independent system after American access to reconnaissance aircraft and satellite imagery was not forthcoming. Military critics regarded the program as costly, slow to mature, and likely to compete with immediate needs, but Ivry fought to preserve its funding after launch failures.[15]

The successful launch of Ofek-3 on April 5, 1995, marked a turning point. Ivry later called the satellite program one of Israel’s and its defense establishment’s major technological accomplishments. His support for Arrow and Ofek reflected a consistent willingness to invest in capabilities whose operational value would emerge only after years of development.[15]

Ivry combined his defense responsibilities with arms-control diplomacy. At an international policy conference in Amman on September 9–11, 1995, he was identified as director-general of the Ministry of Defense and Israel’s chief representative to multilateral talks on arms control and regional security. He opened his address by saying, “As an Israeli, as a warrior in the past, and a senior official at present, it means a great deal to be able to be here in Jordan.”[16]

Ivry presented the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty as a possible model for regional cooperative security. He argued that bilateral peace agreements should pave the way for region-wide arrangements and proposed confidence-building measures such as advance notification of military exercises and large troop movements and dialogue between military educational institutions.[16]

He headed the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee on Arms Control, led Israel’s delegation to the Multilateral Working Group on Arms Control and Regional Security, and represented Israel in the U.S.–Israel Strategic Dialogue from 1986 to 1998.[9] N12 reports that, as ministry director-general, he worked to rebuild relations with the United States after the Jonathan Pollard affair, helped establish a strategic dialogue, participated in constructing the American financial-aid framework, and developed ties with countries including Qatar, Singapore, Turkey, Germany, and the United Kingdom.[3]

From 1996 to 1999, Ivry served as principal assistant to the defense minister for strategic affairs. In January 1999, he was appointed national security advisor and head of the National Security Council. On March 7, 1999, the Cabinet formally approved the Council’s creation and noted Ivry’s appointment as its chairman and national security advisor.[9][17]

Ivry was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United States on January 18, 2000, and presented his credentials as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on February 3. The Ministry of Defense records his ambassadorship as lasting from 2000 to 2002.[18][2]

Ivry was ambassador during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Mark Regev later recalled trying to persuade him to reverse an order evacuating the embassy because a visit by Defense Minister Binyamin “Fuad” Ben-Eliezer was being prepared. Ivry replied, “Mark, you don’t understand, there isn’t going to be a visit.” The political team subsequently worked from the ambassador’s residence to maintain contact with Jerusalem.[19]

In 2007, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought Ivry’s advice shortly before deciding to attack the Syrian nuclear site at Deir ez-Zor. N12 reports that Olmert consulted him because of his experience during Operation Opera and his knowledge of Israel–U.S. relations. The account records the consultation but does not establish that Ivry’s advice determined the decision.[3]

Outside government, Ivry held positions in industry, education, and public life. He served two terms as chairman of Israel Aircraft Industries, sat on El Al’s board of directors from 1978 to 1982, and became a member of the Technion’s Board of Governors in 1987.[9]

Ivry became president of Boeing Israel in September 2003.[1] In 2021, Boeing announced that he would retire after 18 years in the role and that former air-force commander Ido Nehushtan would succeed him on January 1, 2022.[5]

One of Ivry’s most difficult public assignments came in 1997, when he was asked to head the inquiry into the helicopter collision in the Hula Valley that killed 73 soldiers. He called it the hardest assignment of his life and said it felt cruel to select him because his son Gil had died in an air-force training accident about a decade earlier. Ivry said he had to separate himself emotionally from the tragedy to complete an objective investigation and submit recommendations.[3]

His honors included the U.S. Air Force Legion of Merit, Singapore’s Distinguished Service Order (Military), and Israel’s Amitai Distinction Award for ethical administration and conduct.[9]

Ivry’s institutional legacy spans operational command, strategic diplomacy, missile defense, satellite development, and the aerospace industry. His support for Arrow and Ofek was particularly significant because both projects required long-term investment despite institutional skepticism and uncertain early results.[4][15]

The principal controversy associated with Ivry’s career concerns Operation Opera. The Reagan administration criticized the strike, temporarily suspended an F-16 shipment, and joined widespread international condemnation; the United States also voted for a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel. The aircraft shipment was later renewed, and Congress did not determine that the operation violated American aid laws.[7][11]

Retrospective assessments changed in some American and Israeli accounts. Cheney’s signed photograph thanked Ivry for the strike’s effect on Iraq’s nuclear program and said it had made the American task in Desert Storm easier.[6] The later expression of appreciation did not erase the operation’s contentious legal and political reception in 1981, but it became a prominent part of arguments that the raid had long-term strategic value.