Erez Zuckerman

Erez Zuckerman (Hebrew: ארז צוקרמן; born 1964) was the founding commander of the Egoz Reconnaissance Unit, a commander in Shayetet 13 (the Israeli Navy's elite naval commando unit), and the Golani Brigade. His final position in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was as the commander of the armored reserve division, Netiv HaEsh Formation, in Northern Command, holding the rank of brigadier general.

Erez Zuckerman
Native name	ארז צוקרמן
Born	1964 (age 59–60) Kibbutz Dan, Israel
Allegiance	Israel
Service / branch	Israel Defense Forces
Years of service	1982–2007
Rank	Tat aluf (Brigadier General)
Unit	Shayetet 13
Commands	Egoz Reconnaissance Unit, Shayetet 13, Golani Brigade, Netiv HaEsh Formation
Battles / wars	South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000) Operation Accountability Operation Grapes of Wrath Second Intifada 2006 Lebanon War
Awards	Chief of Staff Citation

He commanded the division during the final days of the 2006 Lebanon War and resigned several months after the war, citing his decision to "take personal responsibility for the failure in his role as division commander."

Biography

Zuckerman was born in Kibbutz Dan, the oldest of four siblings, to a mother who made aliyah from Chile and a father born in Israel. He studied at Pardes Hanna Agricultural High School. Several months before his enlistment, his father was killed in a car accident.

Zuckerman enlisted in the IDF in 1982 and began training as a commando in Shayetet 13 of the Israeli Navy. Like all Shayetet 13 soldiers at the time, he completed basic training with the Paratroopers Brigade and then took a squad commanders' course with soldiers from the Golani Brigade, graduating with distinction. He then continued in Shayetet 13, specializing in assault and diving. Only 12 out of the 80 soldiers who began the training completed it. Later, he completed an officer's course. Over the years, he held all commanding positions in Shayetet 13, from team commander to unit commander. His first mission as a team commander was in Operation Katzav Adin, an ambush of terrorist vehicles in Sidon.

After serving as the commander of Shayetet's commando unit, Zuckerman took a leave from the military for over a year. Upon his return, he attended the naval officer training program, eventually commanding a missile boat named INS Kidon (Saar 4). In 1993, he returned to Shayetet 13 and was appointed as the commander of the fighter platoon (Miflag), with the rank of lieutenant colonel. That year, during the first day of Operation Accountability, Zuckerman led a Shayetet force that raided a terrorist base in Tripoli, killing six terrorists. During his service in those years, Zuckerman participated in numerous special operations in the Security Zone in South Lebanon, including infantry-based operations usually conducted by the infantry brigades and other elite units.

Command of Egoz unit

In preparation for the establishment of a new unit within the Golani Brigade, intended to specialize in guerrilla warfare against Hezbollah in the Security Zone and Southern Lebanon, Zuckerman was one of the figures shaping its future role. In light of the many successes of Shayetet 13 during operations in Lebanon, and Zuckerman's role in them, he was appointed by the IDF Chief of Staff, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, in 1995 as the first commander of the new unit, which he helped establish, called the "Egoz Unit". The appointment of a navy officer as the commander of a ground unit was unusual and reflects the respect and appreciation that senior IDF and Northern Command officers had for Zuckerman's character and achievements. He led the unit's fighters in many of its initial operations, including Operation Embrace the World, about which Moshe Tamir stated:

"The operation took place on 19 September 1996. At the beginning of the infiltration—when the commanders moved to an observation point on a large boulder typical of Jabal Sujud—Erez’s force encountered terrorists. In the initial gunfire, several commanders were hit. Erez quickly regained composure, set up a small cover team, and immediately pursued the terrorists who had started fleeing into one of the labyrinthine tunnels. At the end of the chase, which reportedly resembled the clearing of a fortified combat tunnel, the force killed two terrorists.".

During his service in Egoz, Zuckerman was awarded the Chief of Staff Citation by Northern Command's Amiram Levin:

"Lt. Col. Erez Zuckerman served as commander of the Egoz Unit. On 9 July, an IDF operation was conducted in Sujud, Southern Lebanon. It was a mission to clear terrorist strongholds. Erez personally commanded the force in the field, working with Lt. Tzur Prans. Short-range fire was opened, and Tzur, who was standing near Erez, was killed. Nonetheless, he quickly rallied and led the team in pursuit in a heavily wooded area. Personally, he killed three terrorists, as the other officer’s weapon jammed. During the clash, a soldier, Zohar Mintz, was killed, and several others, including the unit’s doctor, were injured."

Zuckerman also commanded the unit during Operation Grapes of Wrath, leading four operations deep into Lebanon during the campaign.

Command of Shayetet 13 and the Golani Brigade

At the beginning of 1997, Zuckerman completed his role in Egoz and returned to the Israeli Navy, where he was appointed Deputy Commander of Shayetet 13. In 1999, a petition was submitted to the Supreme Court against Zuckerman's appointment as commander of Shayetet 13, due to his order to kill a bound terrorist during an operation deep in Lebanon. The Supreme Court ruled in Zuckerman's favor. That same year, he was appointed Commander of Shayetet 13 with the rank of colonel. During his command, he rehabilitated the unit following the "Shayetet 13 disaster" (September 1997), in which 12 fighters, including his friend from the beginning of his service, Lt. Col. Yossi Korakin, Commander of the Combat Platoon, were killed. Zuckerman pushed for the Shayetet's involvement in operations in the territories during the first year of the Second Intifada, altered the unit's training path by focusing on the team framework rather than on pairs of fighters, and initiated offensive operations across all of the IDF's ground combat theaters.

In 2001, he completed his role as Shayetet Commander and went on to study at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. In addition to these studies, he holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Haifa. In 2003, he returned to Israel and assumed command of the Golani Brigade. He thus became the first naval officer to command an infantry brigade in the IDF. Under his command, the brigade participated in Operation Rainbow and Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip The brigade also took part, under his leadership, in the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in the summer of 2005.

Command of the "Netiv Ha-Esh" Division

In 2005, upon completing his role as Brigade Commander, Zuckerman was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and appointed commander of the Netiv Ha-Esh Division, a reserve armor division under the Northern Command. Zuckerman, who had served and commanded only naval units, infantry, and special forces, was appointed to this role without any prior background, training, or conversion course for commanding an armored unit (such as a tank command course or a division commanders' course).

With the outbreak of the 2006 Lebanon War in July 2006, the IDF General Staff initially did not plan to involve Zuckerman's division in the fighting. During the early days of the war, Zuckerman participated in discussions and planning for several battle strategies, contributing to the conception of special operations, including "Operation Sharp and Smooth," in which Sayeret Matkal and Shaldag Unit forces raided the town of Baalbek on the night of August 2. Zuckerman was initially intended to command this complex operation, but it was ultimately decided to place Nitzan Alon in command, in case Zuckerman's division would be mobilized.

Zuckerman recognized that the eastern sector of the command's theater had remained inactive militarily and urged the command to integrate his division into an offensive effort in this sector. The division was eventually mobilized for "Operation Change of Direction 11," which was intended to be the decisive action of the war (August 10–12). The division operated in the eastern sector, in the area of the towns of Al-Khiam and Marjayoun, with a mission independent of the other three divisions deployed by the command during the war.

The reserve division under Zuckerman's command was deployed into combat with low readiness due to a lack of training; the division's last exercise had taken place in 2001, and it was initially assigned to the Golan Heights sector. Additionally, its commander had not been formally trained to lead an armored unit. The division's performance in the war drew significant criticism, including an IDF operational investigation conducted by Brigadier General (Res.) Meir Gachten. The report primarily addressed the deployment of forces in ways inconsistent with combat doctrine and frequent changes to plans, sometimes even after command approval. Among other incidents, a battalion commander was dismissed for refusing to re-enter Lebanon, and his predecessor was reinstated.

On the other hand, the division was the first to operate in the Marjayoun and Al-Khiam area, eliminating several dozen Hezbollah fighters and destroying weapons and infrastructure within its sector. The division's actions helped reduce the scale of rocket fire on Kiryat Shmona. Three of its soldiers were killed in combat. At the end of the war, the division was battered despite not encountering significant enemy resistance, and its achievements did not substantially affect Hezbollah's combat capabilities or the overall rate of rocket fire on northern Israel during its operational period.

In May 2007, nearly a year after the end of the war, Zuckerman resigned from his post as division commander and retired from military service. He did so after undergoing armor training and leading the lessons-learned and training process within the division. He stated that he intended to resign at the end of the fighting, feeling that he had failed in his role, but decided to remain in his position until the lessons-learned process and the division's recovery were complete.

Further reading

• Moshe (Chiko) Tamir, War Without a Medal, Tel Aviv: Maarachot - Ministry of Defense, 2005. ISBN 9650512969
• Amir Rapaport, Friendly Fire: How We Failed Ourselves in the Second Lebanon War, Ma'ariv Library, Tel Aviv, 2007.
• Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Spider Web, Yedioth Ahronoth, Tel Aviv, 2008. ISBN 9654824310
• Ofer Shelah and Yoav Limor, Captive in Lebanon, Yedioth Ahronoth, Tel Aviv, 2007. ISBN 9654824086