zvi zamir hebrew צבי זמיר‎ born zvicka zarzevsky born  was a major general in the israel defense forces and the director of the mossad from  to  born in poland zamir immigrated with his family to the then british mandate of palestine when only seven months old at the age of  zamir began his military career first as a soldier in the haganahs palmach a unit that included future israeli leaders among the likes of moshe dayan and yitzhak rabin during the  arab–israeli war zamir fought in the newly created israel defense forces after the war he continued climbing the chain of command eventually promoted to the commander of the southern command his final idf post before being appointed mossad director came in  when he was appointed the military attaché to london