New IDF chief Eyal Zamir has Washington ties
Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir lived in D.C. from 2021 until 2022

THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli army major general Eyal Zamir looks on as he stands near the Israel-Gaza border in the southern kibbutz of Nahal Oz on April 20, 2018.
The Israeli government announced this weekend that Maj. Gen. (res.) Eyal Zamir, currently the director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, will succeed Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces in March.
Zamir authored a report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in 2022 proposing a coordinated response between the U.S., Israel and Arab allies to counter Iranian aggression in the Middle East.
Rob Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute, offered strong praise for Zamir, who was a Washington Institute visiting military fellow between 2021-2022.
“The best description of General Zamir [is] he is a soldier’s soldier. Smart, instinctively insightful, doesn’t put on airs, no false modesty, no pretense,” Satloff said. “Having known and admired many of his predecessors, I am confident he will meet the unprecedented challenge faced by the IDF today.”
David Makovsky, the director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations at the Washington Institute, called Zamir “highly accomplished,” and said he’ll “have his hands full” in the new role.
He said that he believes Zamir’s current work as director-general will be an asset in his relationships with Washington, D.C, having put him in a position to work closely with the Pentagon since the Oct. 7 attack.
“He has had a very intense American immersion, I would say, since Oct. 7,” Makovsky said. “The interface with the Pentagon over weapons, the ammunition, that could only help him in the new job.”
Satloff said that, while Zamir was working with the Washington Institute, he “had the opportunity to develop good personal relations with a wide array of national security specialists that were of benefit during his wartime service as director-general of the MOD and will, I am sure, be useful in his new post.”
The director-general role would have also given Zamir “360 degree awareness in a way that soldiers are not exposed to,” Makovsky said. “Having that experience can only be helpful.”
Makovsky added that it’s significant that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanuyahu reportedly personally conducted interviews for the chief of staff role — rather than the defense minister, as has been traditional — indicating he may want to have a closer relationship with the critical military leader.