Amnon Reshef

Amnon Reshef (Hebrew: אמנון רשף‎; born August 29, 1938) is a retired IDF major general who served as 14th Brigade Commander in the Yom Kippur War and as Commanding General of the Armored Corps (Israel) from 1979 to 1982.

Biography

Amnon Reshef (Amnon Isaac) was born in Haifa in 1938 and grew up in Tel Aviv and Bat Yam. In 1956 he was conscripted into the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and rose through the ranks in the Armored Corps. As a tank platoon commander he took part in Operation Tawfik in 1960. In the Six-Day War he served as a general staff officer and acting deputy brigade commander of the 8th Brigade which saw action on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts. After the war he was appointed commander of the 52nd Tank Battalion/14th Brigade, and in 1969, during the War of Attrition, he received command of 189th Reconnaissance Battalion/252nd (Sinai) Division. From 1970 to 1972 he served as a general staff officer in the Armored Corps Headquarters.

In October 1972 Reshef was given command of the 14th Brigade, a regular armored brigade. On October 6, 1973, at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, the 14th was the only armored brigade on the Bar Lev Line. It was deployed along an approximately 200 kilometer (125 miles) front that included more than 100 kilometers of the Suez Canal, and was responsible for the strongholds in the sector. The brigade was the IDF's main force blocking the Egyptian army that had crossed the canal in Operation Badr. It also took part in the blocking maneuver against Egypt's armor thrust on October 14. The brigade played the key role in the crossing battle known as Operation Stouthearted Men and the breakthrough of the Egyptian defense line in the furious battle at the "Chinese Farm". The brigade crossed the Suez Canal on October 19, captured the Orcha locality, and continued fighting in the outskirts of Ismailia until the end of the war. The brigade suffered heavy losses: 302 killed (82 on the first day of the fighting and 121 on the night of the October 15-16 breakthrough) and in the crossing battle in the Chinese Farm area.

In February 1974 Rehsef was promoted to brigadier general and appointed deputy commander of the 162nd ("Steel") Division; later that year he became division commander, a post he served in until 1976. After studies at the Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) in London, he served as deputy commander of the Armored Corps, and in early 1979 he became corps commander and was promoted to the rank of major general. He retired from active military service in 1984.

After his discharge, Reshef worked as executive vice president at Urdan Metal and Casting Industries Ltd. that was involved in the Merkava ("Chariot") tank production. He also served as chairman of the Israeli Council for Peace and Security.

In the summer of the 2013 his book "We Will Never Cease! - The 14th Brigade in the Yom Kippur War", the Story of the Bloodiest Armor Battles in History was published. The book is the product of decades-long research that entailed deciphering radio messages relayed during the war, air photographs, war diaries, radio transcripts, interviewing officers and men, and analyzing Egyptian military literature. In 2013 the book won the Moldovan Award at the Ariel Research Center for Defense and Communication for the most valuable and original work on Israeli security. The book also won the prestigious Yitzhak Sadeh Prize for military literature in 2014.

The field artist Peter Wiener from Kibbutz Maoz Haim commemorated the heroic combat record of the 14th Brigade and its commander for the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War (2013). He drew a profile of Colonel (later Major General) Amnon Reshef against a background map of Operation Stouthearted Men. On Reshef's tanker's helmet are the numbers of the brigade's battalions that fought in the canal crossing battle: the 79th, 184th, 87th, 407th, 424th, 582nd and Force "Shmulik." In addition, there also appear two of the brigade's organic battalions – the 52nd and 9th – that fought in other sectors. Arrows in the field drawing depict the directions of the brigade's attack and the canal crossing by the 247th Paratrooper Brigade. The drawing was made in the wheat field of Kibbutz Ein Harod (Ichud) in the Jezreel Valley. The picture covers a 300 meter by 250 meter area, which is equivalent to 75 dunam (18.5 acres). Four different strains of wheat were planted, each of a different shade.

In November 2014 Reshef organized over a hundred retired IDF generals and Mossad leaders in signing a petition directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to engage moderate Arab countries and be courageous in creating a regional peace. Reshef spoke to the press in NYC, noting that the goal is to influence the Israeli perspectives and opinions, "which have been brainwashed for over 40 years with settlements in the West Bank and the Golan Heights."[1][2]Reshef was critical of some mistakes made by the White House, but lambasted Netanyahu for endangering Israel's critical relationship with the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "Chemi Shalev: Fabled Yom Kippur War commander set to tackle Netanyahu and other ‘professors of no’ (Nov 20, 2014)"http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.627416
  2. ↑ "Nechama Duek:Ex-generals, police chiefs tell PM: Resume peace talks (Nov 2, 2014)"http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4586854,00.html