Meir Har-Zion

Meir Har-Zion
Meir Har-Zion, 1955
Born(1934-02-25)25 February 1934
Died14 March 2014(2014-03-14) (aged 80)
AllegianceIsrael
UnitUnit 101; 890th Paratroop Battalion

Meir Har-Zion (Hebrew: מאיר הר ציון; February 25, 1934 – March 14, 2014) was an Israeli military commando.

As a key member of Unit 101, he was highly praised by Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan who described him as "the finest of our commando soldiers, the best soldier ever to emerge in the IDF".[1] Ariel Sharon described him as "the elite of the elite."[2] His three-year military career (1954–56) was cut short by injuries sustained in battle, but he joined in again during the 1967 and 1973 wars. The character of Ari Ben-Canaan in Leon Uris's novel Exodus is generally believed to have been based on Har-Zion.

  1. ^ Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-827850-0. Page
  2. ^ Ariel Sharon, with David Chanoff; Warrior: The Autobiography of Ariel Sharon, Simon & Schuster, 2001, p. 110.