jerusalem (ap) | Tzvi Tzur, the Israeli army’s sixth chief of staff, died Dec. 28 of a heart attack, an army spokesman said. He was 81.
Tzur served in the army’s top position, reaching the rank of lieutenant general, from 1961 to 1963.
After leaving the military, he served briefly as a member of parliament before taking up the position of assistant defense minister on the eve of the Six-Day War. He held the job for seven years.
“The state of Israel has lost a smart, levelheaded man,” said former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, also a former military commander.
Tzur was born in Ukraine in 1923 and immigrated to Israel with his parents two years later. He joined the pre-state Jewish militia in 1936 at the age of 16 and served as the commander of an elite unit after Israel was established in 1948. After his military career, he held senior positions in Israel’s national telephone company and Israel Aircraft Industries.
Tzur is survived by a wife and three children. He was buried in Tel Aviv.