Giora Tzahor

Giora Tzahor
גיורא צחור
Born	George Weiss (1941-10-27)27 October 1941 Saint-Étienne, France
Died	16 July 2012(2012-07-16) (aged 70) Israel
Occupations	Military officer Mossad officer
Awards	Medal of Valor
Military career
Allegiance	Israel
Service / branch	Israel Defense Forces Mossad
Years of service	1960s–1992
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	Kidon
Battles / wars	Six-Day War
Other work	Commander of Kidon unit

Giora Tzahor (27 October 1941 – 16 July 2012) was an Israeli military and Mossad officer, known for having headed Israel's efforts to abduct Mordechai Vanunu.

Biography

George Weiss (later Giora Tzahor) was born in Saint-Étienne, France, to a Jewish family during World War II. During the German occupation of France, he was hidden and raised in a monastery. At age 17, he visited Israel, and made aliyah on his own a year later. On 16 July 2012, Tzahor was killed in a traffic accident while riding his mountain bike in central Israel. He was rushed to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, where efforts to save him failed.

Military and intelligence career

He joined the Armored Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. He became a tank commander, and completed an officers' course. He reached the rank of Lieutenant, and became the deputy commander of Battalion 46.

During the Six-Day War, his tank unit came across Jordanian tanks in Nablus. Although outnumbered, his unit destroyed seven Jordanian tanks. Tzahor was severely injured in the battle, suffering burns across his body. Doctors did not expect him to survive his injuries. However, he recovered, and six years later, he was awarded the Medal of Valor.

In 1968, Tzahor was recruited into Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence services, and was one of the founders of Mossad's Kidon ("spear") unit, which conducts assassinations overseas. He took part in dozens of Mossad operations. In the late 1970s, was appointed deputy director of the Kidon unit, and became its commander in 1984.

In 1986, Tzahor was in charge of Mossad's operation to abduct Mordechai Vanunu from London. Vanunu, a former Israeli nuclear technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, had left Israel and leaked secrets about Israel's nuclear program to the British media. Vanunu was successfully abducted after being lured to Rome and was smuggled to Israel by sea. He was tortured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Tzahor retired from Mossad in 1992, and in 1993 was awarded a medal for his service by Mossad Director-General Shabtai Shavit.