Giora Eiland is a retired Major General in the Israel Defense Forces and one of Israel’s most respected national security experts. Over the course of a distinguished 33-year military career, he held several of the IDF’s most senior strategic posts, including Head of the Operations Directorate (1999–2001) and Head of the Planning Directorate (2001–2003). These roles placed him at the heart of Israel’s military doctrine development, war planning, and international security coordination.
From 2004 to 2006, Eiland served as the Head of Israel’s National Security Council under Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. In this role, he was responsible for leading the country’s highest-level interagency defense coordination and strategic policy formulation, with direct involvement in diplomatic negotiations and regional security frameworks. He also headed numerous strategic task forces on issues ranging from disengagement policy to regional energy cooperation.
Following his government service, Eiland became a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), where he focused on counterterrorism and strategic risk analysis from 2007 to 2012. He remains an influential voice on defense and policy matters, frequently consulted by global media, foreign governments, and Israeli decision-makers. Eiland also brings firsthand operational leadership, having played key roles in historic military operations such as the Yom Kippur War (1973) and Operation Entebbe (1976).
