Avigdor "Yanush" Ben-Gal (; 1936 – February 13, 2016; born Janusz Goldlust) was an Israeli general.
Early life
He was born in 1936, in Łódź, Poland, as Janusz Ludwig Goldlust. When he was just three years old, World War II broke out with Germany invading Poland. His family left Poland for the Soviet Union, and finally arrived in Siberia in Soviet Russia. On the way during the trail his parents disappeared somewhere. After his parents disappeared, he eventually arrived in Tel Aviv with his sister Ilana.
The journey was difficult, the two toddlers hitchhiked and jumped on trains until they were collected by the troops of Polish Gen. Wladyslaw Anders with whom they proceeded to Teheran. In Iran, the Jewish Agency collected hundreds of such lost kids, placed them in camps, fed them, and from there on to the Teheran transport, to British-ruled India by train, to Egypt by sea, and finally, by train again, to Mandate Palestine.
"Yanush," as everyone continued calling him despite his Hebraicized name, reached the Land of Israel four-and-a half years after leaving Poland. The two siblings were taken in and raised by a distant cousin.
In 1977, Ben-Gal was appointed head of the Northern Command. He served in this position until late-summer 1981, when he was replaced by General Amir Drori. He played a key role in Operation Litani (1978). Subsequently he was responsible for arming and training Saad Haddad's militia, which eventually became the South Lebanon Army. The frequent IDF raids deep into southern Lebanon, which were credited with reducing cross-border raids, led to comments in the Hebrew press suggesting that he was waging a private war. In 1981 he gave an interview in which he said Israel should "give all-out support for the Christians to enable them to liberate Lebanon from the Syrian conquest."
In August 1979 Ben-Gal was "rebuked" by Defence Minister Ezer Weizman after he was quoted as saying that Israel's Arab citizens were "a cancer in our body ... waiting for an opportunity to do us down."
Later life
In June 1997 he was called to testify in a libel suit that Ariel Sharon brought against the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz for their claim that he had concealed his plans for an operation into Lebanon in 1982.
His testimony, however, contradicted earlier statements he had made at Tel Aviv University, where he had stated that the greatest problem with the Lebanon War was the "secret, unapproved plan of the defense minister and chief of staff."
The following month, Ha'aretz requested that the Attorney General investigate the possibility that Ben-Gal had given false testimony in court in exchange for business favours from Sharon. The complaint noted that shortly before his appearance at the trial, Ben-Gal was sent by Sharon to explore the possibility of a large natural gas deal in Russia.
In 2001, Ben-Gal reportedly submitted an application to train the Congo Army in Israel.
From 1996 to 1999, he was chairman of the board of directors for Israel Aerospace Industries, succeeding Zvi Zur<!--deadlink: --> and succeeded by Ori Orr. He also served on the board for the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
During a 2007 military conference in Latrun, Ben-Gal sharply criticized what he viewed as a deterioration in the battle readiness of the IDF, and claimed that the IDF's technological revolution has turned soldiers into "bionic machines" and sown fear among senior officers that open criticism would hamper advancement in their own careers. He expressed the view that all the new technologies being introduced were useless, and claimed that it had gotten to the point where commanders prefer to email each other instead of interacting.
From 2009 until his death, he served as chairman of the board of directors for cyberarms firm NSO Group. Ben-Gal died on February 13, 2016.