Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, a former tank commander and chief of the military’s international cooperation unit, was appointed on Sunday by new Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir as the next IDF spokesman.
The appointment was approved by Defense Minister Israel Katz, the IDF said.
Defrin, 53, will be replacing Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, who served as IDF spokesman for the past two years. Hagari announced on Friday that he was retiring from the military, after being passed over for a promotion.
The IDF said the handover would take place “in the coming period.”
Defrin will be the latest in a line of career military officers to command the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, ending a previously common practice of naming civilians with a deep background in journalism or communications for the role.
Defrin began his service in the IDF in 1991 as a tank commander, serving in the 7th Armored Brigade. He was seriously wounded in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when he was the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 9th Battalion.
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari gives a statement to the media in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
He later commanded the 27th Reserve Armored Brigade, before its closure in 2014, and after that, he was the deputy commander of the 36th Division.
Defrin was appointed as Israel’s defense attaché to India in 2016.
In 2019 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and was appointed as the head of the IDF’s international cooperation unit, known as Tevel. That was his last role in the military, before retiring last year and beginning work for the Rafael defense firm.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the head of the IDF’s international cooperation unit, in an undated official portrait. (Israel Defense Forces)
At the request of Zamir, also a former tank commander, Defrin will return to the military and command the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
In a 2022 interview with the Haaretz daily, Defrin revealed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his injury in 2006.
“[August 12, 2006 is] actually the day of my death. Something that remains with you for your whole life. It’s not something that will ever leave me,” he told the paper.
“It keeps coming back all the time. It comes to you by surprise, you’re not ready for it. Suddenly there’s a flash of light while driving — and instantly you’re back there. You can’t breathe for a moment. Sudden noises still make me jump: the mixer in the kitchen, the teenage daughter who shuts the microwave door with a bang, the leaf blower being used to clean the base. When that happens, I jump. It’s a fraction of a second, but the mouth goes dry. And then you say: ‘I’m here, everything is all right,’” Defrin told Haaretz.
Defrin has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Ben Gurion University and a master’s degree in defense from Hebrew University. He also graduated from the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kingdom.
He is married and a father of four.
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