Giora Eiland

Giora Eiland of the INSS in a photo from the INSS website. Accessed 9 November 2012.

Giora Eiland is a retired Israeli major general and former head of Israel's National Security Council who has advised the private intelligence firm Black Cube since about 2017. In 2024 Haaretz described him as chairman of its advisory board and head of its ethics committee. That year he joined its chief executive at a meeting with an Israeli minister about investigating a US student group; the operation never got a green light. In 2026 Slovenia's intelligence agency named him as one of three Black Cube representatives linked to alleged interference in that country's election.

Giora Eiland is Israel's former National Security Advisor and a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

During his career in the IDF, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Eiland served as Head of the Planning Branch; Head of the Operations Branch; and in several command positions in the Paratroops Division. Eiland is currently President of defence company Star Defence Systems Ltd.

Education

Eiland has a BA in economics and a MA in business management, both from Bar Ilan University in Israel.

Career History

• 2004: Retires from IDF to head Israel's National Security Council.
• 2001 - 2003: Head of the Planning and Policy Directorate.
• 1999: Promoted to the rank of Major General and was appointed Head of the IDF Operations Directorate.
• 1990 - 1993: Commander of the Givati Brigade and of the IDF's Officers Academy.
• 1982: Battalion commander during the first Lebanon War.
• 1973: Platoon leader during 'Yom Kippur War' (also known as the October War).

Views

On the "Global war on Terror"

According to a US diplomatic cable of 2006, Eiland stated:

The War on Terror is Not a Conventional War. It happens among the people in populated areas. Individuals -- not armies -- are now our enemies. We now have to target specific people, not fixed military assets. Because people move quickly, we must have real-time intelligence. All forms of intelligence (e.g., signals, imagery, and human) need to be brought to one person at a very low level (e.g., a brigade commander), and that person must have the authority to make decisions regarding hitting targets. Because the enemy can move quickly and cause significant damage with the technology and know-how at his disposal, CT forces need to be able to react quickly. The rules of engagement are confusing when you do not know who the enemy is. International legal definitions are increasingly irrelevant.

On targeted killings

The US cable of 17 March 2006, cited Eiland as making the following point: Israel believes that targeted killings are extremely effective in preventing terrorist attacks. They require that you bypass the ordinary chain of command in order to carry them out. In Israel, for example, a brigade commander is authorized to give orders to Shin Bet (ISA) and Israeli Air Force (IAF) assets to execute such killings.

On the media

According to the 17 March 2006 cable, Eiland stated:

The Perception of Reality is More Important than Reality. The media has tremendous influence in the GWOT. Perceptions determine domestic and international legitimacy, which affects a country's operational boundaries. We cannot "beat" the media. We have to join it.

On Iran

Eiland told the Times of Israel on 3 September 2013, that Israel cancelled a planned attack on Iran the previous year because of US pressure. "Netanyahu seriously considered a preemptive strike on Iran, and the Americans were not excited about the idea," he said.

On Gaza 2014: 'Incitement to Genocide'?

Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah noted in August 2014 that Eiland had, in a Hebrew language op-ed for Mako, a website linked to Israel’s Channel 2 television, called for Israel to block supplies of food and water to Gaza. An article on Electronic Intifada provided an English translation of excerpts of Eiland's article:

“Since Gaza is in fact a state in a military confrontation with us, the proper way to put pressure on them is to bring to a full stop the supplies from Israel to Gaza, not only of electricity and fuel, but also of food and water."

“A state cannot simultaneously attack and feed the enemy, while he is shooting at you, because this gives the other country a breathing space – and again I am referring to Gaza as a country, because the regime there is supported by its people".

Abuminah called this a 'starve or surrender' policy, comparing it to the Syrian regime's use of starvation as a weapon of war, a practice condemned widely including by the U.S.

Citing Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Abunimah argued that Eiland's comments constituted a call for war crimes and crimes against humanity and 'may amount to incitement to genocide'.

Gaza, 2023–2024

In an op-ed in Yedioth Ahronoth on 19 November 2023, Eiland wrote: "The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers." The Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said he agreed "with every word".

In September 2024 Eiland led a forum of reserve officers that put forward "The Generals' Plan". It proposed declaring northern Gaza, including Gaza City, a closed military zone, giving an estimated 300,000 civilians a week to leave through IDF corridors, and then placing the area under "full military siege", leaving Hamas fighters "the option to either surrender or face death". The forum presented the plan to members of the Security Cabinet. Eiland argued that restricting aid had produced the November 2023 hostage deal.

Black Cube

Eiland sits on Black Cube's international advisory board. In August 2024 Haaretz described him as chairman of the advisory board and said the firm's ethics committee was headed by him. The firm's website says that he headed the IDF Operations and Planning branches and the National Security Council, and that in his "ongoing consultancy to governments, multi-national corporations, and large-scale arbitrations" he draws on relationships "built over decades in the security, intelligence, and strategic planning fields".

2019 interview

In October 2019 Eiland told Globes that he had advised Black Cube for two years and that the firm had "ethical boundaries". He gave as a typical case its work for the Mexican company Oro Negro against the state oil company Pemex. Oro Negro had a contract to sell to Pemex, the price was cut, and the hint was that the cut followed a refusal to pay a bribe, or "success fees", with losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. Because there was no paper trail, he said, the instruction to gather evidence came not from the client but from one of the largest law firms in the United States, which already worked with Black Cube in the US and Europe. He said the firm used only two techniques, human sources and open sources, and that its agents posed as other people to get suspects to talk. He added that many of its staff had come from the Shin Bet and the Mossad, and named Efraim Halevi and Yohanan Danino as senior advisers.

Students for Justice in Palestine (2024)

In August 2024 Haaretz/TheMarker reported that Eiland, described as chairman of Black Cube's advisory board, had attended a meeting near the end of June between the firm's chief executive, Dan Zorella, and the Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli. The subject was a possible Black Cube investigation of Students for Justice in Palestine, the US campus group. The ministry's director general, Avi Cohen-Scali, also attended. Haaretz confirmed Eiland's presence at the meeting; the Times of Israel summarised the same report. All sides agreed the operation never got a green light, but accounts of who rejected it conflict. The ministry said Black Cube had approached it and the ministry rejected the proposal. Three sources said the idea came from the ministry and the company rejected it, concerned that it would put the firm in the crosshairs of the US administration. Black Cube said it "does not and has never operated against students or any political protest group in the United States".

Slovenia (2025–2026)

On 16 March 2026, days before Slovenia's general election, the weekly Mladina and the 8 March Institute published an investigation. Citing flight data, their own sources and public information, it identified Eiland and Zorella as two of four passengers on a private flight that landed in Ljubljana on 22 December 2025 for a meeting with the opposition leader Janez Janša. Politico Europe reported that Slovenian law enforcement alleged the visitors had been engaged in "covert surveillance and wiretapping" and had helped leak recordings during the campaign, and that Janša admitted meeting Eiland but said he could not recall the date.

On 20 March 2026 the director of the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA), Joško Kadivnik, presented to the National Security Council secretariat "material evidence of connections of three representatives of the private intelligence corporation Black Cube (Giora Eiland, Liron Tzur and Dan Zorella)" to a visit to the SDS party headquarters at Trstenjakova ulica 8, Ljubljana, on 10–11 December 2025. Police said they were investigating offences including unlawful audio and video recording and bribery. Eiland was therefore named by a state agency, not only by anonymous sources. The case is covered on Black Cube in Slovenia.

Affiliations

• Institute for National Security Studies | Corsight AI | Black Cube | Star Defence Systems Ltd

Conferences

• Sixth International Conference: Terrorism's Global Impact - Programme
• Fourth Herzliya Conference
• Fifth Herzliya Conference
• Sixth Herzliya Conference
• Ninth Herzliya Conference

External Resources

• Israelis Deliberately "ambiguous" On Palestinian Elections According To Nsa Eiland, Us Embassy Tel Aviv, 10 December 2005, published by Wikileaks, 1 September 2011.
• Jcg: Israel Nsc's 2/23 Session With S/ct Amb. Crumpton, US Embassy Tel Aviv, 17 March, 2006, unredacted publication by Wikileaks, 8 September 2011.
• Ali Abunimah, Starve or surrender: cut off all food and water to Gaza says Israeli general, Electronic Intifada, 23 August 2014.