US Army Colonel David ‘Mickey’ Marcus’s true contribution to the fledgling IDF

Yael Driver is the daughter of the late Maj.-Gen. Shlomo Shamir, who recruited Colonel David “Mickey” Marcus in January 1948. She maintains that her father was the person closest to the celebrated American army veteran, from the latter’s recruitment and arrival in what was then British Mandate Palestine, until his accidental death on June 11, 1948. Her parents maintained contact with his widow, Emma Marcus, well into the 1960s. Driver hopes to clear up some misconceptions, even well-meaning ones, related to Marcus’s recruitment, his status as Israel’s first major-General, the battle for Jerusalem, and his actual contribution to the fledgling…