About Yitzhak Pundak
Yitzhak Pundak (born Yitzhak Fundik Hebrew: יצחק פונדק; June 13, 1913 – August 27, 2017) was an Israeli general, diplomat and politician. == Early life == Pundak was born in Kraków, Poland (then part of Austria-Hungary) and immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1933, from Poland. == Military career == Pundak's armed service began with the Haganah. In 1945, he was an instructor in a platoon commanders' course. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Pundak served in the HISH and Israel Defense Forces as the commander of Givati Brigade's 53rd Battalion. He commanded the defense of the villages Nitzanim, Negba, Gat and Gal On, including what was seen as a failure and embarrassing surrender in the June 7, 1948 Battle of Nitzanim. In August 1948, he was appointed chief of the Oded Brigade and participated in Operation Yoav and Operation Hiram. In 1951, he founded the independent Nahal unit, which split from the Gadna program. In 1952, Pundak traveled to France for a course in armored warfare and returned to the IDF to implement what he learned. He was appointed to head the Armored Corps on December 22, 1953, helping transform it into the Armored Conscriptions (Hebrew: גייסות השיריון) that employed a new doctrine of combining armored and motorized infantry units.
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