Zohar Palti
Viterbi Fellow at the Washington Institute
Zohar Palti is an Andrew Viterbi Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, DC, a Barry and Teri Volpert Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Chair of Strategic Dialogue at ELNET, and a consultant to private companies in the United States. He retired from government service in 2022 after nearly four decades in some of Israel’s most sensitive national security positions. Most recently, he served as Director of the Policy and Political-Military Bureau at Israel’s Ministry of Defense, where he was responsible for shaping ministry policy. Previously, he headed the Mossad Intelligence Directorate, a role equivalent in rank to Major General, and earlier served as the agency’s Chief of Counterterrorism. Prior to his tenure at the Mossad, he spent 25 years in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Intelligence Corps. He has also held research and visiting positions at leading US institutions, including The Washington Institute, Harvard University, and Stanford University.
Updated: May 6, 2026