Inside the Israel Antiquities Authority

General Amir Drori, who led an army to the gates of Beirut in the Lebanese War, lost the last battle he ever waged in uniform when he was edged out for the post of chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces seven years ago. He was soon, however, laying siege to cities the length and breadth of the Holy Land—dead cities—and outflanking powerfully entrenched bureaucracies.

As first director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Drori has staged a dazzling administrative coup that has brought archaeology in Israel to the fore as a large-scale enterprise uncovering more of the country’s past than ever before.

Only 54 employees were listed on the work roster when he took over his duties five years ago. Today he deploys over 3,000 people, mostly ordinary workers but more than 200 of them professional archaeologists, in digs from the Lebanese border to the Red Sea.

This transformation of Israel’s official archaeological arm reflects in part a new government awareness of archaeology’s potential as a tourist attraction. It also reflects the personal orientation of a goal-oriented military man turned loose on a sleepy government department.