Serving most of his adult life in the IDF, Amit is born in Tiberias in 1921. After his military service, he heads some of Israel’s top industries, contributing to the foundation in 1976 of the Democratic Movement for Change (Dash) political party, with which he serves as a Minister of Transportation in the Knesset. While Head of the Mossad, he famously instigates the defection of an Iraqi pilot in 1966 to Israel who was flying a MIG 21 jet, providing valuable intelligence to Israel prior to the June 1967 war, and to the US about the capabilities of this enigmatic Russian Aircraft.