Isaac Ben-Israel was born in Israel (Tel-Aviv), 1949.
He studied Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy at Tel-Aviv University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1988. He has been teaching at Tel-Aviv University since 1989. He joined the Israel Air Force (IAF) after graduating high school (1967) and has served continuously up to his retirement (2002) and joining the University of Tel-Aviv as a professor. During his service, Isaac Ben-Israel has held several posts in operations, intelligence and weapon development units of the IAF. He headed the IAF Operations Research Branch, Analysis and Assessment Division of IAF Intelligence, and was the Head of Military R&D in Israel Defence Forces and Ministry of Defence (1991-1997). In January 1998 he was promoted to Major General and appointed as Director of Defence R&D Directorate in IMOD.

Isaac Ben-Israel has received several awards, including twice the Israel Defence Award (1972, 2001) for developing weapon systems and Israel Air Force Award (1976) for developing a C¬¬¬¬4 system. In 2002 he won the Singapore Defence Technology Distinguished Award for his “outstanding contribution to bilateral defence relations between Israel and Singapore”.

Professor Ben-Israel was a member of the 17th Knesset (Israeli Parliament) between June 2007 and February 2009. Currently he is the Chairman of Israel Space Agency (since 2005).

Professor Ben-Israel belongs to the staff of Tel-Aviv University and he is teaching at the Cohen Institute for the History & Philosophy of Sciences and Ideas and at the School of Government and Policy at Tel-Aviv University. He is the head of Tel-Aviv University Workshop for Science Technology and Security (since 2002) and was the head of the Program for Security Studies (2004-2007). He was the head of Curiel Centre for International Studies and a member of Jaffe Centre for Strategic Studies between 2002-2004. Isaac Ben-Israel had been the Chairman of the Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator (2007), a member of the board of directors of IAI (2000-2002), the board of the Israel Corp. (2004-2007) and the R&D advisory board of TEVA (2003-2007). Currently he is a member of the board of Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies (since 2000), the advisory council of Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology at the Technion (since 2000), the Scientific Committee of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Technological Analysis and forecasting at Tel-Aviv University (since 2004), the academic council of Afeka – Tel-Aviv Academic College of Engineering(since 2003). In 2003 he founded RAY-TOP (Technology opportunities) Ltd. advising industry in technological and strategic issues.

Isaac Ben-Israel has written numerous papers on military and security issues. His book Dialogues on Science and Military Intelligence (1989) won the Itzhak-Sade Award for Military Literature. His book on The Philosophy of Military Intelligence had been published by the Broadcast University (1999) and has been translated into French (2004). His book Science, Technology and Security: From Soldiers in Combat up to Outer Space, was published recently (2006).

Isaac is married to Inbal (née Marcus) and they have three sons: Yuval (1981), Roy (1984) and Alon (1988).

Prizes and Awards
1972 Israel Defence Award, for developing an airborne weapon delivery system for F-4E.
1976 Israel Air Force Award, for developing a C¬¬¬¬4 system.
1984 IDF Director of military Intelligence Prize for Creative Thinking.
1990 Itzhak-Sade Award for Military Literature, for the book Dialogues on Science and Military Intelligence.
2001 Israel Defence Award (Second time), for a project introducing a new concept of future warfare.
2002 Singapore Defence Technology Distinguished Award.
2008 Lions “Man of Excellence”, for his contribution to Israel Security.