Born on 18.8.1947 in Tel Aviv, son of Sima and Avraham Steinberg, members of Hashomer Hatzair, educated him in the spirit of their pioneering Zionist worldview. Yankele graduated from the New High School in Tel Aviv and became a member of the Student Council, where he was nicknamed ‘Yankla’ that had been with him since his entire life, and joined the IDF in August 1965. Without sharing his decision with the family, he volunteered to serve as a sniper, but for an injury in underwater training he was hospitalized and forced to leave the unit. Joining the Intelligence Corps in field positions was designed for him. It was a place where analytic thought could be expressed with love for field trips. At the end of 1966, Yankele completed a course for intelligence officers and in early 1967 began his service as a young intelligence officer in the Southern Command in the Beer Sheva bloc. In the Six Day War, he was responsible for the deception that divided the Egyptian forces. After the war, he was appointed intelligence officer in the Negev region and his main job was to investigate and prevent terrorist infiltrations, during which he met Ariela Meitez, a soldier in regular service, and in February 1969 they married in Be’er Sheva. In May 1970, he received the rank of captain and was sent to study economics and the Middle East at Tel Aviv University, when the family moved to Ramat Gan. During this period the two eldest daughters were born: in 1971 his eldest daughter, Nati, was born, and in 1972 his second daughter was born. After completing his BA studies in October 1973, on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, he returned to Modi’in in the Southern Command, and was promoted to the rank of major in 1974. In 1974 his son Tomer was born, while Yankele moved to serve in the Golan Heights as an assistant intelligence officer of the Northern Division, and later as an intelligence officer of the Barak Brigade, during which he was injured again, this time in an accident in the middle of the night on the Golan Heights. At the same time, he was appointed an assistant intelligence officer of a reserve division in the north. He did not like the job of instruction and when he finished he was Simcha to go to the Command and Staff College. In 1978 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and appointed an intelligence officer for the Galilee Division on the Lebanese border. During this period, there was a crisis in his marriage with Ariella and the couple separated. In 1979 he married Ada Beit Gilan, who served in the Intelligence Corps, and the two decided to live in Safed, their new place of service. In 1980, he was praised by a chief intelligence officer for his activities in connection with the terrorist attack in Misgav-Am. Yankele was sent to a study tour in the United States and in August 1980 he was appointed head of the Syrian branch in the Intelligence Department of the Northern Command. In this position, he was in charge of the hottest area on the northern border. Due to his work, the couple moved to Nazareth, where their daughter, Adra, was born. In 1982, he was appointed head of the Syrian and Lebanese branch in the Intelligence Corps, and the family again wandered this time to permanent residence in Binyamina, where Yankle built his home with his own hands, next to Ada’s parents’ home. In September 1984, he was promoted to the rank of colonel, a few days after the birth of the youngest daughter, Gili. Yankele was appointed intelligence officer of the Field Forces Command and changed the functioning of the intelligence department in the Border Guard,She completed his work and contributed greatly to IDF field intelligence, and at the end of four years in the position, Yankele was sent to the National Security College, where he was chosen by the commander of the Israel Defense Forces. The school period was a time for refreshment, where he could spend time with his children, spend time with his family and cultivate the garden around his home. A time when the only tension was waiting for the next job. Yankle had only been able to attend the college for about six months. On the 18th of Shevat 5758 (February 5, 1988), Yankele died suddenly of cardiac arrest. He was forty and a half when he died. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Binyamina. Survived by his parents, a wife, four daughters, a son and a brother.
