He served in the Paratroopers Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces during the Six-Day War, and was among the troops that captured the Temple Mount. He later said that the Israeli victory should have become a national holiday. After the Six-Day War, he helped re-establish the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank. He convinced Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to grant permission to settle in Gush Etzion. He was badly wounded in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 on the bank of the Suez canal. He recovered, and was amongst the founders of the Gush Emunim movement, which founded over 100 Israeli settlements. In 1975, he led the founding of Elon Moreh, the first Israeli settlement in the West Bank, in Sebastia.