Avram Zemil is an operative for the Israeli Secret Service, aka Mossad.
As was the standard in Israel, Zemil joined the military out of school to perform his required years of national duty. His intellect and his interests moved him quickly from the infantry into G-2, Military Intelligence. There he seemed to fit in and excel, staying longer than his required time and serving with distinction for several years before being approached to serve elsewhere.
The invitation had come from the head of Mossad itself, an elderly man named Ben-Or, who had watched the younger man and saw in him an exceptional operative. Whether he was leading an overt operation against enemy forces or working in the covert field of espionage, Zemil continually showed both bravery and intelligence. He was watchful and observant, two qualities that were very much desired as an operative not only needed to be able to look carefully at something, he needed to be able to understand what it was he was seeing.
Eventually promotions pushed him behind a desk more and more and, as the series starts, he is 36 and, as newly promoted Chief of Station in Haifa, his field work should have been at an end as it was for his contemporaries. Being the man that he is, however, that would not likely happen. Zemil was a man of action, not content to just send others to do the work.
Still single and considered quite handsome by the women he knew, Zemil was not against the idea of marriage, he just did not put it as a high priority. He liked the work he did and he saw no reason to change, especially since there always seemed something interesting, and exciting, about to happen.