Chief of the General Staff (Israel)

History

The role of the Chief of the General Staff began with the Haganah organization, where it was named after the head of the general staff of the Haganah. With the establishment of the IDF, the Chief of Defense and the Chief of Staff, headed by Yaakov Dori, were converted to head the IDF.

The chief of the general staff is officially appointed for a three-year term, which can be extended for another year. An exception was Rafael Eitan, whose term was extended twice, and he served a total of five years. On the other hand, there were several chiefs of staff who did not complete their full term: Yigal Yadin resigned amid disagreements over the IDF budget, Mordechai Maklef served for only one year at his request, David Elazar was forced to resign following the recommendations of the Agranat Commission investigating the Yom Kippur War, and Dan Halutz resigned due to criticism of the Second Lebanon War. Also, two chiefs of staff have given up part of their tenure extension: Amnon Lipkin-Shahak wanted to end his term in the middle of the fourth year, due to his desire to move into politics and run for prime minister. Haim Laskov asked not to serve a fourth year due to his disagreements with Shimon Peres.

In 2005, Ariel Sharon and Shaul Mofaz did not extend Moshe Ya'alon's term to a fourth year, during which he was interpreted as a dismissal in light of Ya'alon's opposition to the disengagement plan. In order to prevent such problems in the future, and as was done for other positions such as that of the President of the State, Defense Minister Amir Peretz appointed Major General Gabi Ashkenazi in 2007 for a period of four years, thus removing the uncertainty regarding the addition of the fourth year. Ashkenazi raised the issue of extending his term to a fifth year.

At the end of his term, the Chief of the General Staff (like other senior members of the Israeli defense establishment) has a cooling-off period of three years before he can be elected a Member of the Knesset, be appointed a Minister in the Government or be elected Prime Minister.

Legal position

The position of ramatkal is defined in the Basic Law: The Military (1976), clause three:

• The supreme command rank in the military is that of the Chief of the General Staff
• The Chief of the General Staff is to be placed under the authority of the government and subordinate to the Defense Minister
• The Chief of the General Staff is to be appointed by the government, according to the recommendation of the Defense Minister

The Chief of the General Staff is formally appointed once every three years, with the government often extending the term to four years, and in one occasion, even five.

Significance

Given the importance of the IDF in Israeli society, the Chief of the General Staff is an important public figure in Israel. On appointment of a new Chief of the General Staff, mass-circulation papers such as Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Hayom customarily provide their readers with large-scale portrait photos of the new Chief. Former Chiefs of the General Staff often parlay the prominence of their position into political life, and sometimes the business world. Two Chiefs of the General Staff (Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak) have become Prime Minister of Israel and eleven others (Yigael Yadin, Moshe Dayan, Tzvi Tzur, Haim Bar-Lev, Mordechai Gur, Rafael Eitan, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Shaul Mofaz, Moshe Ya'alon, Gabi Ashkenazi, and Benny Gantz) have served in the Knesset. Of these, only Tzur did not get appointed to the Cabinet.

Six former Chiefs of the General Staff (Dayan, Rabin, Barak, Mofaz, Ya'alon, and Gantz) held the position of Defense Minister, widely considered to be one of the most powerful ministerial posts in the country and the immediate civilian superior of the Chief of the General Staff. Moshe Dayan served also as Foreign Minister. Soon after his discharge, Dan Halutz became the CEO of a car importer. Ehud Barak took a hiatus from politics twice after defeats for re-election and pursued international business ventures.

List of Chiefs of the General Staff

The Chiefs of the General Staff have been:

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:100 left:20 AlignBars = late

Define $now =

DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1947 till:$now TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1950 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1947

BarData = barset:PM

PlotData = width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM

from: 1947 till: 1949 color:red text:"Dori" fontsize:10 from: 1949 till: 1952 color:red text:"Yadin" fontsize:10 from: 1952 till: 1953 color:red text:"Maklef" fontsize:10 from: 1953 till: 1958 color:red text:"Dayan" fontsize:10 from: 1958 till: 1961 color:red text:"Laskov" fontsize:10 from: 1961 till: 1964 color:red text:"Tzur" fontsize:10 from: 1964 till: 1968 color:red text:"Rabin" fontsize:10 from: 1968 till: 1972 color:red text:"Bar-Lev" fontsize:10 from: 1972 till: 1974 color:red text:"Elazar" fontsize:10 from: 1974 till: 1974 color:red text:"Hofi (acting)" fontsize:10 from: 1974 till: 1978 color:red text:"Gur" fontsize:10 from: 1978 till: 1983 color:red text:"Eitan" fontsize:10 from: 1983 till: 1987 color:red text:"Levi" fontsize:10 from: 1987 till: 1991 color:red text:"Shomron" fontsize:10 from: 1991 till: 1995 color:red text:"Barak" fontsize:10 from: 1995 till: 1998 color:red text:"Lipkin-Shahak" fontsize:10 from: 1998 till: 2002 color:red text:"Mofaz" fontsize:10 from: 2002 till: 2005 color:red text:"Ya'alon" fontsize:10 from: 2005 till: 2007 color:red text:"Halutz" fontsize:10 from: 2007 till: 2011 color:red text:"Ashkenazi" fontsize:10 from: 2011 till: 2015 color:red text:"Gantz" fontsize:10 from: 2015 till: 2019 color:red text:"Eizenkot" fontsize:10 from: 2019 till: 2023 color:red text:"Kohavi" fontsize:10 from: 2023 till: 2025 color:red text:"Halevi" fontsize:10 from: 2025 till: $now color:red text:"Zamir" fontsize:10

References

References

1. "Lt. Gen. Chaim Bar Lev (1968-1972)".
2. "Lt. Gen. Yaacov Dori (1948-1949)".
3. (1982-01-04). "Cabinet Extends Eitan's Item; Appoints Mandelbaum As the Governor of the Bank of Israel".
4. "Lt. Gen. Yigal Yadin (1949-1952)".
5. "Lt. Gen. Mordechai Maklef (1952-1953)".
6. "Lt. Gen. David Elazar (1972-1974)".
7. Greenberg, Hanan. (2007-01-16). "IDF Chief Halutz resigns".
8. Greenberg, Hanan. (2005-02-15). "Mofaz ends Chief of Staff's tenure".
9. Ginsburg, Mitch. (2012-03-04). "Timeline of a high-ranking feud".
10. "Basic Law: The Military".
11. "Lt. Gen. Yitzhak Rabin (1964-1968)".
12. "Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak (1991-1995)".
13. Keinon, Herb. (6 August 2020). "The virtues and pitfalls of former IDF chiefs of staff entering politics".
14. Hazani, Golan. (2007-10-10). "Dan Halutz named CEO of Kamor Motors".
15. "Past Chiefs of Staff".
16. "Lt. Gen. Moshe Dayan (1953-1958)".
17. "Lt. Gen. Haim Laskov (1958-1961)".
18. "Lt. Gen. Tzvi Tzur (1961-1963)".
19. (14 February 2011). "Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz Appointed 20th IDF Chief of the General Staff". Israel Defense Forces.
20. (28 November 2014). "Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot to be named 21st commander of IDF".
21. (11 January 2019). "Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot - A look back".
22. Fabian, Emanuel. (16 January 2023). "Herzi Halevi formally takes over as chief of staff, vows to keep politics out of IDF".
23. Fabian, Emanuel. (5 March 2025). "Eyal Zamir takes over from Herzi Halevi as IDF chief, vows victory over Hamas".