BICOM

It was announced over the weekend that Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot will in February succeed Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz as IDF Chief of Staff, with Gantz completing his four-year term.

54-year-old Eizenkot currently serves as Deputy Chief of Staff to Gantz and is reportedly thought of by his colleagues as a level-headed military thinker. Born in Tiberias, Eizenkot was then raised in Israel’s southernmost city Eilat. He joined the Golani infantry brigade in 1978 and is a married father of five.

His military career has seen Eizenkot serve as a company commander during the Lebanon War in 1982 before becoming commander of the Golani Brigade in 1997. Two years later he was appointed as the military attaché to then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak before heading the Judea and Samaria Brigade. By 2006, Eizenkot was Head of Northern Command and was regarded as a cautionary voice within the General Staff during the Second Lebanon War that year. Although some, including Barak as Defence Minister, suggested that Eizenkot should be appointed Chief of Staff four years ago, Eizenkot himself recommended that Gantz be appointed as IDF commander.

Eizenkot was officially offered the position on Friday morning in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who commented that Eizenkot “was chosen from among a group of excellent officers to lead the IDF at a time when the State of Israel is facing complex security challenges. On behalf of the Israeli public, I wish him the best of luck.”

Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, “In the coming years, the State of Israel and the IDF will face very complex challenges on all fronts, along the borders, within them and far from them … And Maj. Gen Gadi Eisenkot is the most worthy officer to take the torch from IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, and lead the IDF in confronting these challenges.”

It was also announced that Maj. Gen. Yair Golan will become Eizenkot’s Deputy Chief of Staff, leaving his post as Head of Northern Command.