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Meet the IDF’s new deputy chief of staff

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman decided to act quickly by appointing Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi as the IDF’s deputy chief of staff, before the State Comptroller published his report of Operation Protective Edge.
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The announcement Nov. 3 that the Chief of the Northern Command Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi would be appointed deputy chief of staff caught Israel’s security establishment and media by surprise. It was thought that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman would wait until the release of State Comptroller Joseph Shapira’s report on Operation Protective Edge in just a few weeks before they pick the officer, whose chances of becoming the next chief of staff are considered especially high.

Indeed, Liberman and Eizenkot surprised everyone. Kochavi, who served as chief of the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Intelligence Division during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, is expected to come under serious scrutiny in the State Comptroller’s report. The announcement of his promotion was therefore considered to be a “preventive measure,” in which the defense minister and chief of staff signaled that with all due respect to the State Comptroller he would not be the one to determine who is part of the IDF’s highest echelons. And it also signaled that even if Kochavi is subjected to criticism in the much-anticipated report, it would not conflict with the fact that he is now the officer best suited to be Eizenkot’s deputy and the person who will most likely succeed the chief of staff at the end of his term.

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