Moshe Ya'alon

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Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon (Hebrew: משה "בוגי" יעלון) (born June 24, 1950) is a General (res.) (Rav Aluf, the highest rank in the IDF) of the Israeli Defense Force. He was appointed Chief of Staff (Hebrew: רמטכ"ל) on July 9, 2002, and served in that position until June 1, 2005, during which time he led the army’s effort to quell the al-Aqsa Intifada launched in September 2000. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center Institute for International and Middle East Studies. Ya'alon also serves as the Chairman of the Center for Jewish Identity and Culture at Beit Morasha of Jerusalem.

Ya'alon's public pronouncements have been controversial. For example he told the Haaretz Newspaper on August 27, 2002, "The Palestinian threat harbours cancer-like attributes that have to be severed. There are all kinds of solutions to cancer. Some say it's necessary to amputate organs but at the moment I am applying chemotherapy." ^[1] ^[2]

Some believe that Ya'alon's authority was undermined by his inability to rein in the more aggressive Aluf Dan Halutz, Ya'alon's Deputy Chief of Staff as of early 2004.

In January 2004, Ya'alon publicly stated that the 13 Sayeret Matkal soldiers who refused to serve in the territories were taking the unit's name in vain.

In February 2005, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz made the controversial decision not to prolong Ya'alon's service as Chief of Staff for another year. This marked the climax of tensions between Mofaz and Ya'alon, which had arisen partly through Ya'alon's objection to the disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip. On June 1 2005, Ya'alon ended his military service after 37 years in the IDF.

In late 2006, Ya'alon was in New Zealand on a private fund-raising trip organised by the Jewish National Fund. An Auckland District Court Judge issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged war crimes arising from his role in the 2002 assassination of Hamas leader Salah Shahade in Gaza City, in which at least 14 Palestinian civilians were killed, ^[3] saying that New Zealand had an obligation to uphold the Geneva Convention. The Attorney-General of New Zealand, Michael Cullen, overruled the warrant after advice from the Crown Law office that there was insufficient evidence.^[4] ^[3]

In January 2008, during a discussion on the Interdisciplinary Center, Ya'alon said "There is no way to stabilize the situation all over the world and especially in the Middle East without confronting Iran."^[5]