Chief of General Staff (Israel)

Chief of the General Staff
General Staff Flag
Incumbent Gadi Eizenkot since 16 February 2015
Residence	HaKirya, Tel Aviv
Appointer	Minister of Defense
Inaugural holder	Yaakov Dori
Formation	1947

The Chief of the General Staff, also known as the Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Defense Forces (Hebrew: ראש המטה הכללי‎, Rosh HaMateh HaKlali, abbr. Ramatkal—רמטכ"ל‎), is the supreme commander and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

At any given time, the Chief of Staff is the only active officer holding the IDF's highest rank, rav aluf (Hebrew: רב-אלוף‎‎), which is usually translated into English as lieutenant general, a three-star rank. (The lone exception to this rule occurred during the Yom Kippur War, when former Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev, who was a government member at the moment of the outbreak of war, was brought out of retirement and installed as chief of Southern Command. For a brief period, he and Chief of Staff David Elazar were both in active service with the rank of rav aluf.)

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is an integrated force, its ranks are the same in all services. It has a slightly compacted rank structure; for instance, the Chief of Staff (Ramatkal or rav aluf (Hebrew: רב-אלוף)) is seemingly only equivalent to a lieutenant general (NATO OF-8) in other militaries. Rav aluf means 'arch-general', which would be equal to a field marshal or five star general in other armies and equivalent to OF-10.