*** Welcome to piglix ***

Moshe Ya'alon

Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alon.jpg
Native name משה יעלון
Nickname(s) Bogie
Born (1950-06-24) 24 June 1950 (age 66)
Kiryat Haim, Israel
Allegiance Israel Defense Forces
Years of service 1968–2005
Rank IDF rav aluf rotated.svg Chief of General Staff
Commands held Sayeret Matkal, Paratroopers Brigade, West Bank Division, AMAN, Central Command, General Staff
Battles/wars
Awards Legion of Merit
Other work Shalem Center, Likud
Moshe Ya'alon
Knessets 18, 19, 20
Faction represented in Knesset
2009–2016 Likud
Ministerial roles
2009–2013 Vice Prime Minister
2009–2013 Minister of Strategic Affairs
2013–2016 Minister of Defense
2015–2016 Vice Prime Minister

Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon (Hebrew: משה יעלון‎‎; born Moshe Smilansky on 24 June 1950) is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who also served as Israel's Defense Minister from 2013 until his resignation on 20 May 2016.

Ya'alon was born Moshe Smilansky, the son of David Smilansky and Batya Silber. His father, a factory worker, had moved to Mandatory Palestine with his parents from Ukraine in 1925, and was a veteran of the Haganah and Jewish Brigade. His mother was a Holocaust survivor who had fought against the Nazis with partisans during World War II. She came to Palestine in 1946. Ya'alon grew up in Kiryat Haim, a working-class suburb of Haifa. He was active in the Labor Zionist youth movement "HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed" and joined a Nahal group named Ya'alon, a name he later adopted. He later moved to kibbutz Grofit, in the Arava region near Eilat. In 1968, he was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces, and volunteered as a paratrooper in the Paratroopers Brigade. He served as a soldier and a squad leader in the Brigade's 50 battalion and fought in the War of Attrition. He was discharged in 1971.

In 1973, Ya'alon was called up as a reservist during the Yom Kippur War. On 15 October 1973, his unit, the 55th Paratroopers Brigade, became the first IDF unit to cross the Suez Canal into Egypt. He continued fighting as part of the Israeli drive into the Egyptian mainland, and participated in the encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army. Following the war, he rejoined the IDF as a career soldier, and became an as an infantry officer after completing Officer Candidate School. He then returned to the Paratroopers Brigade as a platoon leader. Later on he served as a company commander in the Brigade's 50 battalion and led the Brigade's Reconnaissance company in several special operations and during Operation Litani.


...
Wikipedia

...