Moshe Yaalon
| Moshe Ya'alon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | משה יעלון |
| Nickname(s) | Bogie |
| Born |
24 June 1950 Kiryat Haim, Israel |
| Allegiance | Israel Defense Forces |
| Years of service | 1968–2005 |
| Rank |
 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.
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