Moshe Ya'alon

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 from Galicia 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, where he worked in the cowshed and as a tractor operator.

Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon (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 under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2013 until his resignation on 20 May 2016.

In 1968, Ya'alon 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, he 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 mainland Egypt.

He continued fighting as part of the Israeli drive into the Egyptian mainland; he participated in the encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army.

Following the war, he rejoined the IDF as a career soldier, and became 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.

During the 1982 Lebanon War, Ya'alon joined the Sayeret Matkal commando unit as a commander.

He then rejoined the Paratroopers Brigade and was appointed as the commander of its 890 "Efe" (Echis) paratroop battalion.

During this time, he was wounded in the leg while leading a pursuit of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

Ya'alon took a sabbatical to the United Kingdom to study at the British Army's Camberley Staff College.

Upon his return to Israel, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and appointed commander of Sayeret Matkal.

Ya'alon led it to many notable achievements, for which the unit received four recommendations of honor.

After his tenure as commander was finished, Ya'alon studied at the University of Haifa, obtaining a BA in Political Science, and took an Armored Corps course.

In 1990, Ya'alon was appointed commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, and two years later, became commander of the Judea and Samaria Division.

On 10 December 1992, Ya'alon killed a militant from the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine with a hand grenade after the militant had shot dead a Yamam operative attempting to arrest him.

In 1993, he was appointed commander of an IDF training base, and commander of an armored division.

In 1995, Ya'alon was promoted to major general and appointed head of Military Intelligence.

In 1998, he was appointed commanding officer of Israel's Central Command.

He was serving in this position when the Second Intifada was launched in September 2000.

Ya'alon was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on 9 July 2002, and served in that position until 1 June 2005.

The major focus throughout his tenure as chief of staff was the army's effort to quell the Second Intifada.

Under his watch, the IDF conducted Operation Defensive Shield.

In February 2005, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz decided not to extend 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 Gaza disengagement plan.

On 1 June 2005, Ya'alon retired from the army, and Dan Halutz, his successor as chief of staff, oversaw the disengagement.

In December 2005, relatives of the victims of the 1996 shelling of Qana filed a suit against Ya'alon in Washington, D.C., for his alleged role in their deaths.

Ya'alon ran for Knesset in 2019 as the number three member of the Blue and White party, a joint list created by the merging of the Israel Resilience Party, led by former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz, and Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid.

Ya'alon briefly served as the number 2 on the Yesh Atid-Telem list that was created following the 2020 Israeli legislative election.

Ya'alon retired from politics in the lead up to the 2021 election after testing the waters by splitting his Telem party from Yesh Atid.

Ya'alon was born Moshe Smilansky, the son of David Smilansky and Batya Silber.