GOVERNMENT

Aviv Kochavi

Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces

Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi is the Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, a position he has held since 2019. In 2022, Kochavi was among the seven recipients of the prestigious Ben Gurion Award of Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva. In a recent speech, Kochavi quoted the observation of Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, that “A Jewish state was established, and its fate is in the hands of the security forces.” Declared Kochavi: “Without any exaggeration, ‘its fate is in the hands of the security forces.’ You are the security forces, you are its fate.” He added that the IDF operates on “the basic principle of ‘We defend the citizens of Israel, and we determine its fate along the borders, [it] doesn’t matter whether it is a campaign in the north or in Gaza.” (Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons License)