GOVERNMENT

Herzi Halevi

Chief of Staff

Israeli Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi was appointed as the 23rd chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces in Jan. 2023. Known as a deep strategic thinker who incorporates long-term historical trends into his worldview, Halevi possesses extensive operational and command experience in dealing with Israel's adversaries. Named after his uncle who died while serving in the 1967 Six-Day War, Halevi was born in Jerusalem. For much of this year, he has been attempting to diminish the impact of Israel's internal political crisis on the IDF's morale and combat-readiness. "I will make sure that outside pressure — political, legal, and otherwise — stops at me and does not reach the gates of the IDF," he told an interviewer, adding that his goal is to keep Israel's armed forces "free of any consideration other than security." (Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons License)