Benny Gantz has
been the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces since February
2011. A former paratrooper, he fought alongside his soldiers as an
officer during the 1982 Lebanon War. After assisting with Operation
Shlomo, which airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, he
commanded the army's Judea and Samaria division during the Second
Intifada and was IDF attache in the United States before assuming
Israel's highest military post.
As
chief of staff, Gantz helped negotiate the October 2011 prisoner
swap, where over 1000 Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange
for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas. In response
to the Arab Spring, Gantz has offered sanctuary in the Golan Heights
to Alawi refugees should Syria's President Assad fall. In January
2012, Gantz gave a speech predicting “unnatural” events in Iran
the day before a nuclear scientist was assassinated; no connection
has been proven.
For more information, see http://bit.ly/zyflgY or http://bit.ly/A0Zlho.
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