JERUSALEM - A former general with years of experience fighting LebanonÂ’s Hezbollah guerrillas has been chosen as the new chief of IsraelÂ’s armed forces, Israeli media reported on Monday. Gaby Ashkenazy, 52, an infantry commander and currently director of the Defence Ministry, will replace Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz who quit last week over his failure to crush Hezbollah in the July-August war, they said.
An aide to Defence Minister Amir Peretz said announcement of the appointment was likely later in the day. In a speech after the reports Ashkenazy had been tapped, Peretz did not mention a candidate but said a new military chief would be chosen quickly.
Ashkenazy served extensively in southern Lebanon and headed the armyÂ’s northern command in the final years before Israeli troops, after constant attacks by Hezbollah fighters, withdrew in 2000. Ashkenazy was not in uniform during the fighting in which some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, most of them soldiers, were killed. |