A7News: Who is Major General Aviv Kochavi?

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Friday, Oct. 26 '18, י"ז בחשון תשע"ט



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HEADLINES:
1. WHO IS MAJOR GENERAL AVIV KOCHAVI?
2. DEF. MIN.: MAJ. GEN. AVIV KOCHAVI IS NEXT CHIEF OF STAFF
3. PUTIN: 'RUSSIA DEVELOPING NEW POWERFUL WEAPONS'
4. SCARRAMUCCI: 'POLITICIANS NEED TO DIAL IT DOWN'
5. JUDGE WHO PRESIDED OVER MURDER CASE CALLS FOR RETRIAL
6. NETANYAHU: FORMER LIKUD MINISTER TRYING TO BRING ME DOWN
7. RABBANIT TRAVELED TO ARGENTINA, WAS SHOCKED BY WHAT SHE FOUND
8. REPORT: HAREDI FACTIONS TO OPPOSE BILL TO DEPORT INFILTRATORS


1. WHO IS MAJOR GENERAL AVIV KOCHAVI?
by Arutz Sheva Staff

On Friday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced that he has selected Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi to succeed Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot as the next IDF Chief of Staff.

Kochavi was widely expected to replace Eizenkot. Friday's announcement marks the height of Kochavi's meteoric rise from a paratrooper to a high-ranking officer considered one of the most brilliant in the military.

Kochavi, 64, was born and bred in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Bialik. Already as a child, Kochavi stood out due to his extraordinary talent. "He was mature for his age," said Etti Lostman, Kochavi's teacher at the school, "his answers did not end with yes or no." She emphasized the boy's talent for painting, which Kochavi later utilized as a tool for developing ideas and operational plans.

Kochavi has served in a number of senior positions. In the past two years, he has served as deputy chief of staff, and previously served as the commander of the Gaza Division, as head of the operations division in the General Staff, as head of Military Intelligence and headed the Northern Command.

In his first role as an officer, Kochavi served as a platoon commander in Battalion 890, and was later promoted to be a battalion commander, as a company commander and later as commander of the auxiliary company.

In 1998, after completing his master's degree at Harvard University in the United States, he was appointed the commander of the Eastern Division of the Liaison Unit for Lebanon in 1997-1999 under the command of legendary Brigadier General Erez Gerstein.

"In general, the entire period of her stay in Lebanon was very formative," Kochavi later said. "It was the first time I had been in command in almost two years in a very intense combat zone, and I dealt with all the dilemmas that exist in combat situations in general, and in fighting terrorism and guerilla in urban areas in particular. "

The second intifada in 2001-2003 broke out when Kochavi served as the commander of the Paratroopers Brigade. The then-Colonel Kochavi, together with a group of other field commanders, including the Golani Brigade commander Moshe Tamir and the Nahal Brigade commander Yair Golan, who competed against him to be chief of staff, distinguished themselves for constantly urgiung the senior command to fight against Palestinian terror.

During Operation Defensive Shield in 2003, Kochavi successfully led his Paratroopers Brigade to capture the Balata Refugee Camp in Shchem.

While on the battlefield, Kochavi developed the use of a 5 kg hammer to break down walls and cross through homes in the terror-infested refugee camps in order to prevent his soldiers from being shot by snipers. This ingenious tactic, as well as other urban warfare methods he developed, were later copied by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan

On November 30, 2004, he replaced Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Shmuel Zakai, and commanded the division during operations against Palestinian terror infrastructures in the Gaza Strip.

Kochavi served as the commander of the Gaza Division during the period of the Gaza Disengagement expulsion, a difficult time for a commander whose division oversaw the evacuation of the Jewish settlements who they had been tasked with protecting.

Shortly before he completed his term in 2006, Gilad Shalit was abducted by the Hamas terror group, leading the IDF to launch an extensive counter-terror operation titled Operation Summer Rains.

Following harsh criticism that the division had information about an intention to carry out the attack, the chief of staff at the time, Dan Halutz, appointed a committee headed by Giora Eiland, but found no fault in the conduct of the plan.

In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of Major General and Head of Military Intelligence, a role he served in during 2008's Operation Cast Lead and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012.

For three years, Kochavi was the commander of the Northern Command and since May 2017 he has served as deputy chief of staff and will now move to the other side of the 14th floor to the chief of staff's office.


2. DEF. MIN.: MAJ. GEN. AVIV KOCHAVI IS NEXT CHIEF OF STAFF
by Arutz Sheva

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced Friday that he selected Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi to succeed Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot as the next IDF Chief of Staff.

Liberman will submit Kochavi's nomination Sunday to Judge (ret.) Eliezer Goldberg, who heads the advisory committee on high-level appointments.

The Defense Minister has informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Lt. Gen. Eizenkot of his decision.

Kochavi is endowed with "leadership, daring, creativity and impressive command qualities," said Liberman.

Liberman also spoke with the three other candidates for the appointment and informed them of the selection.


3. PUTIN: 'RUSSIA DEVELOPING NEW POWERFUL WEAPONS'
by Tzvi Lev

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country has been testing new weapons that "significantly excel foreign designs and are simply unrivaled".

Speaking at a meeting of top Russian military and police generals, Putin added that "Russia doesn't threaten anyone, and has strictly adhered to its obligations in the sphere of international security and arms control".

Russia has been developing increasingly advanced weapons, which many observers say are intended as a signal to the United States. In January, Putin revealed that Russia tested "a new intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach any point in the world."

"Russia has a missile of a kind that no country can intercept," he added.

Putin said that any nuclear attack against Russia or its allies would be considered an attack, and that the Russian army "would respond accordingly."

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that he would be pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

"Russia has violated the agreement. They've been violating it for many years," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One to leave Nevada following a campaign rally, according to CNN.

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that Russia has violated the treaty.

Administration officials believe the treaty has put the US at a disadvantage because China does not face any constraints on developing intermediate-range nuclear missiles in the Pacific and does not allow the US to develop new weapons.


4. SCARRAMUCCI: 'POLITICIANS NEED TO DIAL IT DOWN'
by Tzvi Lev

[youtube:2048824]


5. JUDGE WHO PRESIDED OVER MURDER CASE CALLS FOR RETRIAL
by Tzvi Lev

Former Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger said that convicted murderer Roman Zadorov should be given a retrial after new bombshell DNA evidence showed that Zadorov did not kill thirteen-year-old Ta'ir Rada.

Danziger had been the only judge on the three-man panel to vote for Zadorov's acquittal during the trial.

"In my opinion, there is a good chance that a retrial will be made in this case," Danziger said. "If it reaches a stage of retrial, at least a significant part of the questioning will be clarified."

"It is improper and inappropriate for a retired judge to express his opinion as to whether the majority opinion was correct or the opinion of the minority," Danziger emphasized. "I do not think it's desirable. We have a serious system. I assume that if it comes to the stage of a retrial, all questions will become clear."

Thirteen-year-old Ta'ir Rada of Katzrin, in the Golan Heights, was found dead in a bathroom stall at the Nofey Golan high school on December 6, 2006. She had been brutally stabbed.

A construction worker who had been employed on the school grounds, Roman Zadorov, was charged with the murder and found guilty after he confessed to the murder. However, there have always been grave doubts among the Israeli public regarding his guilt, and speculation that the confession was a forced one.

In 2016, a TV documentary revealed the existence of a previously unknown suspect in the murder: a woman identified as A.K. who lived in Katzrin at the time of the murder, and who suffers from severe mental problems.

A single human hair that had been found on Rada's body was recently tested and found to match the DNA of a man who had been A.K.'s boyfriend at the time of the murder. The boyfriend has an alibi for the time of the murder but it is believed that A.K. was wearing his sweatshirt when she committed the crime.

Zadorov's attorney called for him to be released immediately and for a retrial to be held. It remains to be seen how the Prosecution and courts will respond.


6. NETANYAHU: FORMER LIKUD MINISTER TRYING TO BRING ME DOWN
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accused a former senior minister from the Likud party of plotting to bring him down during a party in his office Wednesday night.

"For a few weeks now, I have known that a former Likud minister is talking to coalition elements and has devised some subversive maneuver, that I will bring the Likud to a landslide victory in the elections and then ensure that I will not be prime minister against the will of the Likud voters," Netanyahu said.

"I walk around the country with you and I see the tremendous support we have: in me, in my wife, such support I cannot remember since I entered politics. From the start [this plot against me] was doomed to failure because the public will not allow such a thing to happen. But it did reveal a loophole in the law and we will think about what to do with it," he added.

The prime minister also addressed his meeting with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan.

"I come here now, just amazing, I'm still excited, from a meeting with the vice president of China - only the second most powerful man in China. He's been here a few days and I've seen that the media is not interested at all. It doesn't interest them. The only thing that interests them is the 'conspiracy of the century.'"

[video:2048746]


7. RABBANIT TRAVELED TO ARGENTINA, WAS SHOCKED BY WHAT SHE FOUND
by Sponsored Content

Rabbanit Kolodetsky, daughter of Rav Chaim Kanievsky and guide to the Jewish People in her own right, often travels the world to inspire women with words of Torah. On a recent trip to Argentina, however, she heard a story which shocked her.

Nurit Laniado was abandoned by her parents at just 12-years-old. Kicked out of her home and passed from foster family to foster family, she suffered unspeakably. Now she is engaged to be married to an Israeli young man, but has no family to help her prepare for her family. The girl cried out of desperation on the Rabbanit's shoulder, and Rabbanit Kolodetsky took it upon herself to do what she could to save this special young lady.

Kolodetsky penned an emotional letter to the public, and released a video where she speaks of how impressed she was by young Nurit: "A tzadeket with a true fear of Heaven … She was passed from family to family and still managed to maintain her yirat shamayim."

"They are getting married without a shekel to their name," she says in her address to the Jewish People. "Whatever you give, you will get back 1000 times."

They are strong, striking words from a truly respected member of klal yisrael. Rav Chaim himself has also gotten involved, calling the kallah a "true orphan," and saying that it is a "great mitzvah" to help her. Nurit's kallah fund paints a heartbreaking story:

"I am not asking for I am not asking for anything that a girl with parents wouldn't get … the things you might think are basic but that I dream of affording: like a fridge, an oven, food for shabbat and the chagim."

It is an understandable request, from a girl who truly has nothing. Nurit may have been abandoned by her parents, but she has been adopted by the gedolim. Though she cries herself to sleep each night, strangers around the world have the opportunity to join the Kanievsky family in making her dreams come true.
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8. REPORT: HAREDI FACTIONS TO OPPOSE BILL TO DEPORT INFILTRATORS
by Tzvi Lev

A new Jewish Home-sponsored bill overriding the High Court's ruling barring Israel from deporting illegal Sudanese, Somalian, and Eritrean infiltrators is in danger of being scuttled by the haredi United Torah Judaism faction, according to a report Thursday.

According to Kan, UTJ will vote against the bill when it reaches the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. Sources from within the party say that it is inconceivable that the coalition will override a High Court ruling regarding illegal infiltrators, while refusing to deal with last year's decision that struck down an amendment to the Draft Law protecting military deferments for yeshiva students.

The override bill would alter Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, explicitly empowering the Knesset to overrule the Supreme Court and reenact laws nullified by the Court. However, the bill will only apply to High Court ruling preventing Israel from deporting the tens of thousands of illegal African immigrants.

While the coalition had wanted an expanded bill that would apply to all High Court decision, Kulanu faction head Moshe Kahlon has adamantly opposed any legislative steps that would decrease the High Court's power.

"We will oppose this proposal," said UTJ MK Yaakov Asher. "We will not accept an override bill by invitation. It can not be that in cases where there is political pressure on Kahlon or pressure from street demonstrations, as in the story of the infiltrators, then there will an override bill and in other things, there will not be."

The High Court of Justice had ruled in September 2016 that the exemptions granted to haredim are discriminatory against the communities who do not receive exemptions, giving the coalition a year to legislate an alternative. The coalition has not managed to come to an agreement regarding a new Draft Bill despite being granted a four-month extension by the High Court that expires in December.

The court also threw out in 2017 the first Infiltrator Law, aimed at deporting thousands of Eritrean, Somalian, and Sudanese illegal immigrants living in Israel. In 2018, the court froze implementation of a new Infiltrator Law, and in April, ordered the government to release more than 200 infiltrators who had been detained for refusing to leave the country.

While Israel lacks a constitution, the Knesset has passed a series of Basic Laws which some Israeli jurists, including former Supreme Court chief justice Aharon Barak, have treated as the country's de facto constitution.

Since the 1990s, the Supreme Court has taken an activist position regarding the judiciary's role, assuming the right of judicial supremacy and the ability to strike down laws passed by the Knesset and compel the government to adhere to its rulings.




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