Israel’s Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Aviv Kochavi arrived at the Western Wall plaza on Tuesday afternoon, together with outgoing Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot.
The Chief of Staff was accompanied by Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz, Chief Rabbi of the IDF Eyal Karim, and Director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation Mordechai (Soli) Eliav.
Kochavi and Eisenkot were welcomed by hundreds of worshipers from Israel and abroad who were at the Western Wall Plaza.
The Chiefs of Staff recited chapters from Psalms, the prayer for the safety of the soldiers of the IDF and for the peace of the state, and the prayer for the prisoners and MIAs. Afterwards, they prayed a personal prayer and planted a note between the stones of the Western Wall.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation gave Kochavi and Eisenkot a book of Psalms with the imprint of a seal discovered in Western Wall excavations on the cover. The seal served as the symbol of Hagav, a military commander of Judea in the days of the First Temple.
Kochavi, the former head of the IDF Northern Command and head of Military Intelligence, was widely seen as the front runner for the position as IDF chief of staff, i24news.tv reports.
In addition to his military career, Kochavi holds three university degrees; a BA in philosophy from the Hebrew University, an MA in public administration from Harvard University, and lastly another MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.
He is the father of three daughters and is the first Vegan to assume the post according to Haaretz. Following the inauguration ceremony, Kochavi will meet with his general staff in the afternoon, putting in place his strategic guidelines and issuing a daily order for all Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commanders and soldiers.
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Hopefully he will have an independent mind, not like the confused Eisenkot who was a tool for Bibi’s mixed, lukewarm defensive security policies.