Chief of General Staff (Israel)

Chief Of General Staff (Israel)

The Chief of the General Staff, also known as the Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Defense Forces (Hebrew: ראש המטה הכללי, Rosh HaMateh HaKlali, abbr. Ramatkal—רמטכ"ל) is the supreme commander and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

At any given time, the Chief of Staff is the only active officer holding the IDF's highest rank, Rav Aluf (Hebrew: רב-אלוף), which is usually translated into English as Lieutenant General, a three-star rank. (The lone exception to this rule occurred during the Yom Kippur War, when former Chief of Staff Haim Bar-Lev, who was a government member at the moment of war outbreak, was brought out of retirement and installed as chief of Southern Command. For a brief period, he and Chief of Staff David Elazar were both in active service with the rank of Rav Aluf.)

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is an integrated force, ranks are the same in all services. It has a slightly compacted rank structure; for instance, the Chief of Staff (Ramatkal or Rav Aluf (Hebrew: רב-אלוף)) is seemingly only equivalent to a Lieutenant General (NATO OF-8) in other militaries. Rav Aluf means 'Arch-General', which would be equal to a Field Marshal or Five Star General in other armies and equivalent to OF-10.

Read more about Chief Of General Staff (Israel):  Legal Position, Significance, List of IDF Chiefs of Staff

Famous quotes containing the words chief, general and/or staff:

    On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children’s children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    We achieve “active” mastery over illness and death by delegating all responsibility for their management to physicians, and by exiling the sick and the dying to hospitals. But hospitals serve the convenience of staff not patients: we cannot be properly ill in a hospital, nor die in one decently; we can do so only among those who love and value us. The result is the institutionalized dehumanization of the ill, characteristic of our age.
    Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)