41 Facts About Moshe Ya'alon

Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon is an Israeli politician and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who served as Israel's Defense Minister under Benjamin Netanyahu from 2013 until his resignation on 20 May 2016.

Moshe Ya'alon briefly served as the number 2 on the Yesh Atid-Telem list that was created following the 2020 Israeli legislative election.

Moshe Ya'alon retired from politics in the lead up to the 2021 election after testing the waters by splitting his Telem party from Yesh Atid.

Moshe Ya'alon's father, a factory worker, had moved to Mandatory Palestine with his parents from Soviet Ukraine in 1925, and was a veteran of the Haganah and Jewish Brigade.

Moshe Ya'alon's mother was a Holocaust survivor from Galicia who had fought against the Nazis with partisans during World War II.

Moshe Ya'alon grew up in Kiryat Haim, a working-class suburb of Haifa.

Moshe Ya'alon was active in the Labor Zionist youth movement "HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed" and joined a Nahal group named Ya'alon, a name he later adopted.

Moshe Ya'alon later moved to kibbutz Grofit, in the Arava region near Eilat, where he worked in the cowshed and as a tractor operator.

In 1968, Moshe Ya'alon was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces, and volunteered as a paratrooper in the Paratroopers Brigade.

Moshe Ya'alon served as a soldier and a squad leader in the brigade's 50 battalion and fought in the War of Attrition.

Moshe Ya'alon continued fighting as part of the Israeli drive into the Egyptian mainland; he participated in the encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army.

Moshe Ya'alon then returned to the Paratroopers Brigade as a platoon leader.

Moshe Ya'alon then rejoined the Paratroopers Brigade and was appointed as the commander of its 890 "Efe" paratroop battalion.

Moshe Ya'alon took a sabbatical to the United Kingdom to study at the British Army's Camberley Staff College.

Moshe Ya'alon led it to many notable achievements, for which the unit received four recommendations of honor.

In 1990, Moshe Ya'alon was appointed commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, and two years later, became commander of the Judea and Samaria Division.

On 10 December 1992, Moshe Ya'alon killed a militant from the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine with a hand grenade after the militant had shot dead a Yamam operative attempting to arrest him.

In 1995, Moshe Ya'alon was promoted to major general and appointed head of Military Intelligence.

Moshe Ya'alon was serving in this position when the Second Intifada was launched in September 2000.

Moshe Ya'alon was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces on 9 July 2002, and served in that position until 1 June 2005.

On 1 June 2005, Moshe Ya'alon retired from the army, and Dan Halutz, his successor as chief of staff, oversaw the disengagement.

In late 2006, while Moshe Ya'alon was in New Zealand on a private fund-raising trip for the Jewish National Fund, Auckland District Court judge Avinash Deobhakta issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged war crimes arising from his role in the 2002 assassination of Hamas commander Salah Shehade, who was killed in a targeted assassination, when an Israeli warplane bombed his home in Gaza City.

Attorney-General Michael Cullen ordered a stay in the warrant after advice from the Crown Law office that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute, and the warrant was cancelled after Moshe Ya'alon left New Zealand.

Moshe Ya'alon was appointed Minister of Defense on 17 March 2013.

Moshe Ya'alon resigned on 20 May 2016, citing "difficult disagreements on moral and professional matters" with prime minister Netanyahu and warning that "extreme and dangerous elements have taken over Israel and the Likud Party".

Moshe Ya'alon won eighth place on the party's list, and entered the Knesset as Likud won 27 seats.

Moshe Ya'alon ordered the Shin Bet and the Defense Ministry to assemble evidence required for the classification.

In February 2015 Moshe Ya'alon took a political stand on gay marriage.

On January 29,2019, Moshe Ya'alon announced a political alliance with former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz.

Moshe Ya'alon was in the number two position on Gantz's Israel Resilience Party list.

Moshe Ya'alon reiterated his opposition to a "two states for two peoples" solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Moshe Ya'alon became the number three candidate on the united list, known as the "Blue and White" party.

In 2023, Moshe Ya'alon called the Israeli government a "dictatorship of criminals", due to the national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling on the police to "strike protestors" as well as proposed judicial reforms that would give the government more control over judicial appointments.

In 2024, Moshe Ya'alon accused the Israeli government of committing ethnic cleansings in the Gaza Strip, and said that the IDF is no longer the most moral army in the world.

In January 2004, Moshe Ya'alon publicly stated that the thirteen Sayeret Matkal soldiers who refused to serve in the Israeli-occupied territories were taking the unit's name in vain.

In October 2014, during a visit to the US Moshe Ya'alon met with his counterpart, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, but was denied requests to meet with then-Vice President Joe Biden and Kerry.

In October 2014, Moshe Ya'alon supported a plan that would effectively ban Palestinian workers from buses used by Jewish settlers.

Moshe Ya'alon said that his plan was based on security needs.

When Moshe Ya'alon's move was criticized as being a form of apartheid, Yehuda Weinstein, Israel's Attorney General, demanded that Moshe Ya'alon explain his rationale.

The next day Moshe Ya'alon reasserted his comments during multiple interviews.

On Mach 9,2025, Moshe Ya'alon said in a radio interview on the Kan Bet channel hosted by Arieh Golan, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received 10s of millions of dollars from Qatar.