IDF's new Gaza coordinator still unnamed
Amos Gilad to fill position temporarily as Barak, Ashkenazi fail to agree on permanent appointment.
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
An irreconcilable difference between IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak led to the surprise appointment over the weekend of Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad as the temporary coordinator of government activities in the territories.
The current coordinator, Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav, will step down from the post next week after four years in the job and over 35 years in the IDF.
Barak had wanted to appoint one of two people to the job - his military attaché Brig.-Gen. Eitan Dangot or his bureau chief Brig.-Gen. (res.) Mike Herzog, brother of Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog.
Ashkenazi, defense officials said Friday, had made it clear to Barak in recent weeks that he was against appointing either of these officers. As a result, Barak decided to put Gilad in the post for the next three months until he can find a permanent appointment.
Gilad, has already served as coordinator in the territories and also as head of Military Intelligence's Research Division in the late 1990s.
In the past four years he has served as head of the diplomatic-security bureau in the Defense Ministry and, most recently, spearheaded talks with the Egyptians over the cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Gilad has told close associates that he is interested in replacing either outgoing MI chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, who will retire next year, or Mossad head Meir Dagan, who also has one more year left to his term.