Israel's latest IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi became the country's 19th head of the armed forces. Like outgoing Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi grew up on Moshav Hagor. He joined the IDF in 1972 as Golani Brigade soldier and participated in the Entebbe rescue operation in Uganda in 1976.

--Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should "be made to disappear from the arena," said Meir Amit, a former director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. "Ahmadinejad is the pusher of all the Muslim world toward fanaticism and extremism. He has said he wants to become a shahid, a martyr, so I think he should get his wish and be sent to heaven," Amit said.

Amit, who served as Mossad chief in the 1960s, said he does not advocate an Israeli military attack against Iran's suspected nuclear facilities. Instead he said Israel should adopt a defensive position, deploying a working anti-missile system to intercept possible Iranian missile attacks.