Aluf ( or "first/leader of a group" in Biblical Hebrew) is a senior military rank in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for officers who in other countries would have the rank of general, air marshal, or admiral. In addition to the ''aluf'' rank, fo ...

( Major General, res.) Amos Yadlin (; born 20 November 1951) is a former general in the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

(IAF),

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

military attaché to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and head of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman).

Biography

Amos Yadlin was born in Kibbutz

Hatzerim Hatzerim (, ''lit.'' Farmyards) is a kibbutz located 8 kilometers west of Beersheba in the Negev desert in Israel. It is named after the Bible (Deuteronomy 2:23), mentioning a site nearby: "the Avvites who lived in farmyards as far as Gaza". It b ...

, the son of Edah and Aharon Yadlin. In 1970, he enlisted in the IAF. Yadlin obtained a B.A. in Economics and Business Administration at

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public university, public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli List of national founders, national founder David Ben-Gurion, the unive ...

. He received a master's degree in public administration from the

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

.The International Security Forum - Speakers (page 4)
/ref>

Military career

After qualifying as a fighter pilot, Yadlin joined the 102 "Flying Tiger" Squadron, with which he flew the A-4 Skyhawk during the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

. In the early 1980s Yadlin was among the first batch of Israeli pilots to fly the

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

and was among the eight pilots selected to carry out

Operation Opera Operation Opera (), also known as Operation Babylon, was a surprise airstrike conducted by the Israeli Air Force on 7 June 1981, which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor located southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The Israeli operation ca ...

against

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

's Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981. A year later, Yadlin participated in the 1982 Lebanon War. In all he had accumulated about 5,000 flight hours and flew more than 250 combat missions. Yadlin commanded two fighter squadrons ( 116 and 106), two Israeli Air Force bases ( Nevatim and

) and between 1990 and 1993 headed the IAF's planning department. He then served as Deputy Commander of the IAF. In February 2002 Yadlin was awarded the rank of major general and appointed commander of the IDF Military Colleges and National Defense College. Between 2004 and 2006 he served as Israel's military attaché to the United States. Upon his return to Israel, Yadlin was named head of Aman, the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate.

Wikileaks

A leaked US embassy cable, released by WikiLeaks, detailed a meeting between Yadlin and the US ambassador to Israel. In this meeting, Yadlin stated that his country would be "happy if Hamas took over Gaza because the IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state." This statement was made on June 12, 2007, only a few days before Hamas took control over Gaza Strip.

Post-retirement

After his retirement from the IDF, Yadlin joined the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as the Kay Fellow on National Security in 2011. In November 2011, he was appointed director of

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

's Institute for National Security Studies. Yadlin's public positions have urged caution and patience in dealing with the

nuclear program of Iran The nuclear program of Iran is one of the most scrutinized nuclear programs in the world. The military capabilities of the program are possible through its mass enrichment activities in facilities such as Natanz and Arak. In June 2025, t ...

, in contrast to the more urgent language of Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

. He tentatively supported the Geneva interim agreement of November 2013. Yadlin advocates, if peace negotiations with the Palestinians fail to produce an agreement, unilaterally withdrawing from 85% of the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. The IDF would maintain a presence in the

Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ( ''Bīqʿāt haYardēn'', Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr), is an elongated endorheic basin located in modern-day Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, Palestine. This geographic region includes the entire length o ...

and in the main

settlement blocs Settlement blocs (sometimes referred to as consensus settlements) is term used to refer to Israeli settlements and the territory around them considered candidates to be retained by Israel in any peace agreement. The exact extent of these blocs ha ...

, as well as a strip of land meant to protect Ben Gurion Airport from Palestinian rocket attacks. During the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

, he suggested that Israel should retain parts of Gaza territory and that "If you attack Israel, the price is high. Your organization will be destroyed. Israel will not return all the territories". In January 2015, he joined the Zionist Union list for the elections for the twentieth Knesset, as its candidate for Ministry of Defense.

Controversial statement

During the

he said, "Israel will treat this state (the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

) the way you treated Japan when they attacked you on Pearl Harbor, the way the Allies treated Germany in the Second World War." He then clarified that "we are not going to do Dresden, we are not going to do Hiroshima, we are going to fight according to the international law." Australian journalist Michael Pascoe noted in ''

The New Daily ''The New Daily'' is an online Australian newspaper founded in 2013, and owned by Industry Super Holdings, which represents industry superannuation funds. History ''The New Daily'' was started by AustralianSuper, Cbus and Industry Super Ho ...

'' that Yadlin's comments were a call for the indiscriminate

carpet bombing Carpet bombing, also known as saturation bombing, is a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase evokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in t ...

of Gaza, akin to the Bombing of Dresden and firebombing of Tokyo, and a show of

genocidal intent Genocidal intent is the specific mental element, or , required to classify an act as genocide under international law, particularly the 1948 Genocide Convention. To establish genocide, perpetrators must be shown to have had the '' dolus speciali ...

on Yadlin's part.

Published works

*
Four strategic threats on Israel's radar , a special briefing by former IDF intelligence head Amos Yadlin

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yadlin, Amos Living people 1951 births Israeli military aviators Israeli generals Israeli Air Force personnel Israeli Jews Yom Kippur War pilots Harvard Kennedy School alumni Ben-Gurion University of the Negev alumni Israeli Labor Party politicians Israeli expatriates in the United States Directors of the Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel) Institute for National Security Studies (Israel)