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 ...

Ido Nehoshtan, also Nehushtan (; born 1957) is a retired general in the

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 ...

. He replaced

Eliezer Shkedi Aluf Eliezer "Eli" Shkedy (Hebrew: אליעזר "אלי" שקדי; born 16 August 1957) is a retired general in the Israel Defense Forces, who served as commander of the Israeli Air Force from 4 April 2004 until 13 May 2008. He is also a former C ...

on 4 April 2008 as Air Force Commander until he himself was replaced by

Amir Eshel Amir Eshel (; born 1959) is a former Israeli general who served as commander of the Israeli Air Force and served as Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defense until January 2, 2022. Biography Amir Eshel was born in Jaffa. His father ...

on 10 May 2012 upon his retirement from 37 years of service. He is currently serving as the president of

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

Israel.

Military career

The son of

Ya'akov Nehoshtan Ya'akov Nehoshtan (; 22 April 1925 – 17 April 2019) was an Israeli politician and diplomat. He served as a member of the Knesset for Gahal between 1969 and 1974 and as ambassador to the Netherlands between 1982 and 1985. Biography Born in Kaza ...

, Nehoshtan's roots are from

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. Nehoshtan was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1975 in the Combat Engineering branch and was selected for the IAF Pilots Course after a year of service. Until 1979, he flew an

A-4 Skyhawk The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company, and later, McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D und ...

, and was then re-trained for the

F-4 Phantom The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...

in the No. 107 Squadron. During his career, Nehoshtan served as an instructor at the pilot school, then as the 253 Squadron deputy commander (ranked

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

) and commander of the No. 140 Squadron (ranked lieutenant colonel), among others. In 2000, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and commanded the Air Intelligence Command, from 2002 commanded the Air Command, and in 2004 he became the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. On June 8, 2006, he was appointed to the command of the Planning Directorate in the IDF and promoted to the rank of Major General with the consent of the

Defense Minister A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

Amir Peretz Amir Peretz (; born 9 March 1952) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party. A Knesset member almost continuously from 1988 to 2021, he has served as Ministry of Defense (Israel), ...

, in response to a request by

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

Dan Halutz Dan Halutz (, ; born August 7, 1948) is an Israeli Air Force lieutenant general and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and commander of the Israeli Air Force. Halutz served as chief of staff in 2005–2007. Biography Halutz was ...

to keep him in service. On February 15, 2008, Defense Minister

Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( ; born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli former general and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party between 1997 and 20 ...

and Chief of Staff

Gabi Ashkenazi Gabriel "Gabi" Ashkenazi (; born 25 February 1954) is an Israeli politician and former military leader. He previously served as the minister of foreign affairs. He was the Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2007 to 2011. ...

approved Nehoshtan's appointment to command the Air Force as a Major General. On April 4, 2008, he was replaced by

as the Planning Directorate head upon becoming Air Force Commander. Eshel succeeded Nehoshtan as Air Force Commander four years later. In April 2012, he was awarded the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States military, military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievemen ...

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Commander Gen.

Norton Schwartz Norton Allan Schwartz (born 14 December 1951) is a retired United States Air Force general who served as the 19th Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 12 August 2008, until his retirement in 2012. He previously served as commander, United State ...

during a ceremony in Washington. Nehoshtan also met with US pilots who had flown the

F-35 The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for both air superiority and strike missions, it also has electronic warf ...

Joint Strike Fighter, and had flight sessions in the aircraft's simulator, as well as on the

V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport aircraft, military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed ...

tilt-rotor aircraft that the IAF had been considering acquiring as a complementary platform for search and rescue, and covert operations behind enemy lines. In September 2021, he was appointed as the president of

Israel, succeeding

David Ivry David Elkana Ivry (; born 1934) is a Major General (retired) in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). As commander of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) he played a key role in Operation Opera, the destruction of the Iraqi nuclear reactor located from Isr ...

References

External links

IDF profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nehoshtan, Ido Living people Israeli Air Force generals Israeli Jews Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent Israeli people of Macedonian-Jewish descent 1957 births Military personnel from Jerusalem Hebrew University Secondary School alumni