The Jerusalem Post’s correspondent with excellent military contacts has written today that, with the imminent inauguration of Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s next Prime Minikster, a “Sayeret Matkal trio” will be taking the reins of power.
Katz wrote that “[Ehud] Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier, was the commander of the IDF’s most elite unit, known by its Hebrew name, Sayeret Matkal. Netanyahu, whose brother Yoni later became commander of the unit and was killed during the 1976 raid on Entebbe, was a junior team leader under Barak’s command in the early 1970s. With the swearing-in of the new government on Tuesday, the relationship between Barak and Netanyahu has changed – Netanyahu, the new prime minister, is the commander in chief. Barak … as the defense minister, he will have to carry out missions assigned by Netanyahu. Netanyahu and Barak are not the only members of the new government with origins in the army’s most elite unit. Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon, the former chief of staff slated to become the minister of strategic affairs, served as commander of the unit between 1987 and 1989. This Sayeret Matkal trio will now be leading the country’s defense and security apparatuses at a time when some of the most critical decisions in the country’s history will have to be made – from whether to use military force to stop Iran’s race toward nuclear power, to the Hizbullah threat in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip … As former members of Sayeret Matkal, the Netanyahu-Barak-Ya’alon trio carried out some of Israel’s most covert and complicated operations – some of which are still classified”. This article can be read in full here.