Aluf ''Aluf'' ( he, אלוף, lit=champion 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. ...

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

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

. He replaced

Eliezer Shkedi Aluf Eliezer Shkedy (Hebrew: אליעזר 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 CEO of El Al, th ...

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

Amir Eshel Amir Eshel ( he, אמיר אשל; born 1959) is a former Israeli general who served as commander of the Israeli Air Force and currently serves as Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Biography Amir Eshel was born in Jaffa. His f ...

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

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

Israel.

Military career

The son of

Ya'akov Nehoshtan Ya'akov Nehoshtan ( he, יעקב נחושתן‎; 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 a ...

, Nehoshtan's roots are from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

. 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 developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed a ...

, 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 originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bow ...

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 (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

) and commander of the No. 140 Squadron (ranked

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

), among others. In 2000, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and commanded the Air Intelligence Group, from 2002 commanded the Air Squadron, and from 2004 headed the Air Force Staff. On June 8, 2006, he was moved to the command of the Planning Directorate with the consent of the

Defense Minister A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

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

, 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 supporti ...

Dan Halutz Dan Halutz ( he, דן חלוץ, ; 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. Biog ...

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

Ehud Barak Ehud Barak ( he-a, אֵהוּד בָּרָק, Ehud_barak.ogg, link=yes, born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth prime minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until Jan ...

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 Foreign Minister of Israel, Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was the Chief of General Staff (Israel), Chief of Ge ...

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 military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

Commander Gen.

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

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, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide elect ...

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-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

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 ( he, דוד אלקנה עברי; born 1934) is a Major General (retired) in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). He was the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2000 to 2002, and the ninth commander of the Israeli Air For ...

References

External links

IDF profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nehoshtan, Ido Living people Israeli Air Force generals Israeli Jews Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent Macedonian Jews 1957 births People from Jerusalem