Maj. Gen. Dan Shomron, who commanded the airborne operation that rescued hijack victims at Entebbe airport in Uganda in 1976, has been named commander of the ground forces command, a newly established branch of the Israel Defense Force. Shomron completed his tour as commander of the southern front 18 months ago and had been without active assignment since then.
Shomron had been mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan who retired last spring. But that post went to Gen. Moshe Levy.
Shomron and Levy have not always seen eye-to-eye and the new ground forces command is said to be sufficiently ill-defined at present to allow Shomron considerable leeway without trespassing the authority of the Chief of Staff. For the time being it is a “paper and planning and coordinating” responsibility rather than a field command.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
