Maj. Gen. (Res.) Mordechai Hod, former commander of the Israel Air Force, has been appointed chairman of the Board of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), it was announced Monday. The appointment was approved by Premier Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, in consultation with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Minister-Without-Portfolio Moshe Arens.
Arens, a former Defense Minister and an aeronautical engineer by training, had blocked Hod’s appointment on grounds of conflict of interest. The general was, until recently, the Israeli representative of Northrop, a major American manufacturer of military aircraft, and was as such opposed to the Lavi, Israel’s second generation jet combat plane which is manufactured by IAI.
Arens, a vigorous backer of the Lavi project, withdrew his objections after Hod informed him last week that he no longer represented Northrop and was determined to produce the Lavi as head of IAI.
The appointment has political as well as military ramifications. Hod is a protege of Ezer Weizman, another former Air Force Commander. One of Weizman’s conditions for agreeing to merge his Yahad Party with the Labor Party was that Hod be named chairman of IAI.
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