All Topics  
Aluf

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Aluf
 
 
  Topics Aluf Topic Home

Aluf is the term used for General
General

A General officer is an Officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called general....
 and Admiral
Admiral

Admiral is the military rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above Vice Admiral and below Admiral of the Fleet/Fleet Admiral....
 in the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
 (IDF). In addition to the Aluf rank itself, there are four other ranks which are derivatives of the word. Together, they constitute the five highest ranks
Israel Defense Forces ranks

The Israel Defense Forces have a unique rank structure. Because the IDF is an integrated force, ranks are the same in all services The ranks are derived from those of the paramilitary Haganah developed in the British Mandate of Palestine period to protect the Yishuv....
 in the IDF.





Rav Aluf is usually translated as "Lieutenant General," but is often considered to equate to a full General, since it is the most senior rank in the IDF.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Aluf'
Start a new discussion about 'Aluf'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Aluf is the term used for General
General

A General officer is an Officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called general....
 and Admiral
Admiral

Admiral is the military rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above Vice Admiral and below Admiral of the Fleet/Fleet Admiral....
 in the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
 (IDF). In addition to the Aluf rank itself, there are four other ranks which are derivatives of the word. Together, they constitute the five highest ranks
Israel Defense Forces ranks

The Israel Defense Forces have a unique rank structure. Because the IDF is an integrated force, ranks are the same in all services The ranks are derived from those of the paramilitary Haganah developed in the British Mandate of Palestine period to protect the Yishuv....
 in the IDF.

Rank order of Aluf and its derivatives


  • Rav Aluf
    Ramatkal

    The Chief of General Staff is the supreme commander and Chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. The Chief of Staff is the only active Israeli officer with the rank of Rav Aluf at any given time....
      : the highest rank in IDF
    IDF

    IDF or idf may stand for:*An Initialism:** Intel Developer Forum.** Intermediate distribution frame - a cable rack that interconnects and manages the telecommunications wiring between a main distribution frame and workstation devices....
     (Chief of the General Staff
    Israeli General Staff

    The Israeli General Staff , abbreviated Matkal , is the supreme command of the Israel Defense Forces. It is based in the HaKirya in Tel Aviv....
     Rank) Lieutenant General
    Lieutenant General

    Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
  • Aluf: Major General
    Major General

    Major General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General....
     (arms
    Israel Defense Forces

    The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
    , branches
    Israel Defense Forces

    The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
    , and regional commands
    Israel Defense Forces

    The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Acronym and initialism Tzahal , are Israel's military forces, comprising the GOC Army Headquarters, Israeli Air Force and Israeli navy....
    )


  • Tat Aluf : Brigadier General
    Brigadier General

    Brigadier General is the lowest ranking General Officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of Colonel and Major General.The rank can be traced back to the militaries of Europe where a brigadier general, or simply a brigadier, would command a brigade in the field....
     (divisional
    Division (military)

    A division is a large military unit or Formation usually consisting of between ten to thirty thousand soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions make up a corps....
     and corps
    Corps

    A Corps is either a large formation , or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service....
    -level)
  • Aluf Mishne : Colonel
    Colonel

    Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures....
     (brigade
    Brigade

    A brigade is a military unit that is typically composed of two to five regiments or battalions, depending on the era and nationality of a given army....
    -level)
  • Sgan Aluf : Lieutenant Colonel
    Lieutenant Colonel

    Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the army and most Marine and air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel....
     (battalion
    Battalion

    A battalion is a military unit of around 500-1500 men usually consisting of between two and seven company and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel....
    -level)


Rav Aluf is usually translated as "Lieutenant General," but is often considered to equate to a full General, since it is the most senior rank in the IDF. The rank is given only to the Chief of General Staff (Ramatkal), so there can only be one active Rav Aluf under regular circumstances. However this could change in a time of war. During the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War

The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973 by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel....
 in 1973, retired rav aluf Haim Bar-Lev was called back into service, replacing Shmuel Gonen
Shmuel Gonen

Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen was an Israeli general and Chief of the Israeli Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War....
 as the commander of the southern front. Thus, along with chief of the general staff David Elazar
David Elazar

David "Dado" Elazar , was the ninth Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces, serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1974. He was forced to resign in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War....
 (who succeed Bar-Lev in that position the previous year), there were two people in active service holding the rank of rav aluf simultaneously.

Israel is essentially a land
GOC Army Headquarters

The Israeli GOC Army headquarters , is a multi-corps command headquarters created in 1998, which amalgamates the ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces....
 and air
Israeli Air Force

The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the Israel Defense Forces. The current Commander in Chief is Aluf Ido Nehoshtan. The Israeli Air Force has approximately 700 aircraft....
 power, with the navy
Israeli Sea Corps

The Israeli Navy is the Israel_Defense_Forces#Arms of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in the Mediterranean Sea in the west and in the Gulf of Eilat, Red Sea, and Gulf of Suez in the south....
 being apportioned less than five percent of the military budget
Military budget

A military budget of an entity, most often a nation or a state, is the budget and finances resources dedicated to raising and maintaining armed forces for that entity....
. Consequently, there are no separate naval ranks, and Aluf can be an Admiral as well as a General.

The term Aluf is taken from the Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
, where it was a rank of nobility among the Edom
Edom

Edom is a name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible, as well as to the nation descending from him. The nation's name in Assyrian language was Udumi; in Syriac language, ????; in Greek language, ?d???a?a ; in Latin, Idum?a or Idumea....
ites, ancient Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
's neighbors (and often, enemies) to the south. It comes from an archaic root meaning "thousand"; "aluf" is the one who commands a thousand of people.

The non-Hebrew word "general" was also taken into Hebrew, and is used to refer to the generals of foreign armies. It can also be used colloquially in reference to a senior Israeli officer, in a derogatory sense—implying that the officer in question is over-officious, incompetent, and/or involved in internecine power struggles with other officers, to the neglect of proper military duties.

See also

  • Israel Defense Forces ranks
    Israel Defense Forces ranks

    The Israel Defense Forces have a unique rank structure. Because the IDF is an integrated force, ranks are the same in all services The ranks are derived from those of the paramilitary Haganah developed in the British Mandate of Palestine period to protect the Yishuv....
  • Mickey Marcus
    Mickey Marcus

    David Daniel Marcus , commonly known as Mickey Marcus, was a United States Army colonel who assisted Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and who became Israel's first general ....
     - the IDF's first Aluf.
  • Yaakov Dori
    Yaakov Dori

    Yaakov Dori was the first Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces .Born in the present day Ukraine as Yakov Dostrovsky ,son of Tzvi and Myriam, his family emigrated to Ottoman Empire land of Israel following the anti-Semitism pogrom in Odessa in 1905....
     - the IDF's first Rav Aluf
    Ramatkal

    The Chief of General Staff is the supreme commander and Chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. The Chief of Staff is the only active Israeli officer with the rank of Rav Aluf at any given time....
     (Chief of Staff)