Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon is a Senior Fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic studies at the Shalem Center. Capping a distinguished career as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he served as the 17th IDF Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, during which time he led the army's successful effort to quell the Palestinian terror war launched in September 2000.

Drafted into the IDF in 1968, he served in the Nahal Paratroop Regiment. After fighting as a reservist in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he returned to active duty and completed officer's training. He held several command positions in the IDF Paratroop Brigade and was wounded in combat at the end of the 1982 Lebanon War. He rose through the IDF ranks, culminating with his appointment as Chief of Staff on July 9, 2002.

He pursued advanced studies at the command and staff college in Camberly, England and holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Haifa. Born in 1950 in Kiryat Haim, General Yaalon is married and has three children.