Barak Hiram to Run IDF Operations as Politis Heads to Washington

The Israel Defense Forces announced two senior appointments: Brigadier General Tal Politis as the IDF attaché in Washington, with promotion to the rank of Major General, and Brigadier General Barak Hiram as head of the Operations Directorate, taking up the post within days under a staffing agreement reached several months earlier. The chief of staff telephoned both officers to congratulate them, and the appointments were approved by Defence Minister Israel Katz. The announcement was published on 4 June 2026.

The Operations Directorate is the general staff body through which the army runs current operations; the Washington attaché is the IDF's senior uniformed representative in the United States. Both are among the postings that a chief of staff fills personally, and both were announced as a single package.

The name that does not fit

The release credits the appointments to the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi. Reporting the same appointments on 5 June 2026, JNS attributed them to Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, and described Politis as a colonel being promoted to brigadier general rather than a brigadier general being promoted to major general. The two accounts agree on the officers, the posts and the defence minister's approval; they differ on the chief of staff's identity and on Politis's rank. Readers should treat the version above as the text of the release, not as a settled record.

The rest of the reshuffle

JNS reported that the same round of appointments included Brigadier General Guy Markizeno as the prime minister's military secretary, with promotion to major general. Markizeno took over from Major General Roman Gofman, whose appointment as director of the Mossad had been approved by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee on 12 April 2026 and who was due to begin a five-year term on 2 June, The Times of Israel reported.

Why these two jobs matter now

The postings were filled during active operations on more than one front. Israel launched ground operations against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon on 16 March 2026, with the defence minister stating the aim as removing threats to the Galilee and the north, Al Jazeera reported. An operations chief inherits the running of that campaign; an attaché in Washington handles the American end of it, from munitions supply to liaison.

By May the fighting had moved well beyond the border: troops led by the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit crossed the Litani River near Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, about 10 kilometres inside Lebanon, in a week-long raid on tunnels, weapons stores and rocket launchers, The Times of Israel reported on 12 May 2026. Appointments made in that period are not administrative housekeeping; they hand named officers responsibility for an operation already under way.

What is still unclear

The release did not say when Politis would take up his post in Washington, whom either officer replaces, or what previous positions they held. It gave no explanation of the staffing agreement it refers to, and no date for Hiram's formal assumption of duty beyond the coming days. It also did not address the discrepancy over the chief of staff's name.