Next Israeli army deputy chief named

JERUSALEM, July 10 (UPI) -- Israel's Chief of Staff Lt.Gen.Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak named Maj.Gen. Benny Gantz as the army's next deputy chief of staff.

Gantz, who currently serves as Israeli's military attache in Washington, is expected to take up the position in several months time, a statement released by the army said Friday

News of Gantz's appointment was viewed as a compromise, culminating weeks of disagreement between Ashkenazi and Barak, over who the next deputy chief of staff should be, media reports said.

Barak favored appointing head of the Southern Command Maj.Gen.Yoav Galant to the post, while Ashkenazi wanted to appoint the head of the Northern Command Maj.Gen. Gadi Eizencott, Haaretz said.

The two offered Galant, who threatened to retire if he was not appointed Ashkenazi's deputy, the option of remaining in his current post or heading the army's Ground Forces, Maariv said.

Ashkenazi and Barak asked head of intelligence Maj.Gen.Amos Yadlin to remain in his position, the statement said.

Gantz served as the army's last liaison officer in southern Lebanon until Israel's withdrawal in 2000, and was appointed commander in the West Bank, shortly before the Second Intifada erupted in October, 2000. He was also head of the army's Ground Forces division in the Second Lebanon War, and has spent the last two years in Washington.