Israeli armed forces have a new chief of staff. He's Lieutenant-General Mordechai Gur, who captured the israeli public imagination in the 1967 War by commanding the paratroopers who spearheaded the capture of Jerusalem's Old City.

At the time of his appointment on Sunday, he was commander of the Israeli Northern Front, controlling the forces in active confrontation with Syria and on alert along the Lebanese border.

As Chief of Staff, he succeeds Lieutenant-General David Elazar, who resigned earlier this month after a judicial commission found him responsible for some of the errors over Israel's state of readiness for the October War.

During that war, 44-year-old General Gur was Israel's military attache in Washington. He later led Israel's military negotiating team in Geneva, for discussions with the Egyptians that led to the disengagement agreement.