IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi has appointed Brig.-Gen. Yiday Zilberman as the IDF’s new spokesman, the army said on Thursday.
Zilberman will replace Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis, who has held the post for the past two years. Zilberman’s appointment, which was approved by Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to take effect in the coming months.
 
Born in 1973 in Petah Tikva, Zilberman was drafted into the Navy in 1991 before he moved to serve in the Artillery Corps, where he held several positions including commander of 402 “Reshef” Battalion, head of the Artillery Corps in the Armaments Division of the Ground Forces, head of the UAV unit in the Artillery Corps, commander the of “Pillar of Fire” artillery regiment, and Northern Command Operations Officer.
 Zilberman then took time to study at the Royal College of Defense Studies in the United Kingdom before he returned to serve as head of the Planning Division in the IDF’s Planning Directorate.
Zilberman, who lives in Karkur in northern Israel with his wife and three children, holds a BSc from Haifa.
The announcement to replace Manelis as IDF Spokesperson comes a month after Gil Messing, who was announced in April to succeed Manelis, asked to cancel his appointment after he was exposed as being a police agent in a corruption investigation against the Yisrael Beytenu Party in 2015.
In a statement released at the time, Kochavi said that he “regretfully” accepted Messing’s request and understood the circumstances behind his decision.
“The chief of the General Staff noted that Mr. Messing was chosen for the position in light of him being a highly valued person, with a wide range of professional experience,” the IDF said, adding that Messing’s “vast experience and abilities could have contributed greatly to the IDF and to the Spokesman’s Office.”