Avichai Mandelblit

Aluf Avichai Mandelblit or Mendelblit (אביחי מנדלבליט; born 1963) was the Chief Military Advocate General of the Israel Defense Forces between the years 2004 and 2011. On April 2013 he was appointed Cabinet Secretary.

Military career
Mandelblit joined the Israel Defense Forces in 1985, after graduating from Tel Aviv University.

After serving in several positions in both Military Prosecution and Military Defense (and, for a period between 1991-1992 as a judge in the Military Court of the Gaza region), he was appointed, in 1997, as Deputy President of the Military Court of the Southern Command and the Ground Forces. In 2000 he was appointed as the Head of the Chief Military Defense, and, in 2003, as the Deputy Military Advocate General.

In 2004, he was promoted to the rank of Tat Aluf (brigadier general) and appointed as the Chief Military Advocate General. In 2009, he was promoted to the rank of Aluf.

During his service as the Chief Military Advocate General, Mandelblit frequently expressed the IDF's legal viewpoint upon different issues of the international humanitarian law. In December 2007, he declared that the IDF's use of cluster bombs during the Second Lebanon War complied with international humanitarian law. He was also a part of harsh criticism against Goldstone Report, stating: "We ourselves set up investigations into 140 complaints. It is when you read these other reports and complaints that you realize how truly vicious the Goldstone report is. He made it look like we set out to go after the economic infrastructure and civilians, that it was intentional. It’s a vicious lie."

On September 15, 2011, Mandelblit was succeeded as the Chief Military Advocate General by Danny Efroni.