Photo: Ashernet

Uri Shabtai and Roi Amos, writing in Israel Hayom, profile the next commander of Israel’s elite anti-terror unit. The 38-year-old Lt. Colonel, whose name is not publicly released and who is referred to in the piece only by the initial “S,” will head the most important combat operations group in the IDF and – arguably – in the world.

S. joined Sayeret Matkal and was placed in a team under the command of H., whom he later beat out in the race for the command of the entire unit. According to his friends, S. always wanted to be a combat soldier. “Because he was always so discreet, the mystery that surrounds Sayeret Matkal suited him,” says one friend. “The whole gang that he hung out with in high school, and his friends from the youth movement in Haifa, all went to serve in elite combat units.”