Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

U.S. Air Force Chief Makes Secret Visit to Israel

Gen. Mark Welsh, the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, completed a secret visit to Israel.

Welsh was in Israel Aug. 4 to Aug. 8 as the guest of the Commander of the Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel. During his visit, Welsh met with senior officers and defense personnel, including Chief of the General Staff, Lt.-Gen. Benjamin Gantz, and was hosted at air force bases throughout the country.

The officials discussed a number of topics including mutual security challenges in light of the regional security situation. Welsh and Eshel also discussed plans to further strengthen the cooperation between the U.S. Air Force and the Israel Air Force, according to the IDF.

The meeting, which reportedly was kept secret at the request of the United States, comes in advance of a scheduled visit by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dempsey is set to arrive on Monday, as a guest of Gantz, according to reports.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.