Barak joined the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF ) in 1959 . He served in the IDF for 35 years , rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of '' Rav Aluf '' ( Lieutenant-General ) , the highest in the Israeli military . During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal , Barak led several highly acclaimed operations , such as : " Operation Isotope " , the mission to free the hostages on board the hijacked Sabena Flight 571 at Lod Airport in 1972 ; the covert 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon in Beirut , in which he was disguised as a woman to kill members of the Palestine Liberation Organization ; Barak was also a key architect of the June 1976 Operation Entebbe , another rescue mission to free the hostages of the Air France aircraft hijacked by terrorists and forced to land at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda . These highly acclaimed operations , along with Operation Bayonet , led to the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist cell Black September . It has been alluded that Barak also masterminded the Tunis Raid on 16 April 1988 , in which PLO leader Abu Jihad was killed
Sabena Flight 571
Sabena Flight 571
Ehud Barak