The Israeli cabinet today approved its Defense Forces Southern Command Chief, Major General Yoav Galant as the next chief of staff. Galant is the former commander of the highly-regarded Shayetet 13 naval commando unit. In the current post, he led the military 's Operation Cast Lead incursion against the Hamas militant in Gaza at the beginning of 2009. Galant, 51, will be the Jewish State's 20th Chief of Staff, and is due to take over the three-year-long post from Ashkenazi in February 2011.