{"id":100196,"date":"2026-05-06T08:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/100196\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:29:08","slug":"who-flew-israels-first-f-35-mission-meet-the-man-taking-the-stage-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/100196\/","title":{"rendered":"Who flew Israel\u2019s first F-35 mission? Meet the man taking the stage in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who was the first Israeli Air Force commander to commission and fly the F-35 Adir for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/air-force\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IAF<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>The answer: Major General (Ret.) Amir Eshel.<\/p>\n<p>Eshel will take the stage at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference on June 1, joining other distinguished members of the Israeli and American defense community.<\/p>\n<p>Eshel is also a former director-general of the Ministry of Defense (2020\u20132023). As the son of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/holocaust-survivors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Holocaust survivors<\/a>, he led the historic flyover of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 2003 while serving as commander of Tel Nof Airbase. That moment, widely seen as both symbolic and deeply personal, reflected a full-circle story of Jewish sovereignty and strength in the modern era.<\/p>\n<p>Who are some of the other defense leaders set to join the event?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Major General Amikam Norkin, former commander of the Israeli Air Force; Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Richard Y. Newton III of the U.S. Air Force; and Tzachi Hanegbi, former minister of justice, minister of national security, and head of the National Security Council. Together, they bring decades of operational experience and strategic insight at a time when regional tensions and global alliances are rapidly evolving.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the conference centers on the idea of a \u201cnew Middle East,\u201d not just from a political lens, but through the people, ideas, and partnerships shaping the region right now. And security, as any American Jew or Israeli knows, is key. From cutting-edge defense technology to shifting geopolitical realities, the conversations on stage will reflect the urgency and complexity of this moment. For more information or to purchase tickets: <a href=\"https:\/\/conferences.jpost.com\/new-york-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/conferences.jpost.com\/new-york-2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who was the first Israeli Air Force commander to commission and fly the F-35 Adir for the IAF?&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2382,2090,37,1045,35003],"class_list":{"0":"post-100196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-defense-industry","9":"tag-iaf","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israeli-air-force","12":"tag-jerusalem-post-annual-conference-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116526695300424351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}