Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, the deputy chief of staff, is planning to enter a management study program at Harvard in September. Barring any last-minute change, he will leave his job in the summer.

The leading candidate to replace him is Major General Dan Harel.

After Gabi Ashkenazi was appointed chief of staff in February, Kaplinsky agreed to continue as his deputy and help him rehabilitate the IDF after the Second Lebanon War.

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However, Kaplinsky said he preferred quitting to staying in the army and contending for the chief of staff's post in four years, after Ashkenazi.

Kaplinsky will probably wait for the release of the Winograd Committee's interim report expected at the end of next week before announcing his final decision.

He reportedly believes that the committee will see him as personally responsible for the war blunders, but will not take any steps before the committee's conclusions and their repercussions on the general staff are clear.

Ashkenazi proposed to Kaplinsky the post of military intelligence chief, to replace Major General Amos Yadlin.

Kaplinsky, who had wanted the post during Moshe Yaalon's term as chief of staff but did not get it, turned it down and said he was planning to take a senior management course at Harvard University in September.

Former chief of staff Dan Halutz is now taking a similar course. Going overseas for a course is not necessarily a sign of quitting the IDF. A number of generals who took courses abroad returned to active service afterward.

Kaplinsky was recently mentioned as a candidate for police commissioner, but he was not interested. He also received tentative offers for senior business positions.

Harel, who served as GOC Southern Command during the pullout from the Gaza Strip, is today Israel's military attache in the United States. He is believed to be on very good terms with Ashkenazi.

GOC Central Command Major General Yair Naveh, who was also mentioned as a candidate for deputy chief of staff, has announced that he intends to retire from the IDF soon, and is expected to do so in May or June.