Israel Revamps Military Command : Mideast: The new chief of forces is a Stanford graduate and an expert in covert operations.

The Israeli military has completed sweeping changes in the top command. Its next leader is a highly decorated Stanford University graduate who has specialized in covert operations and who once disguised himself as a woman during a dangerous raid in Beirut.

Maj. Gen. Ehud Barak, 48, has been chosen to become chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces on April 1--and even now is being discussed as a possible future prime minister of the Jewish state.

The baby-faced general, whom military commentators sometimes refer to as a “thinking man’s general,” has also had a personal hand in the selection of his key aides, the officers who will run the armed forces for the next three years.

Barak’s deputy chief of staff will be Maj. Gen. Amnon Shahak, 46. An easygoing, highly respected officer, Shahak was also on the short list for chief of staff.

Barak, who will get a third star this year, has had an illustrious military career. He fought in the 1967 Middle East War as a paratroop reconnaissance force commander and in the 1973 war as a tank battalion commander.

But his specialty was secret, undercover operations. He headed an elite force operated directly under the chief of staff.

The details of many of his missions remain classified, but it is known that he led a seaborne commando force that slipped into Beirut in 1973. In that raid, he disguised himself as a woman so he could lead his plainclothes troops to the apartment building where they killed several leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In the same operation, Shahak led a small force that attacked a second building held by Palestinian guerrilla leaders.

In 1988, as deputy chief of staff, Barak commanded the Israeli seaborne raid against the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia. Shahak again took part: As chief of intelligence, he monitored the operation from a Boeing 707 overhead.

The Israeli army is notoriously parsimonious with decorations, and it is rare for a combat officer to receive one. Barak has five special medals.

Barak also found time to graduate in 1968 from Hebrew University in Jerusalem with a degree in physics and mathematics and to earn a master’s degree in systems analysis from Stanford in 1978.

Barak will take over as chief of staff from Lt. Gen Dan Shomron, a military hero who was in charge of the Entebbe rescue operation raid in Uganda in 1976 but who, according to military sources, has been something of a disappointment as Israel’s top military officer. His term was not extended.

Of Barak’s appointment, Zeev Schiff, Israel’s foremost military commentator, declared: “It is a very good decision. Barak is highly intelligent, a natural leader. He will provide firm direction for the IDF. A wise choice in every way.”

And a senior government official, familiar with military personnel, said: “He is a great field commander, very brave. He will provide intellectual depth to the IDF. He has been able to pick his own team that will work together in the years ahead.”

Among the members of that team:

* Gen. Shahak, Barak’s designated deputy. He has been chief of intelligence and is a much-decorated paratrooper who is also an armored specialist and a graduate of Tel Aviv University and the U.S. Marine Corps Staff College.

* Maj. Gen. Uri Saguy, 47, the new chief of intelligence. He is a former commander of the crack Golani Brigade and also participated in the Entebbe operation.

* Maj. Gen. Emanuel Sakel, 50, head of the Ground Forces Command. He is a hero of the 1973 war in the Sinai who, in an unusual move, was called out of retirement as a phosphates company executive by Barak. Sakel has a master’s degree in geology from Hebrew University and attended the U.S. Command and General Staff College.

* Maj. Gen. Dani Yatom, 45, a decorated armor expert and intellectual, takes over the sensitive Central Command with responsibility for the occupied territories and the Jordan frontier.

* Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, 46, takes over the Northern Command, with responsibility for the Syrian and Lebanon borders.

* Maj. Gen. Amran Mitzna, 45, a brilliant, twice-wounded and twice-decorated armor officer, who was scheduled to retire, has taken over as chief of planning at the request of Barak and Defense Minister Moshe Arens.

Barak was uniquely qualified for the job, military specialists say, partly because of his background but also because he has helped prepare the military for any eventuality in case of attack by Iraq as a result of the Persian Gulf crisis.

He has a sterling reputation both as a tactician and a broader-gauged strategist, and he has specialized in examining Israel’s “future battlefield,” defense experts say.

Some commentators had believed that since Barak is identified with the opposition Labor Party--and, in fact, has been the subject of speculation that he will become an active politician on leaving the army--the right-wing government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir would not appoint him to the top military job.

“There was always that thought,” admitted a senior government official. “But Barak was the best man for the job. He’s the one to take a fresh approach for the army. The army is great--but it can always do better. We need an innovative leader.”