After qualifying as a fighter pilot, Yadlin joined the 102 "Flying Tiger" Squadron, with which he flew the A-4 Skyhawk during the Yom Kippur War. In the early 1980s Yadlin was among the first batch of Israeli pilots to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon and was among the eight pilots selected to carry out Operation Opera against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981.[2][3] A year later, Yadlin participated in the 1982 Lebanon War bombing terrorist targets in Lebanon. In all he had accumulated about 5,000 flight hours and flew more than 250 combat missions. Yadlin commanded two fighter squadrons (116 and 106), two Israeli Air Force bases (Nevatim and Hatzerim) and between 1990 and 1993 headed the IAF's planning department. He then served as Deputy Commander of the IAF.
In February 2002 Yadlin was awarded the rank of major general and appointed commander of the IDF Military Colleges and National Defense College. Between 2004 and 2006 he served as Israel's military attaché to the United States. Upon his return to Israel, Yadlin was named head of Aman, the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate.[4][5]
Wikileaks
A leaked US embassy cable, released by WikiLeaks, detailed a meeting between Yadlin and the US ambassador to Israel. In this meeting, Yadlin stated that his country would be "happy if Hamas took over Gaza because the IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state."[6]
This statement was made on June 12, 2007, only a few days before Hamas took control over Gaza Strip.[6]
During the 2023 Israel-Hamas War he said, "Israel will treat this state (the Gaza Strip) the way you treated Japan when they attacked you on Pearl Harbor, the way the Allies treated Germany in the Second World War." He then clarified that "we are not going to do Dresden, we are not going to do Hiroshima, we are going to fight according to the international law."[13] Australian journalist Michael Pascoe noted in The New Daily that Yadlin's comments were a call for the indiscriminate carpet bombing of Gaza, akin to the Bombing of Dresden and firebombing of Tokyo, and a show of genocidal intent on Yadlin's part.[14]