Moshe Dayan

Moshe Dayan
משה דיין
Dayan as Chief of the General Staff
Ministerial career
1959–1964Minister of Agriculture
1967–1974Minister of Defense
1977–1979Minister of Foreign Affairs
Faction represented in the Knesset
1959–1965Mapai
1965–1968Rafi
1968–1969Labor
1969–1977Alignment
1977–1981Independent
1981Telem
Military roles
1953–1958Chief of the General Staff
1952GOC Northern Command
1949–1951Head of Southern Command
Personal details
Born(1915-05-20)May 20, 1915
Degania Alef, Beirut Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (now Israel)
DiedOctober 16, 1981(1981-10-16) (aged 66)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Resting placeNahalal Cemetery
AwardsLegion of Honour[1]
Signature
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom (World War II)
 Israel (from 1948)
Branch/service Haganah (c. 1929–48)
 British Army (World War II)
 Israel Defense Forces (1948–1959)
Rank Rav Aluf (Chief of Staff; highest rank)
CommandsChief of the General staff
Southern Command
Northern Command
Battles/warsArab Revolt in Palestine
World War II
1948 Arab–Israeli War
Suez Crisis
Six-Day War
War of Attrition
Yom Kippur War

Moshe Dayan (Hebrew: משה דיין‎; May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) during the 1956 Sinai War, and as Defense Minister during the Six-Day War in 1967, he became a worldwide fighting symbol of the new state of Israel.[2]

In the 1930s, Dayan joined the Haganah, the pre-state Jewish defense force of Mandatory Palestine. He served in the Special Night Squads under Orde Wingate during the Arab revolt in Palestine and later lost an eye to a sniper in a raid on Vichy forces in Lebanon during World War II. Dayan was close to David Ben-Gurion and joined him in leaving the Mapai party and setting up the Rafi party in 1965 with Shimon Peres. Dayan became Defence Minister just before the 1967 Six-Day War. After the Yom Kippur War of 1973, during which Dayan served as Defense Minister, he was blamed for the lack of preparedness; after some time he resigned. In 1977, following the election of Menachem Begin as Prime Minister, Dayan was expelled from the Israeli Labor Party because he joined the Likud-led government as Foreign Minister, playing an important part in negotiating the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

  1. ^ Friedländer, Saul (2016). Where Memory Leads: My Life. Other Press, LLC. p. 35. ISBN 978-1590518090.
  2. ^ Willard Crompton, Samuel (2007). Ariel Sharon. Infobase Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7910-9263-7.