General Moshe Dayan

Dayan was born in the first kibbutz collective agricultural settlement established by Zionists in Palestine. As a teenager he joined the Haganah, an underground army working toward establishing a nation independent from British rule. The kibbutz was vulnerable to Arab attack and therefore the Haganah also served as a perimeter patrol.

Dayan first saw significant action during the Arab revolt of 1936-39, serving with Yitzhak Sadeh's guerrilla units. The Jewish settlers sporadically cooperated with the British during the revolt and Dayan trained under the British general Orde Wingate during this period. However, Dayan's continued activity in the independence movement provoked his arrest at the outbreak of World War II. He was imprisoned at Acre in October 1939 and not released until February 16, 1941.

The exigencies of war in the Middle East again brought cooperation between the Haganah and the British. As a result, Dayan became a scout working before the British invasion of Vichy French held Syria and Lebanon during June 1941. In combat on the 8th of June, he lost his left eye and from that point on wore a trademark black eye patch.

Dayan served on the Haganah general staff prior to the United Nations partition of Palestine in November 1947. In the Israeli War of Independence that followed, he fought against the Syrians in Galilee, successfully defending the Deganya settlements during May 19-21 in 1948. Drawing on his Haganah training, as well as his experience with Wingate, he next raised the Eighty-Ninth Commando Battalion (a highly mobile mechanized strike force) which he led on a series of lightning raids against Arab-held positions at Lod and Ramallah between July 9 and July 19.

Following these successes, he was put in charge of the Jerusalem sector (1948-49) and was instrumental in early settlement negotiations with King Abdullah of Jordan in 1949.

After Israeli independence had been established, Dayan went to England in 1953 for a study at the Camberley Staff College (1953), returning to Israel later that year as chief of staff of Israeli Defense Forces (the Israeli army). When the Sinai War erupted in 1956, Dayan took general charge of planning and directing the Israeli campaign (29th of October until the 5th of November in 1956). Two years after the successful conclusion of the war, he resigned his commission to enter civil politics, gaining election to the Knesset (Israeli parliament). In 1959, he started serving as Minister of Agriculture (1959-64).

In 1964, he broke with his party to join David Ben-Gurion in founding the Rafi (Labor List) party and once again won the election to the Knesset.

In June 1967, Dayan was appointed defense minister under prime minister Levi Eshkol. As defense minister, he directed operations during the Arab-Israeli "Six-Day War" of 1967 from which the Israelis emerged, having won a decisive victory. Dayan stepped down from the Defense Ministry after Yitzhak Rabin succeeded Golda Meir as prime minister in May 1974, but returned to the government in 1977, serving as foreign minister in the government of Menachem Begin through 1979.

He helped to create the Camp David peace settlement U.S. president Jimmy Carter mediated between Israel and Egypt. Growing differences over policy toward the Palestinian Arabs (with Menachem Begin), prompted Dayan's resignation as foreign minister in 1979 (two years prior to his death).

Dayan was a complex character; his opinions were never strictly black and white. He had few close friends; his mental brilliance and charismatic manner were combined with cynicism and lack of restraint. He died in Tel Aviv from a massive heart attack. He had been in ill-health since 1980 after he was diagnosed with colon cancer late that year. He is buried in Nahalal in the moshav (a collective village) where he was raised.