View source for Moshe Dayan

{{Short description|Israeli military leader and politician (1915–1981)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Moshe Dayan
| native_name         = {{No bold|משה דיין}}
| native_name_lang    = he
| image               = Moshe Dayan, Chief of General Staff.jpg
| caption             = Dayan as Chief of the General Staff
| office1             = Ministerial career
| suboffice1          = [[Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Israel)|Minister of Agriculture]]
| subterm1            = 1959–1964
| suboffice2          = [[Ministry of Defense (Israel)|Minister of Defense]]
| subterm2            = 1967–1974
| suboffice3          = [[Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
| subterm3            = 1977–1979
| office4             = Faction represented in the Knesset
| suboffice4          = [[Mapai]]
| subterm4            = 1959–1965
| suboffice5          = [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]]
| subterm5            = 1965–1968
| suboffice6          = [[Israeli Labor Party|Labor]]
| subterm6            = 1968–1969
| suboffice7          = [[Alignment (Israel)|Alignment]]
| subterm7            = 1969–1977
| suboffice8          = Independent
| subterm8            = 1977–1981
| suboffice9          = [[Telem (1981 political party)|Telem]]
| subterm9            = 1981
| office10            = Military roles
| suboffice10         = Head of [[Southern Command (Israel)|Southern Command]]
| subterm10           = 1949–1951
| suboffice11         = GOC [[Northern Command (Israel)|Northern Command]]
| subterm11           = 1952
| suboffice12         = [[Chief of General Staff (Israel)|Chief of the General Staff]]
| subterm12           = 1953–1958
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1915|5|20|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Degania Alef]], [[Beirut Vilayet]], [[Ottoman Empire]] (now Israel)
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1981|10|16|1915|5|20|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Tel Aviv]], Israel
| allegiance          = {{flag|United Kingdom}} {{small|(World War II)}}<br />{{flag|Israel}} {{small|(from 1948)}}
| branch              = [[File:Hahaganah.png|13px]] [[Haganah]] {{small|(c.&nbsp;1929–48)}}<br />{{army|United Kingdom}} {{small|(World War II)}}<br />{{armed forces|Israel}} {{small|(1948–1959)}}
| serviceyears        = 
| rank                = [[File:IDF rav aluf rotated.svg|38px]] [[Rav Aluf]] ([[Chief of the General Staff (Israel)|Chief of Staff]]; highest rank)
| commands            = [[Chief of General Staff (Israel)|Chief of the General staff]]<br />[[Southern Command (Israel)|Southern Command]]<br />[[Northern Command (Israel)|Northern Command]]
| unit                = 
| battles             = [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab Revolt in Palestine]]<br />[[World War II]]<br />[[1948 Arab–Israeli War]]<br />[[Suez Crisis]]<br />[[Six-Day War]]<br />[[War of Attrition]]<br />[[Yom Kippur War]]
| awards              = [[Legion of Honour]]<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-E5DQAAQBAJ&q=moshe+dayan+%22legion+of+honor%22&pg=PA35|title=Where Memory Leads: My Life|last=Friedländer|first=Saul|publisher=Other Press, LLC|year=2016|isbn=978-1590518090|page=35}}</ref>
| signature           = Moshe Dayan signature - he.svg
| resting_place       = [[Nahalal Cemetery]]
}}
'''Moshe Dayan''' ({{langx|he|משה דיין}}{{ltr}}; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the [[Jerusalem]] front in the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], [[Chief of General Staff (Israel)|Chief of the General Staff]] of the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (1953–1958) during the 1956 [[Suez Crisis|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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Willard Crompton |first=Samuel |title=Ariel Sharon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDnaWshrMwwC&pg=PA37 |year=2007 |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7910-9263-7 |page=37}}</ref>

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 [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt in Palestine]] and later lost an eye to a sniper in a raid on [[Vichy France|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 (political party)|Rafi]] party in 1965 with [[Shimon Peres]]. Dayan became Defense Minister just before the 1967 Six-Day War. 

During and after [[Yom Kippur War]] of late 1973, during which Dayan served as Defense Minister, he was blamed for the lack of preparedness, and he resigned along with the rest of [[Sixteenth government of Israel|Golda Meir's government]] in early 1974. 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 [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty|peace treaty between Egypt and Israel]].

==Early life==
Moshe Dayan was born on 20 May 1915 in [[Kibbutz]] [[Degania Alef]], near the [[Sea of Galilee]] in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], in what was then [[Ottoman Syria]] within the [[Ottoman Empire]], one of three children born to [[Shmuel Dayan|Shmuel]] and Devorah Dayan, [[Ukrainian Jews|Ukrainian Jewish immigrants]] from [[Zhashkiv]]. Kibbutz Degania Alef, with 11 members, was the first kibbutz, and would become part of the State of Israel.

Dayan was the second child born at Degania, after [[Gideon Baratz]] (1913–1988).<ref>{{cite book|author=Morris, Benny|year=2001|title=Righteous Victims|url=https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0|url-access=registration|publisher=Vintage Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0/page/684 684]|isbn=9780679744757}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Moshe Dayan: the soldier, the man, the legend|url=https://archive.org/details/moshedayansoldie00teve|url-access=registration|author= Shabbatai Teveth |page= [https://archive.org/details/moshedayansoldie00teve/page/n16 1]|publisher= Houghton Mifflin|year= 1973|isbn=9780395154755}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/baratz-miriam|title=Miriam Baratz|website=Jewish Women's Archive}}</ref> He was named Moshe after [[Killing of Moshe Barsky|Moshe Barsky]], the first member of Degania to be killed in an Arab attack, who died getting medication for Dayan's father.<ref>{{cite news|title=Soldier of Israel: the story of General Moshe Dayan|author=Taslitt, Israel Isaac |journal= Funk and Wagnalls|year= 1969|page= 8}}</ref> Soon afterward, Dayan's parents moved to [[Nahalal]], the first ''[[moshav]]'', or farming cooperative, to be established. Dayan attended the agricultural school there.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}

Dayan was a [[Jewish atheist]].<ref name="Giulio Meotti 2011 147">{{cite book|title=A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism|year=2011|publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com|isbn=9781459617414|author=Giulio Meotti|page=147|quote=Even atheist and socialist Israelis like David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, and Golda Meir were marked by the stories and legends of King David and the prophets. In other words, their lives had been shaped by Hebron.}}</ref><ref name="Tariq Ali 2003 10">{{cite book|title=The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity|url=https://archive.org/details/clashoffundament00alit|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781859844571|author=Tariq Ali|edition=2nd|page=[https://archive.org/details/clashoffundament00alit/page/10 10]|quote=Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan were self-proclaimed atheists.}}</ref> He spoke [[Modern Hebrew|Hebrew]], [[Arabic]], and English.

==Military career==
[[File:Sadeh 1938.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Dayan (left) with [[Yitzhak Sadeh]] and [[Yigal Allon]], Kibbutz [[Hanita]], 1938]]

At the age of 14, Dayan joined the Jewish defence force [[Haganah]]. In 1938, he joined the British-organised irregular [[Jewish Supernumerary Police|Supernumerary Police]] and led a small motorized patrol ("MAN"). One of his military heroes was the British pro-[[Zionist]] intelligence officer [[Orde Wingate]], under whom he served in several [[Special Night Squads]] operations. On 3 October 1939, he was the commanding instructor for Haganah Leader's courses held at [[Yavniel]] when two [[Palestine Police Force]] officers discovered a quantity of illegal rifles. Haganah HQ ordered the camp evacuated. 

Leading a group of 43 men through [[Al-Bira, Baysan|Wadi Bira]], early the following morning, 12 to 15 Arab members of the [[Transjordan Frontier Force]] arrested them. Questions were asked about how such a large force was arrested by a much smaller one. [[Moshe Carmel]], the group's deputy commander, was also critical of Dayan's willingness to talk to his interrogators in [[Acre Prison]]. On 30 October 1939, most of the group were sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

Seven months later, Dayan was replaced as the prisoners' representative after it was discovered that moves were being made to get him an individual pardon. On 16 February 1941, after [[Chaim Weizmann]]'s intervention in London, they were all released.<ref>[[Shabtai Teveth|Teveth, Shabtai]] (1974) ''Moshe Dayan. The soldier, the man, the legend.'' Quartet Books. {{ISBN|0-7043-1080-5}}. pp. 124–36.</ref> Dayan was assigned to a small Australian-led reconnaissance task force, which also included fellow [[Palmach]] members and Arab guides,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bar-On |first1=Mordechai |title=Moshe Dayan: Israel's Controversial Hero |date= 2012 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-18325-2 |pages=22–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=82jzA4LcZuQC |language=en}}</ref> formed in preparation for the [[Syria-Lebanon campaign|Allied invasion of Syria and Lebanon]] and attached to the [[7th Division (Australia)|Australian 7th Division]]. Using his home [[kibbutz]] of [[Hanita]] as a forward base, the unit frequently infiltrated [[Vichy France|Vichy French]] [[Mandate of Lebanon|Lebanon]], wearing traditional Arab dress, on covert surveillance missions.

===Eye injury===
[[File:A DETACHMENT OF THE JEWISH SUPERNUMERARY POLICE, UNDER THE COMMAND OF MOSHE DAYAN, LINING UP AT THE ESTABLISHMENT SITE OF KIBBUTZ HANITA IN THE WESTER.jpg|thumb|Moshe Dayan commanding a company of [[Jewish Supernumerary Police]], [[Hanita]], March 1938]]
On 7 June 1941, the night before the invasion of the [[Syria–Lebanon campaign]], Dayan's unit crossed the border and secured two bridges over the [[Litani River]]. During the time, Dayan served under the command of British Lieutenant General Sir [[Henry Maitland Wilson]].<ref name=dayaneyer>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/letters-describing-dayan-losing-eye-to-be-auctioned/|title = Letters describing Dayan losing his eye to be auctioned|website = [[The Times of Israel]] | date=27 July 2015 }}</ref> When they were not relieved as expected, at 04:00 on 8 June, the unit perceived that it was exposed to possible attack and—on its own initiative—assaulted a nearby Vichy police station, capturing it. A few hours later, as Dayan was on the roof of the building using [[binoculars]] to scan Vichy French positions on the other side of the river, the binoculars were struck by a French rifle bullet fired by a sniper from several hundred yards away, propelling metal and glass fragments into his left eye and causing severe damage. Six hours passed before he could be evacuated. Dayan lost the eye. In addition, the damage to the [[extraocular muscles]] was such that Dayan could not be fitted with a [[Ocular prosthetic|glass eye]], and he was compelled to adopt the black [[eye patch]] that became his trademark.<ref name=dayaneyer /> On the recommendation of an Australian officer, he received the [[Distinguished Service Order]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}

Letters from this time revealed that despite losing his left eye and suffering serious injuries to the area where the eye was located, Dayan still pleaded with Wilson to be reenlisted in combat.<ref name=dayaneyer /> He also underwent eye surgery in 1947 at a hospital in Paris, which proved to be unsuccessful.<ref name=dayaneyer />

===Haganah promotion and 89th Battalion===
[[File:Ludwig Blum - Moshe Dayan, 1949.JPG|thumb|1949 portrait by [[Ludwig Blum]]]]
In 1947, Dayan was appointed to the [[Haganah]] General Staff working on Arab affairs, in particular recruiting agents to gain information about irregular Arab forces in Palestine.<ref>Dayan, Moshe (1976) ''Moshe Dayan. Story of my Life'', William Morrow. {{ISBN|0-688-03076-9}}. p. 80.</ref> On 14 April 1948, his brother, Zorik, was killed in fighting. On 22 April, Dayan was put in charge of abandoned Arab property in newly conquered [[Battle of Haifa (1948)|Haifa]]. To put a stop to the out-of-control looting, he ordered that anything that could be used by the army be stored in [[Haganah]] warehouses and the rest be distributed amongst Jewish agricultural settlements.<ref>Teveth. Page 159.</ref> On 18 May, Dayan was given command of the Jordan Valley sector. In a nine-hour battle, his troops stopped the Syrian [[Battles of the Kinarot Valley|advance]] south of the [[Sea of Galilee]].<ref>''Story of My Life'', pp. 88, 89. Moshe Montag received me courteously but with little enthusiasm.</ref>

In June, he became the first commander of the [[89th Commando Battalion|89th Battalion]], part of [[Yitzhak Sadeh|Sadeh]]'s Armoured Brigade. His methods of recruiting volunteers from other army units, such as the [[Golani Brigade|Golani]] and [[Kiryati Brigade|Kiryati]] Brigades, provoked complaints from their commanders.<ref>Teveth. pp. 170–172.</ref> On 20 June 1948, two men from one of his companies were killed in a confrontation with [[Irgun]] members trying to bring weapons ashore from the [[Altalena]] at [[Kfar Vitkin]]. During [[Operation Danny]], he led his battalion in a brief raid through [[Lod]] in which nine of his men were killed. His battalion was then transferred to the south, where they captured [[Karatiya]], close to [[Al-Faluja|Faluja]] on 15 July. His withdrawal of his troops after only two hours, leaving a company from the [[Givati Brigade]] to face an Egyptian counterattack led to Givati Commander [[Shimon Avidan]] demanding that Dayan be disciplined. Chief of the General Staff [[Yigael Yadin]] instructed the military attorney general to proceed, but the case was dismissed.<ref>Teveth. p. 189.</ref>

===Jerusalem===
[[File:Dayan and el Tell PA-5737197.jpg|thumb|300x300px|[[Abdullah el-Tell]] and Moshe Dayan reach cease-fire agreement, Jerusalem, 30 November 1948]]
On 23 July 1948, on [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s insistence over General Staff opposition, Dayan was appointed military commander of Jewish-controlled areas of Jerusalem.<ref>''Story of my Life'' pp. 110, 106–111, 115–120, 122.</ref> In this post, he launched two military offensives. Both were night-time operations and both failed. On 17 August, he sent two companies to attempt to occupy the hillsides around [[East Talpiot|Government House]], but they retreated suffering casualties.<ref>Teveth. Pages 193,194.</ref> On the night of 20 October 1948, to coincide with the end of [[Operation Yoav]] further south, ''Operation Wine Press'' was launched. Its objective was to capture [[Bethlehem]] via [[Beit Jala]]. Six companies set out but were pinned down by machine-gun fire in the wadi below Beit Jala and were forced to withdraw.<ref>Teveth. pp. 197–199.</ref>

Following the 17 September 1948 assassination of Count [[Folke Bernadotte]], it was over 20 hours before he imposed a curfew over Jewish Jerusalem and began arresting members of [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], the underground organisation believed to be responsible. One reason for this delay was the need to bring loyal troops from [[Tel Aviv]] into the city.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Dov Yosef|last=Joseph|first=Dov|year=1960|title=The Faithful City. The siege of Jerusalem, 1948|publisher=Simon and Schuster|lccn=60-10976|oclc=266413|pages=306–307|url=https://archive.org/details/thefaithfulcity0000unse/page/306/mode/2up|url-access=registration}}</ref>

On 20 October 1948, Dayan commanded the 800-strong [[Etzioni Brigade]] during the ill-fated ''Operation Yeqev'', in which the objectives were to join the [[Harel Brigade]] in the capture of the mountain range overlooking [[Beit Jala]].<ref>Yad Tabenkin Archives (Tabenkin Memorial), Testimony of [[Aviva Rabinowitz]], 16-12/52/65</ref> The mission was called-off because of misguided navigation, and [[Ben Gurion]]'s fear of upsetting the Christian world at Israel's capture of Christian sites. A ceasefire went into effect on 22 October.<ref>''Har’el: Palmach brigade in Jerusalem'', Zvi Dror (ed. Nathan Shoḥam), Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishers: Benei Barak 2005, p. 270 (Hebrew)</ref>

In the autumn of 1948, he was involved in negotiations with [[Abdullah el Tell]], the Jordanian military commander of East Jerusalem, over a lasting cease-fire for the Jerusalem area. In 1949, he had at least five face-to-face meetings with [[Abdullah I of Jordan|King Abdullah of Jordan]] over the Armistice Agreement and the search for a long-term peace agreement.<ref>''Story of My Life'', 16 and 30 Jan: p. 135; 19 and 23 March: p. 142; 17 December p. 144.</ref> Following a February 1949 incident, he was courtmartialed for disobeying an order from his superior, Major-General Zvi Ayalon OC Central Command. A military court found him guilty and briefly demoted him from lieutenant colonel to major. This did not prevent him from attending the armistice negotiations on [[Rhodes]]. On 29 June 1949, he was appointed head of all Israeli delegations to the [[1949 Armistice Agreements|Mixed Armistice Commission]] meetings. In September 1949, despite being involved in these negotiations, Dayan recommended to Ben-Gurion that the army should be used to open the road to Jerusalem and gain access to the [[Western Wall]] and [[Mount Scopus]].<ref>''Story of My Life'', p. 147.</ref><ref>Teveth. p. 208.</ref>

===Southern Command===
On 25 October 1949, he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the Southern Command. Most of the staff officers resigned in protest of his replacement of [[Yigal Allon]].<ref>''Story of My Life'' pp. 146, 150.</ref> The major problem in the south of the country was Palestinians crossing the border, "infiltrating", from the Gaza Strip, Sinai, and the Hebron hills. Dayan was an advocate of a "harsh" policy along the border. In Jerusalem, he had given instructions that infiltrators killed in no-man's-land or the Arab side of the border should be moved to the Israeli side before UN inspections.<ref>Morris, Benny (1993) ''Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War''. Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-827850-0}}. p. 130. February – July 1950: 26 in Israel, 11 in no-man's-land, 23 on Jordanian side of the border.</ref> Allon had already introduced a 7 kilometre "free-fire" zone along the southern borders.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars,'' Page 126. "Every stranger found ... will be shot without interrogation." 4 June 1949.</ref> In the spring of 1950, Dayan authorized the [[Israeli Air Force]] to [[strafe]] shepherds and their herds in the [[Beit Guvrin, Israel|Beit Govrin]] area. There were also strafing attacks on [[bedouin]] camps in the [[Gaza City|Gaza]] area.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars,'' Page 191. possibly due to pilots having fun, "more likely" authorized by Dayan.</ref> In early 1950, 700 bedouin, [[Shaqib al-Salam|'''Azame'']], were expelled from the South Hebron area. In September 1950, several thousand more were driven from the demilitarized zone at [[Auja al-Hafir|Al-Ajua]]<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. UNTSO estimated 4,000, another over 6,000. [[Teddy Kollek]] has 2–3,000.</ref> During 1950, the remaining population of [[Al-Majdal, Askalan|al-Majdal]] were transferred to the Gaza Strip<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars,'' 109.</ref><ref>Teveth. p. 213. "1950 was an uneventful year."</ref> In a notorious incident on 31 May 1950, the [[Israel Defense Forces|army]] forced 120 Arabs across the Jordanian border at [[Arabah|'Arava]]. "Two or three dozen" died of thirst before reaching safety.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars,'' pp. 157, 158. From a prison camp at [[Qatra]]</ref>

During 1950, Dayan also developed a policy of punitive cross-border [[Reprisal operations|reprisal raids]] in response to [[fedayeen]] attacks on Israelis. IDF squads were sent into the Gaza Strip to lay mines.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars,'' Pp 197. p. 133 lists 7 incidents around Kibbutz Erez, January – June 1950, in which 13 Arabs were killed.</ref> The first retaliation raid on a village occurred 20 March 1950 when six Arabs were killed at [[Khirbet Jamrura]].<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. Page 189.</ref> On 18 June 1950, Dayan explained his thinking to the [[Mapai]] faction in the [[Knesset]]:

<blockquote>[Retaliation is] the only method that [has] proved effective, not justified or moral but effective, when Arabs plants mines on our side. If we try to search for that Arab, it has no value. But if we harass the nearby village... then the population there comes out against the [infiltrators]... and the Egyptian Government and the Transjordanian government are [driven] to prevent such incidents, because their prestige is [at stake], as the Jews have opened fire, and they are unready to begin a war...
The method of collective punishment so far has proved effective... There are no other effective methods.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. p. 177.</ref></blockquote>

In 1950, Moshe Dayan also ordered the Israeli army in 1950 to destroy the [[Shrine of Husayn's Head]], more than a year after [[1948 Palestine war|hostilities]] ended. It is thought that the demolition was related to Dayan's efforts to expel the remaining Palestinian Arabs from the region.{{sfn|Talmon-Heller|Kedar|Reiter|2016}}

On 8 March 1951, 18 were killed at [[Idna]]. On 20 October 1951, two Battalion 79 (7th Brigade) companies destroyed several houses and an ice factory in eastern Gaza City; dozens were killed and injured. On 6 January 1952, an armoured infantry company from the same battalion attacked a Bedouin camp, ''Nabahim,'' near [[Bureij refugee camp]] killing 15.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. pp. 190, 201/2, 203.</ref> [[Glubb Pasha]] wrote that the objective of this new strategy seemed to "be merely to kill Arabs indiscriminately". Dayan saw it as an "eye for an eye".<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. pp. 193–194</ref> He was a close friend of [[Amos Yarkoni]], an Arab officer in the [[Israel Defense Forces]], At the time, the Military Commander commented that "''if Moshe Dayan could be the [[Ramatkal]] (Chief of the General Staff) without an eye, we can have a Battalion Commander with a prosthetic hand''".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shaked.org.il/c.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060714015950/http://www.shaked.org.il/c.html|archive-date = 14 July 2006|title = עמותת סיירת שקד 424 – סיירת שקד}}</ref>

At the end of 1951, Dayan attended a course at the British Army's Senior Officers' School in [[Devizes]], England. In May 1952, he was appointed operational commander of the Northern Command.<ref>Teveth. p.  221.</ref>

===Chief of the General Staff===
[[File:General Moshe Dayan 1955.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Chief of the General Staff (Israel)|Chief of the General Staff]] Moshe Dayan inspecting the honor guard during a ceremony marking the end of officers course at [[Bahad 1]], January 1955]]
The year 1952 was a time of economic crisis for the new state. Faced with demands of a 20% cut in budget and the discharge of 6,000 IDF members, [[Yigael Yadin]] resigned as Chief of the General Staff in November 1952, and was replaced by [[Mordechai Maklef]]. In December 1952, Dayan was promoted to Chief of the Operations (G) Branch, the second most senior General Staff post.<ref>Teveth. pp. 225, 226.</ref> One of Dayan's actions in this post was to commence work on the canal diverting water from the River Jordan, September 1953.<ref>Green, Stephen (1984) ''Taking Sides – America's secret relations with militant Israel 1948/1967''. Faber and Faber. {{ISBN|0-571-13271-5}}. p. 86.</ref>

During 1953, Prime Minister and Defence Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] began to make preparations for his retirement. His choice for defence minister was [[Pinhas Lavon]], who became acting MoD in the autumn of 1953. Lavon and Maklef were unable to work together and Maklef resigned. Dayan was immediately appointed CoS on 7 December 1953.<ref>Teveth, ''Ben-Gurion's Spy.'' p. 66.</ref> This appointment was Ben-Gurion's last act as prime minister before his replacement by acting Prime Minister [[Moshe Sharett]].

On taking command, based on Ben-Gurion's three-year defence programme, Dayan carried out a major reorganisation of the Israeli army, which, among others, included:<ref>Lau-Levie, ''Moshe Dayan – A Biography'', p. 38.</ref>
* Strengthened combat units at the expense of the administrative "tail".
* Raising the Intelligence and Training Branches of the Israeli Army.
* Surrendering the activities of stores and procurement to the civilian Defence Ministry.
* Revamping the mobilisation scheme and ensuring earmarking for adequate equipment.
* Starting a military academy for officers of the rank of major and above.
* Emphasised strike forces (Air Force, Armour) and on training of commando battalions.
* Developed [[Gadna (Israel)|GADNA]], a youth wing for military training.

In May 1955, Dayan attended a meeting convened by Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion raised the issue of a possible invasion of Iraq into Syria, and how this could be used to bring about change in Lebanon. Dayan proposed that:
<blockquote>All that is required is to find an officer, even a captain would do, to win his heart or buy him with money to get him to agree to declare himself the savior of the Maronite population. Then the Israeli army will enter Lebanon, occupy the necessary territory, and create a Christian regime that will ally itself with Israel. The territory from the Litani southward will be totally annexed to Israel, and everything will fall into place.<ref>[https://www.cafetelaviv.de/israel/2011/11/23/moshe-dayan-angriff-plaene-libanon-ben-gurion-1955/#orig] Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall, quoted by CafeTelAviv</ref></blockquote>
Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, shocked by the officers' indifference to neighbouring Lebanon, turned down the plan as divorced from reality.

===Cross-border operations===
In July 1953, while on the General staff, Dayan was party to the setting up of [[Unit 101]], which was to specialise in night-time cross-border retaliation raids.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 239.</ref> He was initially opposed to setting up such a group because he argued it would undermine his attempts to prepare the IDF for an offensive war.<ref>Teveth ''Dayan''. p. 243.</ref> Unit 101's first official operation was to attack, on 28 August 1953, the [[Bureij|Bureij Refugee Camp]], during which they killed 20 refugees and suffered 2 wounded.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 242.</ref>

By October 1953, Dayan was closely involved with 101. He was one of the main architects of the [[Qibya massacre]], on the night of 14/15 October 1953, in response to the killing of 3 Israeli civilians in the [[Yehud attack]] on 12 October. The General Staff order stated "temporarily to conquer the village of Qibya – with the aim of blowing up houses and hitting the inhabitants". The Central Command Operation Instructions were more specific: "carry out destruction and maximum killings." One hundred and thirty IDF soldiers, of whom a third came from Unit 101, carried out the operation. They carried 70&nbsp;kg of explosives, blew up 45 houses, and killed 69 people. The commander who led the attack, [[Ariel Sharon]] later said that he had "thought the houses were empty".<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 245–276.</ref> The international criticism over the killed civilians led to a change of tactics. It was the last large-scale IDF attack on civilian buildings. In the future, targets were to be the [[Arab Legion]], the Frontier Police, and the Egyptian or Syrian Armies. Dayan merged Unit 101 with the [[Paratroopers Brigade]] and assigned its command to Sharon.<ref>Teveth ''Dayan''. p. 249.</ref>

Dayan had a difficult relationship with MoD Lavon. There were issues over spending priorities and over Lavon's dealings with senior IDF members behind Dayan's back. This ended with Lavon's resignation over who ordered the [[Lavon Affair|sabotage operation]] in Egypt, which led to the trial of a number of Egyptian Jews, two of whom were executed.

Dayan believed in the value of punitive cross-border retaliation raids:
<blockquote>We cannot save each water pipe from explosion or each tree from being uprooted. We cannot prevent the murder of workers in orange groves or of families in their beds. But we ''can'' put a very high price on their blood, a price so high that it will no longer be worthwhile for the Arabs, the Arab armies, for the Arab states to pay it.<ref>Allon, Yigal (1970) ''Shield of David – The Story of Israel's Armed Forces.'' Weidenfeld and Nicolson. SBN 297 00133 7. p. 235</ref><ref>Burns, Lieutenant-General E.L.M. (1962) ''Between Arab and Israeli''. George G. Harrap. p. 63 gives source [[Jerusalem Post]] 4 September 1955.</ref></blockquote>

Prime Minister Sharett was an advocate of restraint and was not as confident in the attacks' effectiveness. When seeking approval for operations, Dayan downplayed the scale of the raids to get approval. There were fewer large-scale cross-border raids in 1954.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 424.</ref> Between December 1953 and September 1954, at least 48 Arabs were killed in over 18 cross-border raids. Fifteen of the dead were civilians: farmers, shepherds, and a doctor; two were women.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 293–323.</ref> With Ben-Gurion's return, this changed. On the night of 28 February 1955, [[Retribution operations|Operation Black Arrow]] (''Mivtza Hetz Shahor'') was launched against an Egyptian Army camp south of Gaza City. The IDF force consisted of 120 paratroops and suffered 14 dead; 36 Egyptian soldiers were killed as well as two Palestinian civilians. Ben-Gurion and Dayan had told Sharett that their estimate of Egyptian casualties was 10.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 324–327.</ref> On 31 August 1955, despite Sharett's opposition, three paratroop companies attacked the British-built [[Tegart fort]] in [[Khan Yunis]]. [[Operation Elkayam]] directives called for "killing as many enemy soldiers as possible". The police station and a number of other buildings were blown-up and 72 Egyptian and Palestinians were killed.<ref>Morris, ''Border wars''. p. 350.</ref><ref>Katz, Samuel M. (1988) ''Israeli Elite Units since 1948.'' Osprey Publishing. {{ISBN|0-85045-837-4}}. p. 10</ref>

===Armaments===
Between 1955 and 1956, Dayan and [[Shimon Peres]] negotiated a series of large weapons contracts with France. On 10 November 1955, an agreement was signed for the delivery of 100 [[AMX-13]] tanks and assorted anti-tank weapons. On 24 June 1956, an $80&nbsp;million deal was agreed involving 72 [[Dassault Mystère IV]] jets, 120 [[AMX-13]] tanks, 40 [[Sherman tank]]s and 18 [[Obusier de 155 mm Modèle 50|105mm artillery]]. The Mystere were in addition to 53 already on order. At the end of September 1956, a further 100 Sherman tanks, 300 half-tracks, and 300 6x6 trucks were added.<ref name="Morris, Pages 283, 284">Morris, ''Border Wars''. pp. 283, 284.</ref>

By the beginning of November 1956, the Israeli army had 380 tanks.<ref name="Morris, Pages 283, 284"/>

===Escalation up to the Suez Crisis===
[[File:Dayan 9th Brigade 1956.jpg|thumb|Ramatkal Moshe Dayan and [[Avraham Yoffe]], commanding officer of the [[Oded Brigade|9th Oded Brigade]], at [[Sharm el-Sheikh]] after [[Operation Kadesh]]]]
Following the [[1955 Israeli legislative election|1955 elections]], Ben-Gurion resumed his dual role as prime minister and defence minister. Dayan, who believed in the inevitability of the "Second Round", argued for a preemptive attack on Israel's neighbours, particularly Egypt.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 279.</ref> The two leaders thought war with Egypt could be achieved by provoking an Egyptian response to retaliation raids, which could then be used to justify an all-out attack. On 23 October 1955, Ben-Gurion instructed Dayan to prepare plans to capture [[Sharm al Sheikh]].

On the night of 27 October 1955, an IDF battalion attacked an Egyptian army post at [[Kuntilla]] ([[Operation Egged]]), killing 12 Egyptian soldiers.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 359.</ref> On 2 November, [[al Sabha]], close to the [[DMZ]], was attacked, in [[Operation Volcano (Israeli raid)|Operation Volcano]] (''Mivtza Ha Ga'ash''), killing 81 Egyptian soldiers.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. p. 360.</ref> On 11 December, hoping an attack on Syria would provoke an Egyptian response, [[Operation Olive Leaves]]/Sea of Galilee (''Mivtza 'Alei Zayit/Kinneret'') was launched in which a number of Syrian positions on the eastern shore of the [[Sea of Galilee]] were destroyed. Forty-eight Syrian soldiers were killed as well as six civilians. The Egyptians did not react.

A Cabinet meeting on 15 December 1955 voted against further provocations and ruled that any retaliation attacks must have full Cabinet approval.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 280–282.</ref> The raids ceased for six months. There was one exception: On 5 April 1956, following two earlier incidents along the border with the Gaza Strip in which four Israeli soldiers were killed, the IDF shelled the centre of Gaza City with 120&nbsp;mm mortars. Fifty-eight civilians were killed, including 10 children. 4 Egyptian soldiers were also killed. It is not clear whether Dayan had Ben-Gurion's approval to shell the city. Egypt responded by resuming fedayeen attacks across the border, killing 14 Israelis during the period 11–17 April.<ref>Morris ''Border Wars''. pp. 371, 393–396.</ref>

During September–October 1956, as plans began to mature for the [[Suez Crisis|invasion of the Sinai Peninsula]], Dayan ordered a series of large-scale cross-border raids. On the night of 25 September, following a number of incidents including the machine-gunning of large gathering at [[Ramat Rachel]] in which four Israelis were killed, and the murder of a girl southwest of Jerusalem, the 890th Battalion attacked the [[Husan]] police station and nearby [[Arab Legion]] positions close to the armistice lines. Thirty-seven Legionnaires and National Guardsmen were killed as well as two civilians. Nine or ten paratroopers were killed, several in a road accident after the attack.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. p. 396.</ref>

Following the killing of two workers near [[Even-Yehuda]], Dayan ordered a similar attack, Operation Samaria/''Mivtza Shomron,'' on the [[Qalqilya]] police station. The attack took place on the night of 10 October 1956 and involved several thousand IDF soldiers. During the fighting, Jordanian troops surrounded a paratroop company. The Israeli survivors only escaped under close air-cover from four [[Israeli Air Force|IAF]] aircraft. The Israelis suffered 18 killed and 68 wounded; 70–90 Jordanians were killed. In the aftermath, paratroop officers severely criticized Dayan for alleged tactical mistakes. It was the last time the IDF launched a reprisal raid at night.<ref>Morris, ''Border Wars''. pp. 397–399. "brigade-sized assault by paratroops with armour and artillery support".</ref>

As [[Israel Defense Forces]] [[Ramatkal|Chief of the General Staff]], Moshe Dayan personally commanded the Israeli forces fighting in the Sinai during the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]]. It was during his tenure as Chief of the General Staff that Dayan delivered his [[Death and eulogy of Roi Rotberg|famous eulogy of Ro'i Rutenberg]], a young Israeli resident of Kibbutz [[Nahal Oz]], killed by Egyptian soldiers who ambushed the kibbutz, in 1956. Dayan's words became famous quickly and has served as one of the most influential speeches in Israeli history since. In forceful terms, Dayan condemned the killing and said,
: "Early yesterday morning Roi was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him, at the edge of the furrow. Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate. It is not among the [[Arabs]] in [[Gaza City|Gaza]], but in our own midst that we must seek Roi's blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate, and see, in all its brutality, the destiny of our generation? Have we forgotten that this group of young people dwelling at Nahal Oz is bearing the heavy gates of Gaza on its shoulders? Beyond the furrow of the border, a sea of hatred and desire for revenge is swelling, awaiting the day when serenity will dull our path, for the day when we will heed the ambassadors of malevolent hypocrisy who call upon us to lay down our arms. Roi's blood is crying out to us and only to us from his torn body. Although we have sworn a thousandfold that our blood shall not flow in vain, yesterday again we were tempted, we listened, we believed.
: We will make our reckoning with ourselves today; we are a generation that settles the land and without the steel helmet and the cannon's maw, we will not be able to plant a tree and build a home. Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken. This is the fate of our generation. This is our life's choice – to be prepared and armed, strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down. The young Roi who left Tel Aviv to build his home at the gates of Gaza to be a wall for us was blinded by the light in his heart and he did not see the flash of the sword. The yearning for peace deafened his ears and he did not hear the voice of murder waiting in ambush. The gates of Gaza weighed too heavily on his shoulders and overcame him."<ref>{{cite book |last= Shapira |first= Anita |title= Israel: A History |page= 271 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Nh9okmg63ssC&q=%22nahal+oz%22++%22Moshe+dayan%22+++yearning+for+peace&pg=PA271 |access-date= 23 September 2014 |isbn= 9781611683530 |year= 2012}}</ref>

==Political career==
{{Socialism in Israel|People}}
In 1959, a year after he retired from the IDF, Dayan joined [[Mapai]], the Israeli [[centre-left]] party, then led by [[David Ben-Gurion]]. Until 1964, he was the [[Agriculture Minister of Israel|Minister of Agriculture]]. In 1965, Dayan joined with the group of Ben-Gurion loyalists who defected from Mapai to form [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]]. Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]] disliked Dayan. When tensions began to rise in early 1967, however, Eshkol appointed the charismatic and popular Dayan defence minister to raise public morale and bring Rafi into a unity government.

Despite his military background, Dayan advocated for the integration of the Palestinian Arabs in an eventual [[One-state solution]].<ref name="mosheint">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/28/archives/you-have-to-know-the-arabs-to-like-them-and-i-like-them-an.html |title=Moshe Dayan Discusses His Plan for a Transition to Real Peace and Why 'a Cucumber Is a Cucumber' |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230125011054/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/28/archives/you-have-to-know-the-arabs-to-like-them-and-i-like-them-an.html |date=28 October 1979 |archive-date=25 January 2023 |work=[[NY Times]]}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2024}}

===1967 Six-Day War===
[[File:Dan Hadani collection (990044326670205171).jpg|thumb|Moshe Dayan in [[South Vietnam]], 1967]]
Moshe Dayan was covering the [[Vietnam War]] to observe modern warfare up close after he left political life. Moreover, he was on patrol as an observer with members of the [[United States Marine Corps|US Marine Corps]]. Although Dayan did not take part in most of the planning before the [[Six-Day War]] of June 1967, he personally oversaw the capture of East Jerusalem during the 5–7 June fighting.<ref>{{cite video
 | year =1960
 | title =Video: Cease-Fire. Uneasy Truce In Mid-East, 1967/06/13 (1967)
 | url =https://archive.org/details/1967-06-13_Cease-Fire
 | publisher =[[Universal Newsreel]]
 | access-date =22 February 2012
}}</ref> During the years following the war, Dayan enjoyed enormous popularity in Israel and was widely viewed as a potential Prime Minister. At this time, Dayan was the leader of the hawkish camp within the Labor government, opposing a return to anything like Israel's pre-1967 borders. He once said that he preferred [[Sharm-al-Sheikh]] (an Egyptian town on the southern edge of the [[Sinai Peninsula]] overlooking Israel's shipping lane to the [[Red Sea]] via the [[Gulf of Aqaba]]) without peace, to peace without Sharm-al-Sheikh. He modified these views later in his career and played an important role in the eventual peace agreement between Israel and [[Egypt]].

Dayan's contention was denied by Muky Tsur, a longtime leader of the United Kibbutz Movement who said "For sure there were discussions about going up the Golan Heights or not going up the Golan Heights, but the discussions were about security for the kibbutzim in Galilee," he said. "I think that Dayan himself didn't want to go to the Golan Heights. This is something we've known for many years. But no kibbutz got any land from conquering the Golan Heights. People who went there went on their own. It's cynicism to say the kibbutzim wanted land."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/051197golan-dayan.html | work=The New York Times | title=General's Words Shed a New Light on the Golan | date=12 January 2000}}</ref>

About Dayan's comments, Israeli ambassador to the United States [[Michael Oren]] has said<ref>[https://www.jpost.com/israel/q-and-a-with-michael-oren 5 Jun. 2007] Q&A with [[Michael Oren]]</ref>
<blockquote>There is an element of truth to Dayan's claim, but it is important to note that Israel regarded the de-militarized zones in the north as part of their sovereign territory and reserved the right to cultivate them—a right that the Syrians consistently resisted with force. Syria also worked to benefit from the Jordan river before it flowed into Israel, aiming to get use of it as a water source; Syria also actively supported Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel. Israel occasionally exploited incidents in the de-militarized zones to strike at the Syrian water diversion project and to punish the Syrians for their support of terror. Dayan's remarks must also be taken in context of the fact that he was a member of the opposition at the time. His attitude toward the Syrians changed dramatically once he became defense minister. Indeed, on June 8, 1967, Dayan bypassed both the Prime Minister and the Chief of the General Staff in ordering the Israeli army to attack and capture the Golan.</blockquote>

====USS ''Liberty'' incident====
During the [[Six-Day War]], [[Israeli Defense Forces|Israeli aerial and naval forces]] [[USS Liberty incident|attacked the USS ''Liberty'' spy ship]] as she was on patrol in international waters in the eastern [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/israel-attacks-uss-liberty | title=Israel attacks USS ''Liberty'' | date=9 February 2010 }}</ref> 34 Americans were killed and 174 were wounded in the attack. Israel's official explanation was that the attack was a case of "mistaken identity", but this remains disputed.

Many ''Liberty'' survivors and their supporters maintain that Dayan personally ordered the attack, and this is supported by a [[CIA]] report on the attack.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=72cI13uPqGMC | title=The Attack on the ''Liberty'': The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship | isbn=9781439166055 | last1=Scott | first1=James | date=2 June 2009 | publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://stationhypo.com/2021/08/08/uss-liberty-lawsuit-reveals-us-govt-withholding-hundreds-of-pages-about-deadly-1967-israeli-attack-guest-post/ | title=USS Liberty Lawsuit Reveals US Gov't. Withholding Hundreds of Pages about Deadly 1967 Israeli Attack (Guest Post) | work=Station HYPO | date=8 August 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d516 | title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XIX, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967 – Office of the Historian }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2017/june/commentary-remember-liberty|title=Commentary – Remember the Liberty &#124; Proceedings – June 2017 Vol. 143/6/1,372|date=June 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wrmea.org/2005-august/washingtons-fateful-cover-up-of-israels-attack-on-the-uss-liberty.html | title=Washington's Fateful Cover-Up of Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty | date=27 August 2005 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/uss-liberty-cia-report-dayan-personally-ordered-the-attack-39469/ | title=USS Liberty: CIA Report "Dayan Personally Ordered the Attack" | date=July 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140604-remember-the-uss-liberty-the-us-and-israel-wish-you-didn-t/ | title=Remember the USS Liberty? The US and Israel wish you didn't | date=4 June 2014 }}</ref>

One of the prevailing theories for the motivation for the attack is that the Israelis wished to keep secret their pending invasion of the [[Golan Heights]], and they feared that the [[signals intelligence]] collection ship might have collected intelligence about the pending invasion.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WGQSAAAAYAAJ | title=Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American Intelligence Ship | isbn=9780394505121 | last1=Ennes | first1=James M. | date= 1979 | publisher=Random House }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hemingway |first=Al |title=Israel's Assault on the USS Liberty |url=https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/israels-assault-on-the-uss-liberty/ |access-date=21 September 2025 |website=Warfare History Network}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.fauquier.com/news/fauquier-man-seeks-truth-of-attack-on-uss-liberty-50-years-ago/article_0b2f85f8-34d4-11e7-8a4c-3be94cbba260.html | title=Fauquier man seeks truth of attack on USS ''Liberty'' 50 years ago | date=10 May 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=MOSHE DAYAN AND THE ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES SHIP LIBERTY |url=https://www.usslibertydocuments.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/moshe-dayan-and-the-attack-on-the-united-states-ship5.pdf |access-date=19 October 2025 |website=usslibertydocuments.info}}</ref>

===1973 Yom Kippur War===
[[File:President Nixon with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan - NARA - 194702.tif|thumb|Moshe Dayan with President [[Richard Nixon]] (1970)]]
After [[Golda Meir]] became prime minister in 1969 following the death of [[Levi Eshkol]], Dayan remained defense minister.

He was still in that post when the [[Yom Kippur War]] began catastrophically for Israel on 6 October 1973. As the highest-ranking official responsible for military planning, Dayan may bear part of the responsibility for the Israeli leadership having missed the signs for the upcoming war.<ref name=blum>Blum, H: ''The Eve of Destruction'', Harper Collins Publishers, 2003</ref> In the hours preceding the war, Dayan chose not to order a full mobilization or a preemptive strike against the Egyptians and Syrians.<ref name=blum/> He assumed that Israel would be able to win easily even if the Arabs attacked and, more importantly, did not want Israel to appear as the aggressor, as it would have undoubtedly cost it the invaluable support of the United States (who would later mount a massive airlift to rearm Israel).

[[File:Menachem Begin and Moshe Dayan exits from an aircraft.JPEG|150px|thumb|Moshe Dayan and [[Menachem Begin]], [[Andrews Air Force Base]], [[Maryland]] (1978)]]
Following the heavy defeats of the first two days, Dayan's views changed radically; he was close to announcing 'the downfall of the "[[The Third Temple|Third]] [[Temple in Jerusalem|Temple]]"' at a news conference, but was forbidden to speak by Meir.

Dayan suggested options at the beginning of the war, including a plan to withdraw to the Mitleh Mountains in Sinai and a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights to carry the battle over the Jordan, abandoning the core strategic principles of [[Israel Defense Forces#Doctrine|Israeli war doctrine]], which says that war must be taken into enemy territory as soon as possible. Chief of the General Staff [[David Elazar]] objected to these plans and was proved correct. Israel broke through the Egyptian lines on the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] front, crossed the [[Suez canal]], and encircled the 3rd Egyptian Army. Israel also counterattacked on the Syrian front, repelling the Jordanian and Iraqi expeditionary forces and shelling the outskirts of [[Damascus]]. Although the war ended with an Israeli victory, the Arab attack destroyed Israel's image of invincibility and eventually led to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and the subsequent withdrawal of Israeli forces from all Egyptian territory.

===Foreign minister===
[[File:Boutros Boutros-Ghali et Moshe Dayan Strasbourg 10 octobre 1979.jpg|thumbnail|left|[[Boutros Boutros-Ghali]] and Moshe Dayan at [[Council of Europe]] in [[Strasbourg]], October 1979.]]

According to those who knew him, the war deeply depressed Dayan. He went into political eclipse for a time. In 1977, despite having been [[1977 Israeli legislative election|re-elected to the Knesset]] for the [[Alignment (political party)|Alignment]], he accepted the offer to become Foreign Minister in the new [[Likud]] government led by [[Menachem Begin]]. He was expelled from the Alignment, and as a result, sat as an independent MK. As foreign minister in Begin's government, he was instrumental in drawing up the [[Camp David Accords]], a peace agreement with Egypt. Dayan resigned his post in October 1979, because of a disagreement with Begin over whether the Palestinian territories were an internal Israeli matter (the Camp David treaty included provisions for future negotiations with the Palestinians; Begin, who did not like the idea, did not put Dayan in charge of the negotiating team). In 1981, he founded a new party, [[Telem (political party)|Telem]].<!-- Restore the references that have been deleted -->

==Personal life and family==
[[File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - MOSHE DAYAN AND HIS WIFE RUTH WITH ONE OF THE HABIMA ACTORS.jpg|thumb|Ruth and Moshe Dayan with a Habima actor, 1953]]
[[Ruth Dayan]], his first wife, divorced Moshe in 1971 after 36 years of marriage due to his numerous extramarital affairs. In the Israeli best-selling book that followed the divorce, ''Or Did I Dream the Dream?'', Ruth Dayan wrote a chapter about "Moshe's bad taste in women".<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,910563,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414135504/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,910563,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=14 April 2008 | magazine=Time | title=ISRAEL: Life with Moshe | date=26 February 1973}}</ref> In 1973, two years after the divorce, Dayan married Rachel Korem in a simple ceremony performed by Rabbi Mordechai Piron, IDF chief chaplain, at the Pirons' home. The wedding was not announced in advance and Piron had to recruit neighbors to complete a minyan (the 10-man quorum required for a religious ceremony). Dayan humorously told well-wishers that he had no trouble getting a marriage license. "She is divorced and I am divorced. I am no [[Kohen|Cohen]] (priest) and no mamzer (bastard) so there was no trouble." Neither Dayan's daughter and two sons nor Korem's two daughters attended.<ref>JTA, 28 June 1973 [https://www.jta.org/1973/06/28/archive/dayan-surprise-wedding-neighbors-recruited-for-minyan#ixzz3CpPwQJVz Dayan Surprise Wedding Neighbors Recruited]</ref> When he died, Dayan left almost his entire estate to his second wife, Rachel. {{Citation needed|date = September 2016}}

Moshe's and Ruth's daughter, [[Yael Dayan]], a novelist, is best known in Israel for her book, ''My Father, His Daughter'', about her relationship with her father.<ref>Dayan, Yael. ''My Father, His Daughter'', [[Hachette (publisher)|Littlehampton Book Services]], 1986, {{ISBN|978-0-297-78922-2}}</ref> She followed him into politics and was a member of several Israeli left-wing parties over the years. She served in the [[Knesset]] and on the [[Tel Aviv]] City Council, and was a [[Tel Aviv-Yafo]] deputy mayor, responsible for social services. One of his sons, [[Assi Dayan]], was an actor and a movie director.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/news/israeli-actor-director-assi-dayan-suffers-severe-heart-attack-1.3990 "Israeli actor director Assi Dayan suffers severe heart attack"] ''[[Ha'aretz]]'', 17 November 2009</ref> Another son, novelist Ehud Dayan, who was cut out of his father's will, wrote a book critical of his father months after he died, mocking his military, writing, and political skills, calling him a philanderer, and accusing him of greed. In his book, Ehud accused his father even of making money from his battle with cancer. He also lamented having recited [[Kaddish]] for his father "three times too often for a man who never observed half the [[Ten Commandments]]".<ref>''[[Anchorage Daily News]]'': 26 May 1982. "Dayan denounced by eldest son".</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/28/nyregion/notes-on-people-moshe-dayan-s-son-dismisses-father-s-talents.html "Son dismisses father's talents"] ''[[The New York Times]]'', 28 May 1982</ref>

===Disability===
In the years immediately following his eye injury, the disability caused him some psychological pain.<ref>Cited by Katzberg, 1988</ref> Dayan wrote in his autobiography: "I reflected with considerable misgivings on my future as a cripple without a skill, trade, or profession to provide for my family." He added that he was "ready to make any effort and stand any suffering, if only I could get rid of my black eyepatch. The attention it drew was intolerable to me. I preferred to shut myself up at home, doing anything, rather than encounter the reactions of people wherever I went."<ref>{{Cite news|date=27 July 2015|title=Letters describing Dayan losing his eye to be auctioned|work=[[Times of Israel]]|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/letters-describing-dayan-losing-eye-to-be-auctioned/|access-date=24 January 2021}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Keverdayan1.jpg|thumb|250px|Dayan's grave in the [[Nahalal Cemetery]] ]]
The [[Telem (political party)|Telem]] party won two seats in the [[1981 Israeli legislative election|1981 elections]], but Dayan died shortly thereafter, in [[Tel Aviv]], from a massive heart attack. He had been in ill-health since 1980, after he was diagnosed with [[colon cancer]] later that year. He is buried in [[Nahalal]] in the ''moshav'' (a collective village) where he was raised. Following his death, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi [[Menachem M. Schneerson]], arranged that the yearlong memorial service of [[kaddish]] be recited in honor of Dayan.<ref>''"Rebbe"'', Telushkin, Joseph. HarperCollins 2014, p. 135</ref> Dayan bequeathed his personal belongings to his bodyguard. In 2005, his eye patch was offered for sale on [[eBay]] with a starting bid of US$75,000.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4714385.stm |work=BBC News | title=Moshe Dayan's eye patch on sale | date=25 July 2005}}</ref>

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. [[Ariel Sharon]] noted about Dayan:

<blockquote>
He would wake up with a hundred ideas. Of them ninety-five were dangerous; three more had to be rejected; the remaining two, however, were brilliant.

He had courage amounting to insanity, as well as displays of a lack of responsibility. I would not say the same about his civil courage. Once Ben Gurion had asked me—what do I think of the decision to appoint Dayan as the Minister of Agriculture in his government. I said that it is important that Dayan sits in every government because of his brilliant mind—but never as prime minister. Ben Gurion asked: "why not as prime minister?". I replied then: "because he does not accept responsibility".<ref>Landau, E. (6 September 2002). "Libya is becoming the first country to attain weapons of mass destruction". ''Tel Aviv'', pp. 45–51</ref>
</blockquote>

In 1969, during an address to the students at Technion University in Haifa, Dayan regretted the fact that students are unfamiliar with the Arab villages that once inhabited the land:<ref>{{Cite journal |last=נוימן |first=בעז |date=1 October 2001 |title=משה דיין, הכיבוש הנאור והתודעה |journal=פנים – תרבות חברה וחינוך |volume=18}}</ref> "We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing... a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country we bought the lands from the Arabs. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul, Gevat – in the place of Jibta, Sarid – in the place of Haneifs and Kefar Yehoshua – in the place of Tell Shaman. There is no one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Said |first1=Edward |title=The Question of Palestine |date=1992 |publisher=New York: Vintage Books |isbn=9780099967804}}</ref>

Dayan combined a [[kibbutz]]nik's secular identity and pragmatism with a deep love and appreciation for the [[Hebrew Bible]],<ref>The following citation gives an example for his combination of these different views: "'there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few'. (1 Sam. 14:6) ... The Lord can save even with a few, but these few need strong arms and legs". (Dayan, Moshe (1978) ''Living with the Bible''. [[Weidenfeld %26 Nicolson]]. {{ISBN|0-297-77528-6}}. p. 157.)</ref> the [[Jewish people]] and the [[land of Israel]]—but not an orthodox religious identification. In one recollection, having seen [[rabbi]]s flocking on the [[Temple Mount]] shortly after Jerusalem was captured in 1967, he asked, "What is this? The Vatican?" Dayan later ordered to give administrative control of the [[Temple Mount]] over to the [[Waqf]], a Muslim council.<ref>{{cite web |title=Israel caught in a trap of its own making |url=https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israel-caught-in-a-trap-of-its-own-making-500838 |website=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=26 July 2017 |access-date=2 September 2023 |issn=0792-822X}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Religious Israelis divided on the Temple Mount |url=https://thecjn.ca/news/international/cover-story-religious-israelis-divided-temple-mount/ |website=The Canadian Jewish News |access-date=2 September 2023 |date=17 November 2014}}</ref>

[[File:-7000 Horvat Duma Mask 01 Tahunian Culture Israel Museum Jerusalem anagoria.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] [https://www.imj.org.il/en/collections/334459 Mask, acquired by Dayan from ''Hirbat Duma''], presently in [[Israel Museum]]]]

Dayan was an author and described himself as an amateur [[Archeology|archaeologist]], the latter hobby leading to significant controversy, as his amassing of historical artifacts, often with the help of his soldiers, seemed to be in breach of a number of laws. [[Yigael Yadin]] remarked after one incident: "I know who did it, and I am not going to say who it is, but if I catch him, I'll poke out his other eye, too." Some of his activities in this regard, whether illegal digging, looting of sites, or commerce of antiquities, have been detailed by Raz Kletter from the [[Israel Antiquities Authority]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jhsonline.org/Articles/article_27.pdf |title=A Very General Archaeologist—Moshe Dayan and Israeli Archaeology|access-date=2 December 2013 |archive-date=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203023326/http://www.jhsonline.org/Articles/article_27.pdf |url-status=dead |last1=Kletter|first1=Raz|journal=The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures|doi=10.5508/jhs.2002.v4.a5|volume=4|date=31 December 2003}}</ref> Following Dayan's death his widow sold his collection of antiquities to the [[Israel Museum]] for US$1&nbsp;million. This prompted debate about the ethics of purchasing illegally acquired antiquities.<ref>{{cite news |last=Friedman |first=Thomas L. |title=Dayan legacy prompts dispute on antiquities |date=14 May 1986 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/425878000 |id={{ProQuest|425878000}} |via=[[Proquest]]}}</ref>

American science-fiction writer [[Poul Anderson]] published his novel ''[[Dominic Flandry|Ensign Flandry]]'' at the time when Moshe Dayan's international renown and admiration for him in Israel were at their highest. The far-future Galactic Empire described in the book includes a planet called "Dayan", inhabited by Jews.

==Awards and decorations==
{| style="margin:1em auto;"
|[[File:Independence war ribbon.svg|105px]]
|[[File:Sinai war ribbon.svg|105px]]
|[[File:Legion Honneur GO ribbon.svg|105px]]
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
|-
|{{center|[[1948 Arab-Israeli War|War of Independence]] Ribbon}}
|{{center|[[Suez Crisis|Operation Kadesh]] Ribbon}}
|{{center|[[Legion of Honour]] (Grand Officer)}}
|}

==Published works==
* ''Diary of the Sinai Campaign'', 1967 (paperback reprint: [[Da Capo Press]],  1991, {{ISBN|978-0-306-80451-9}})
* ''Living with the Bible: A Warrior's Relationship with the Land of His Forebears'', [[Steimatzky|Steimatzky's Agency Ltd]], 1978, {{ASIN|B0021OXHOO1978}}
* ''Story of My Life'', [[William Morrow and Company]], 1976, {{ISBN|978-0-688-03076-6}}
* ''Breakthrough: A Personal Account of the Egypt-Israel Peace Negotiations'', [[Random House]],  1981, {{ISBN|978-0-394-51225-9}}
* ''Mapah Hadasha – Yehassim Acherim'' (''A New Map – A Different Relationship''), 1968/1969.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
* {{cite journal |last1=Talmon-Heller |first1=Daniella |last2=Kedar |first2=B. Z. |author-link2=Benjamin Z. Kedar |last3=Reiter |first3=Y. |author-link3=Yitzhak Reiter |title=Vicissitudes of a Holy Place: Construction, Destruction and Commemoration of Mashhad Ḥusayn in Ascalon |journal=Der Islam |volume=93 |issue=1 |date=January 2016 |issn=1613-0928 |doi=10.1515/islam-2016-0008 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301537484}}

==Further reading==
* Bar-On, Mordechai. ''Moshe Dayan: Israel's Controversial Hero'' (Yale University Press; 2012) 247 pages
* Lau-Lavie, Napthali. ''Moshe Dayan – A Biography'', [[Dodd Mead]], 1969, {{ISBN|978-0-396-05976-9}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.britishpathe.com/video/moshe-dayan/query/moshe Interview with Moshe Dayan in 1972]
* [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171012092850/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript/six-day-war-ben-gurion-dayan David Ben-Gurion Letter on Moshe Dayan's Appointment as Minister of Defense] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* {{MKlink|id=688}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060823023027/http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/Articles/article_27.pdf "A Very General Archaeologist – Moshe Dayan and Israeli Archaeology"] by Raz Kletter, ''[[Journal of Hebrew Scriptures]]'', Canada, 2003, 4.5

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