Akademik

(1915-81)

   Born on 20 May 1915 in Kibbutz Dega-nia and grew up in Nahalal, Dayan was one of the first to join the Palmah when it was established on 18 May 1941 and served under Orde Wingate in his "night squads." From 1939 to 1941, Dayan was detained by the British in Acre but was released in order to take part in an Allied venture against the Vichy French in Syria in 1941. On 7 June 1941, Dayan headed a squad of Hagana members who joined the British in an operation that was intended to destroy bridges in Syria. During an assault on a police station, he lost his left eye. In July 1948, he was made the commanding officer of Jerusalem, while it was under siege. In that capacity, he took part in informal negotiations with King Abdullah of Jordan and later served as a member of the Israeli delegation to the armistice negotiations in Rhodes. Between 1950 and 1953, Dayan served as commander of the southern and northern commands of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and later head of the General Branch of Operations in the general staff. In December 1953, he was appointed chief of staff after a stormy cabinet defense committee meeting and with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's support. Dayan led the IDF during the Sinai War (1956) and was discharged from the IDF in January 1958. In November 1959, he was elected as a member of the Knesset on the Mapai list and became minister of agriculture in Ben-Gurion's government. In 1963, Ben-Gurion left Mapai over the Lavon Affair and established Rafi. After much hesitation, Dayan joined Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres (who served during this period as deputy defense minister). Nevertheless, he continued to serve as minister of agriculture under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. Dayan brought to Israeli agriculture methods of long-range planning and national allocation of such resources as water. He resigned from the cabinet on 4 November 1964, when Eshkol tried to prevent him from participating in the formulation of defense policy. In 1965, he was elected to the sixth Knesset on the Rafi ticket. Dayan went briefly to Vietnam to observe and write about the war.

   Just prior to the Six-Day War (1967), by popular demand, Eshkol was forced, against his expressed will, to appoint Dayan to the post of minister of defense. Although Dayan did not have time to change the IDF's operational plans, his position as minister of defense inspired the country with confidence and helped Eshkol to decide on a preemptive strike. After the war, Dayan supported the research and development functions of the Ministry of Defense as a means of replenishing the equipment and ammunition of the IDF, in light of the French arms embargo. He also initiated the open bridges policy across the Jordan River providing an infrastructure for coexistence between Israel and the Arabs. When Eshkol died suddenly in February 1969 and was succeeded by Golda Meir, Dayan remained as minister of defense. He was among those blamed by the public for the delay in the mobilization of Israel's reserve forces at the time of the Yom Kippur War (1973). Nevertheless, Dayan continued to serve under Meir's leadership after the elections of 31 December 1973.

   When Meir resigned in April 1974, however, new Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin did not include Dayan in the cabinet. Between 1974 and 1977, Dayan served as a member of the Knesset and was active in archaeological excavations. When Menachem Begin became prime minister after the May 1977 elections, Dayan joined the government as foreign minister and in that capacity played a crucial role in the negotiations that led to the Camp David Accords and the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. Dayan resigned in 1979 over differences of viewpoint and policy between himself and the prime minister in regard to autonomy negotiations for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On 4 April 1981, Dayan established a new political party, Telem, which had as one of its primary goals to support Dayan's proposals concerning the Occupied Territories. The party secured two mandates in the 1981 Knesset election. He died on 16 October 1981.