Moshe Dayan

Moshe Dayan

People|Leaders

Moshe Dayan was Israel’s one-eyed warrior-statesman, embodying both the daring and dilemmas of the Jewish state in its formative decades.

Born in 1915 on Kibbutz Degania Alef, Moshe Dayan grew up steeped in Zionist pioneering. He joined the Haganah at a young age and lost his left eye while fighting alongside British forces in Syria during World War II, gaining the eyepatch that became his signature.

As a military commander, Dayan played crucial roles in the 1948 War of Independence and the 1956 Sinai Campaign. But it was his leadership as Minister of Defense during the 1967 Six-Day War that cemented his status as a national icon. With terse charisma and a flair for press conferences, Dayan projected Israeli strength at a time when survival seemed uncertain.

However, his legacy is complicated. As Defense Minister during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Dayan was blamed for failing to anticipate the surprise Arab attack. The psychological blow to the Israeli public was deep, and Dayan’s mystique never fully recovered.

He later served as Foreign Minister under Menachem Begin and played a behind-the-scenes role in the Camp David Accords with Egypt. Dayan died in 1981, buried on Nahalal overlooking the Jezreel Valley.

A fierce realist, Dayan saw peace and war as intertwined tools of survival. He once remarked, “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”

https://nowlej.com/maps/002