Dayan, Moshe

Dayan, Moshe (mō`shə dīän`, däyän`), 1915–81, Israeli military leader, b. Palestine. After attending Senior Agricultural School in Nahalal, Dayan fought with the Haganah (Jewish militia) throughout the 1930s and with the British Army during World War II. He lost an eye in battle in 1941, necessitating the eye patch that became his trademark. As Israel's chief of staff (1953–58), he established a reputation as a military strategist by directing the 1956 Sinai campaign against Egypt. Dayan then served as minister of agriculture (1959–64). Appointed minister of defense in 1967, his reputation was enhanced by Israel's military success in the Six-Day War (1967). Despite his increasing influence in foreign affairs, he was blamed for Israel's unpreparedness in the 1973 October War and resigned (May, 1974) with Golda Meir. In 1977 Dayan became foreign minister under Menachem Begin and was largely responsible for successful negotiations that led to the Camp David accords with Egypt.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1976); account by his daughter Yael Dayan, My Father, His Daughter (1985).

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Dayan, Moshe

(born May 20, 1915, Deganya, Palestine—died Oct. 16, 1981, Tel Aviv–Yafo, Israel) Israeli soldier and statesman. Born of Russian parents in Israel's first kibbutz, he became a guerrilla fighter against Arab raiders during the period of the British mandate. Although jailed briefly by the British for his involvement with the Hagana organization, he lost an eye fighting alongside British forces in Syria during World War II (1939–45). He was a commander in the Israeli army during the first Arab-Israel war (1948–49). He was army chief of staff during the Suez Crisis (1956) and later agriculture minister (1959–64). He was appointed defense minister just before the Six-Day War (1967), and the Israeli victory brought him widespread adulation; he served until 1974. He joined the Likud party government as foreign minister when it came into power in 1977 and helped broker the 1978 Camp David Accords.