CHAPTER 8
The man who played an ever-growing role in 1954, was directly responsible for the attack on Gaza and the following retaliation raids, led the army in the Sinai War, and emerged again on the eve of the recent war-after some years of comparative obscurity-is Moshe Dayan. It is worth studying the life and career of Dayan, not only because of his influence in Israeli politics, but even more because Dayan himself is a perfect product of Zionist history.
Dayan is a sabra, a native Palestinian, so called because, like the prickly pear, native Israelis are supposed to be thorny on the outside, sweet inside. Another legend has it that sabras are simple-minded, upright people, devoid of complexes; Dayan is usually considered just such a man. Nothing could be further from the truth-a more complicated personality can hardly be imagined. Moshe is a man of many contradictions.
His chief trademark, the black eyepatch which makes him easily recognizable, is in itself a symbol of contradiction. The black patch is a public relations man's dream. (American publicity experts, who used the black patch for a well-known and immensely successful advertising campaign for a brand of shirts, chose it because it automatically attracts attention.) In many newsreels of the June war, you saw a large group of officers entering the Lion's Gate of ancient Jerusalem, and you immediately and unconsciously focused on the black patch of the man in the middle. In the summer of 1967, whether his