attempts to penetrate the area.) On October 5, the Egyptian Revolutionary Council met in secret session, without Nagib, and appointed Abd-el-Nasser Prime Minister of Egypt.
Eight days later the Israeli press published its first item on the impending resignation of Ben-Gurion; the same day a woman and two children were killed in an Israeli village. On October 15, a unit of the Israeli Army, in retaliation, attacked the Jordanian village of Kibieh, destroying forty houses, killing fifty people-men, women and children. The massacre shocked the world; it shocked the Israeli Government as well. The blame was laid on General Moshe Dayan, then number two man in the army. He had set up a special "Unit 101," for such retaliation raids. (Its leader was Arik Sharon, who became one of the outstanding commanders of both the Sinai campaign and the Six-Day War.) On December 6, Ben-Gurion resigned. His last act was to appoint Moshe Dayan as Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, thus insuring that the three key offices-those of Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff-were manned by three people-Sharett, Lavon and Dayan-who detested each other.
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Pinchas Lavon, who had suddenly become Minister of Defense, had no previous military experience. His reputation rested mainly on his brilliant polemic abilities. For years he had been considered a dove; now, overnight, he became the most hawkish of hawks, determined to outBen-Gurion Ben-Gurion in the apparent turbulence ahead.
In a speech on October 30, 1953, Lavon had deplored the existing Armistice Agreements, which he described as camouflage for Arab plans to destroy Israel. He added, "Israel sees itself as an integral part of the Free World. . . . The present crisis is caused by a profound change in the policy of the American administration to the detriment of Israel. We have long felt this, but now it is