his strength and his weakness, his greatest advantage as well as his main limitation, the quality which makes him a superman in the eyes of his admirers, and a thoroughly disturbed personality in the eyes of his opponents.
Dayan has no contact with people. He has no close relationship, neither in his family circle nor within a social group. He hasn't a friend in the world. He has immense charm and can entice everyone, but he cannot relate to anyone. Even his daughter Yael notes, in writing of him, "When he is in a good mood, he is very charming, but he doesn't have enough patience to persevere until he gets results." Yael adds, in a woman's magazine article meant to glorify her father, "Most people bore him. Some of them immediately, others after half an hour." Psychologists might find this a serious symptom, an inability to become interested in other human beings. Many people are ready to see Dayan's open disdain of others as a sign of greatness. Throughout history, leaders often created around them an atmosphere of aloofness, on the assumption that familiarity breeds contempt. But Dayan's contempt for people is of such magnitude that it is a deterrent to the fulfillment of his ambitions; some of his most ardent followers became his enemies when he sacrificed them, without a second thought, for the sake of expediency.
He has never had around him an entourage, a crew of advisers and confidants. In truth, he heeds no advice, and certainly confides in no one, not because he is suspicious by nature, but because he respects no one and doesn't even try to mask his contempt. It is quite usual to see Dayan stand in one of the Knesset lobbies, a national leader talking to him as Dayan glances about with the utmost impatience, as if saying, "Stop it! You are talking nonsense!" He never sits in the Knesset hall for more than a quarter of an hour at a time, always impatiently, getting up in the middle of a speech, even by one of his associates -David Ben-Gurion or Shimon Peres-with a gesture that says, "How can one listen to this?" Thus it is impossible