Moshe Dayan

His legacy

Dayan was undoubtedly a very complicated and controversial individual; his opinions were never strictly black and white. He had few close friends; his mental brilliance and charismatic manner were often combined with cynicism and lack of restraint. Ariel Sharon noted about Dayan:

Related Topics:
Charisma - Ariel Sharon

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:He would wake up with a hundred ideas. Of them ninety-five were dangerous; three more were bad; the remaining two, however, were brilliant.

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Dayan combined a kibbutznik's secular identity and pragmaticism (reportedly, having seen rabbis flocking on the Temple Mount shortly after Jerusalem was captured in 1967, he asked "what is this Vatican?" then handed the keys to the Waqf, (the Muslim trust) with a deep sense of love and appreciation to Jewish legacy and the land of Israel, apparent in his writing.

Related Topics:
Rabbi - Temple Mount - Muslim - Land of Israel

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Dayan was also an author and an amateur archaeologist, leading to some controversy, as his amassing of historical artifacts, often with the help of his soldiers, broke a number of laws. Upon his death his extensive archeological collection was sold to the state.

Related Topics:
Author - Archaeologist

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His daughter, Yael Dayan is a novelist and followed him into politics as a member of several Israeli leftist parties over the years. She has served in the Knesset and on the Tel Aviv City Council.

Related Topics:
Yael Dayan - Knesset - Tel Aviv

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