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Biography - Moshe Dayan: A Warrior's Story [VHS]

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That is the last line spoken by Leonard Nimoy who narrates this A&E profile on Moshe Dayan. This video chronicles Dayan's life in Eretz Israel. He was the first child born on a kibbutz at Nahalal. He defended his village from arab marauders when he was a teenager. He was trained as a soldier by the british man, general Orde Wingate. After his eye injury in Syria when he was fighting against the Vichy, pro-Nazi French during WWII, he became a protege of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister. One would think that Dayan's greatest achievement, the acme of his career was the swift and decisive victory, with very few Israeli casualties, of the six day war in 1967. However, Dayan says that the Yom Kippur War was really Israel's greatest victory. It was the last battle Dayan would oversee as Israel's defense minister and one for which he was much criticized by his own people. The Israeli's were not mobilized and faced far numerous forces; the Israelis were outnumbered 40:1 or 10:1 on the two fronts at the start of the fight. In reality they won. It was the Israelis' greatest victory, Dayan explains. He was tried along with other military leaders for negligence afterwards and cleared of blame. The Israelis were used to easy victories, he explains. Surely, their loss was great. This small country lost more than two thousand young men in the space of two short weeks, comparable to the loss America has faced so far in the space of two years. But the Israelis survived. Their survival was nothing short of miraculous. At the end of Dayan's life in 1977, he would sit at table with Sadat and Begin and Jimmy Carter at the first camp David peace accords. In this video, A&E commends Dayan for his role there that he was "a catalyst" for this first peace agreement between arabs and Israel. Dayan spoke arabic and had many arab friends. In his autobiography, The Story of My Life, Dayan speaks of a secure land line he shared with Abdullah Al-Tel in Jordan. Dayan believed this link between the two countries helped diffuse any potential disturbance between the Israelis and arabs. He was criticized in 1967 after the six day war for allowing arabs to freely travel between Israel and Jordan, however, I think it was possible because of the oversight of these two men and might not be the wisest alternative without the vigilance of both parties commited to keeping the peace which both Dayan and El-Tel had. Dayan's involvement with Begin at his life's end was truly a turn around from 1948 when they fought against each other at the end of Israel's war for independence. How Dayan explains this conflict is one of the most instructive points to be found in this documentary. He stood on the sands of the very beach where haganah, Ben Gurion's forces, had to fight the Irgun/Stern forces of Menachem Begin who were more militant than the haganah. Ben Gurion had ordered Dayan to do this and Dayan explains that it was the most difficult thing he had ever had to do to fight against his own people. How he explains this, is, in my opinion, one of the more salient points of this video. It was very heart wrenching for him to fight his own people who had suffered so much already, but he believed that Ben Gurion was right on this score that this mini-rebellion had to be stopped. This action by Ben Gurion reminds me of the unpopular move by Washington and Hamilton to send our army to quash Shay's rebellion shortly after our nation was founded.

I'm glad to have this video in my possession. I highly recommend it be seen. After my pilgrimage to Israel in 2000, I have been watching events in Israel more closely, have much to learn and read. The Israel-Arab Reader, recommended by one of my favorite Amazon friends, looks like a great one to read, unbiased, simply revealing the thoughts and words of everyone on all sides of this great divide. Moshe Dayan's outlook as an Israeli and a jew is unique. He did want peace in his country, and he made it his mission to understand the other side of these issues. But to be ready to fight, if they had to, was always a possibility for which they had to be prepared.

I enjoyed this video and will watch it over again several times. Because my questions are not 'who' or 'when' but more often 'how' and 'why', I enjoyed this video as it made a very complex history relevant as well as shedding light on Moshe Dayan's life and objectives. It definitely made food for thought!!