From friends and enemies, posthumous praise for Meir Dagan

Former and current security personnel and politicians rushed to eulogize and pay a final tribute to Dagan, who died on Thursday at the age of 71 after a battle with cancer. Even those he famously and publicly disagreed with lauded the former Mossad chief and IDF general as a courageous defender of the Jewish state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had a notoriously noxious relationship with Dagan, called him a “daring commander who contributed much to the country’s security during Israel’s wars, as counter-terrorism adviser and as head of the Mossad.”

To IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Dagan was a national figure and commander “whose life was interwoven with the chronicles of [Israel].”

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Dagan, who served as the head of IDF Operations, was “a friend and brother-in-arms whose presence will be dearly missed by us,” Eisenkot said in a statement.

A retired military general, Dagan served for 32 years as an IDF officer, reaching the rank of major general. He is credited with leading some of the IDF’s most daring missions, and served in the Six Day War, Yom Kippur War and First Lebanon War.

Former director of the Mossad, Meir Dagan, January 17, 2011. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Police chief Roni Alsheich knew Dagan as both a former commander in the IDF and later as a colleague, during Alsheich’s former career in the Shin Bet security service. “Maj.-Gen. (res.) Meir Dagan was a pillar in the defense of Israel,” Alsheich said.

“As someone who was lucky enough to serve under his command in the IDF (in a meaningful operation),” the current chief of police said, “I was privileged to see from up close his professional abilities, and no less important, his personality.”

Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet, described Dagan as someone “characterized by his unorthodoxy, originality of thought and unique braveness of heart.”

To Peri, now a member of Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Dagan was on the one hand a “fearless fighter,” while on the other, a “man who smiled a lot, a friend.”

Former minister of intelligence Yuval Steinitz, who reportedly agreed with Dagan’s opposition to a strike against Iran, said he was one of Israel’s “most illustrious warriors” and “one of the best, most talented and most daredevil heads of the Mossad.”

But former president Shimon Peres highlighted Dagan’s dedication to peace and diplomacy over war.

Former president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, November 2, 2015 (Flash90)

“Meir won both wars, both known and hidden, for the State of Israel,” Peres said. But he was an “intelligent statesman who knew that there was no military victory without a diplomatic victory.”

President Reuvin Rivlin, who is currently in Moscow for a state visit, hailed Dagan as “the greatest among giants.”

He was “a man of counsel, a man of wisdom, a loving man and a man beloved in his roughness, a leader and a man of the people,” Rivlin said.

Dagan is survived by his wife and three children.