Moshe Dayan

An Israeli cannon artillery cannon opens fire from the Sinai Peninsula during the Yom Kippur War, on October 6, 1973. (Avraham Vered/Bamahane/Defense Ministry Archive)

October 7, 2019, 4:21 pm

Fearing shortages, Dayan mulled drafting young, old in 1973 war, papers show

Defense Ministry declassifies an intel report from the day before the Yom Kippur War, transcripts from IDF General Staff meetings, and a phone call that relieved a general of duty

By Judah Ari Gross

Tom Derek Bowden at Arnhem, Netherlands. (via UK Jewish News)

July 2, 2019, 10:41 pm

British soldier who founded IDF parachute school dies at 97

WWII veteran and ‘Machal’ volunteer Tom Derek Bowden was wounded in the same battle in which Moshe Dayan lost his eye

By TOI staff

Orde Wingate played a key role in creating Israel's military ethos. He was remembered in March 2012 at a ceremony in Jerusalem. (photo credit: Matti Friedman/Times of Israel)

March 23, 2019, 8:05 am

75 years after his death, why Orde Wingate remains a hero in Israel

Bible-toting, raw-onion-eating British officer killed in a plane crash in Burma on March 24, 1944, has been called the father of the Israel Defense Forces

By Hillel Kuttler

Amos Oz reading from one of his books in 2011. (photo credit: Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

December 31, 2018, 11:45 pm

In forgotten article after Six Day War, Amos Oz warned of ‘eternal annexation’

Recently returned from the battlefield, the writer, then 28, penned a bitter denunciation of Moshe Dayan’s settlement policies: ‘The shorter the occupation, the better for us’

By Mitch Ginsburg

Undated IDF Soccer competition (Courtesy of the archive of the IDF and Defense Ministry)

June 14, 2018, 9:23 am

Ben-Gurion after watching his first soccer game: ‘I won’t do that again’

In 1957, Israel’s founding father went to see an IDF team play and defeat a team from the French military in an Independence Day event. ‘Our goalie was wonderful,’ he declared

By TOI staff

The Israeli Navy's Dakar submarine, which sank in January 1968. (Defense Ministry's IDF Archives)

May 28, 2018, 5:02 pm

50 years after enigmatic sinking, Israel releases footage of search for lost sub

State archives distributes chilling recording of Moshe Dayan telling Dakar sailors’ families their loved ones were likely dead, designated missing

By Judah Ari Gross

An Israeli tank crosses the Suez Canal (Israel Defense Forces Archive)

September 29, 2017, 10:23 am

Reversal of fortune: How the IDF turned the Yom Kippur War around

In this excerpt from his newly updated book, Abraham Rabinovich shows how a plea for help from Syria’s Assad to Egypt’s Sadat opened the way to Israel’s crossing of the Suez Canal

By Abraham Rabinovich

Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz (right), slipping the general's rank on Pundak's left shoulder. (photo credit: IDF Spokesperson's blog)

August 27, 2017, 4:31 pm

Yitzhak Pundak, made a general at 100, dies at 104

The deceased officer requested burial at Kibbutz Nitzanim, whose sullied name he sought to redeem

By Judah Ari Gross

File: Waqf officials and others prepare to pray outside the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, rather than enter the compound via metal detectors set up by Israel following a terror attack, July 16, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

July 20, 2017, 6:52 pm

Amid Temple Mount tumult, the who, what and why of its Waqf rulers

Jordan lost control of Jerusalem in 1967, but is now at the heart of a crisis that threatens to plunge the city into violence

By Dov Lieber

Waqf officials lead Muslim prayers outside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City on July 16, 2017 after refusing to go through metal detector gates set up by Israeli police. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

July 18, 2017, 4:53 pm

On Temple Mount, Israel long since made its fundamental compromise

Op-ed: Rightly or wrongly, the Jewish state voluntarily gave up control of its holiest place 50 years ago; any tweak it makes now to try to prevent a new wave of violence is marginal by comparison

By David Horovitz

May 24, 2017, 1:36 pm

Elan Ezrachi

A surprise victory’s complex legacy

Jerusalem still bears the effects of fateful decisions made on the fly following its unplanned reunification

Then-prime minister Levi Eshkol, center, and future prime minister Menachem Begin, right, greet troops in the Sinai Peninsula following the Six Day War on June 13, 1967. (GPO)

May 18, 2017, 3:42 pm

After Six Day War, cabinet debated West Bank’s future – and Charles De Gaulle’s nose

National archives release transcripts from 1967 cabinet meetings, showing the intense discussions and petty squabbles before, after and during the conflict

By Judah Ari Gross

Moshe Dayan at the Temple Mount, June 7, 1967 (Ilan Bruner / GPO)

May 15, 2017, 12:38 am

Pre-Six Day War Israel gets its own Twitter account

Ahead of 50th anniversary of reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, Foreign Ministry project imagines what people then would have tweeted

By Stuart Winer

Golani Brigade Commander Ofek Buchris (L) seen during a visit Tel Hashomer army base on November 22, 2010. (Flash90)

July 24, 2016, 10:57 am

Name and photo of IDF general’s accuser leaked

Alleged victim to file police report over contravention of strict rules against releasing identity of complainants

By TOI staff

Moshe Dayan eulogizes Roi Rotberg, Kibbutz Nahal Oz, April 1956 (IDF archives)

April 28, 2016, 9:51 am

When Moshe Dayan delivered the defining speech of Zionism

60 years ago, as he eulogized a ‘thin blond lad’ named Roi Rotberg killed by Palestinian gunmen on the Gaza border, the IDF chief of staff wasn’t aiming to set out the Zionist ethos for generations. But that’s what he did

By Mitch Ginsburg