1. David "Dado" Elazar was an Israeli senior military officer who was the ninth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, serving in that capacity from 1972 to 1974.
16 Facts About David Elazar
1. 2.
David Elazar was forced to resign in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War.
3.
David Elazar was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, to a family of Sephardic heritage.
4.
David Elazar emigrated to Palestine in 1940 with the Youth Aliyah program and settled on kibbutz Ein Shemer.
5.
David Elazar soon joined the Palmach and fought in many important battles during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, including the Battle of San Simon Monastery in Jerusalem.
6.
David Elazar served as deputy to the commander of the corps, Haim Bar Lev, who took over as commander of the armored corps in 1961.
7.
David Elazar remained in this position until 1964, when he was appointed Chief of the Northern Command, a position he held until 1969.
8.
The plane was shot down by the Israeli Air Force over the Sinai Peninsula under direct orders from David Elazar, killing over 100 civilians.
9.
David Elazar met with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan at 6 am and demanded full mobilization, a preemptive strike in Syria and photo flights using unmanned aircraft across the canal.
10.
At one point in the fighting, David Elazar was forced to replace the Chief of the Southern Command, Major General Shmuel Gonen with the former Chief of General Staff Haim Bar-Lev.
11.
David Elazar enlisted the help of generals Rehavam Zeevi and Aharon Yariv, both of whom had recently retired from the IDF, as his special advisers.
12.
David Elazar immediately submitted his resignation to the government, claiming that he had been mistreated, especially since the report suggested no sanctions against the country's political leadership, contending he had been wrongly blamed for matters that had been the responsibility of the government, particularly of Defense Minister Moshe Dayan.
13.
David Elazar complained that his actions during the war were never considered, noting that the report had held him responsible for the early failures of the war but did not give him credit for the subsequent recovery and counteroffensive which left Israel in an advantageous position at the war's end.
14.
David Elazar received widespread public sympathy, with many Israelis viewing him as a scapegoat.
15.
David Elazar, popularly known as "Dado," remains a controversial figure in Israel to this very day.
16.
The consensus today holds that David Elazar was an extremely capable war leader who kept his cool in a crisis situation and made the correct strategic decisions.