The Agranat Committee investigating the Yom Kippur War, recommended the dismissal of Chief of Staff Gen, David Elazar and other high ranking military officers but cleared Defense Minister Moshe Dayan in an interim report released late tonight. The five-man committee, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Shimon Agranat, held Elazar responsible for Israel’s lack of preparedness for the surprise Egyptian-Syrian attack last Oct. 6. It also recommended the dismissal of Gen. Eliahu Zeira, the intelligence chief and the suspension from active duty of Maj. Gen. Shmuel Gonen commander of the southern front when the war broke out.
The 35-page interim report cleared Dayan on grounds that he had acted on information given him by the Chief of Staff and the chief of intelligence. The report acknowledged that Elazar directed Israeli forces well, leading them to victory after the initial setbacks but found that Gonen mishandled the deployment of forces at the war’s outbreak and misjudged intelligence information he received. The report praised Premier Golda Meir for her decision to call up Israel’s full reserves despite Dayan’s recommendation of a partial mobilization for defense. Elazar resigned late tonight.
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