Gen. Moshe Dayan relinquished his post as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Army in an impressive ceremony today at which his successor, Maj. Gen. Chaim Laskov was invested with his new command. The ceremony took place in the office of Premier David Ben Gurion, who is also Minister of Defense.
All the Brigadiers in the armed forces lined up along one wall facing the members of the Cabinet. Then Mr. Ben Gurion, flanked by Generals Dayan and Laskov walked into the room. First Mr. Ben Gurion read a letter praising the retiring Chief of Staff and hailing both his military achievements and his “uncommon political understanding and statesmanlike intelligence.”
Gen. Dayan then returned to the Premier the standard of Chief of Staff. Mr. Ben Gurion read the official order appointing Gen. Laskov and a brief personal statement. He then handed the Chief of Staff’s flag to Gen. Laskov.
In his first order of the day, the new Chief of Staff spoke of Israel’s “hope and aim” of peace. ‘The victories of the past,” he cautioned, “are no guarantee of victory in the future unless we keep In front of us the clear duty of greater preparedness and strength from every corps,” In every respect, “except in sheer numbers, we can preserve our superiority on condition that we are better trained,” he said.
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