Gen. David (“Dado”) Elazar’s posthumously published challenge to the Agranat Committee’s findings on the Yom Kippur War, continued to arouse comment in the press and among the public today. But members of the defunct Agranat panel are remaining silent on the issue. Former Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who Elazar contended should have shared the blame for Israel’s unpreparedness in Oct. 1973. said he had no objections to publication at this time of his full testimony before the Agranat Committee.
Much of what Dayan said was classified by the committee, to be released only after 30 years Elazar’s letter of April 1974. to Premier Yitzhak Rabin, claimed that the Defense Minister delayed calling up the reserves as the 1973 crisis escalated even though he was privy to far more intelligence information than the Chief of Staff, the office held by Elazar at the time.
The letter–or document–portions of which were published on the second anniversary of the war last fall, was released in full yesterday by Elazar’s family. The former Chief of Staff died last Thursday of a heart attack and was buried with full military honors Sunday. His document was published in full today in all Israeli newspapers.
Elazar’s letter was submitted to Rabin, Cabinet ministers and the Agranat Committee along with his resignation. He charged that the investigative panel was remiss in apportioning blame for Israel’s failure to mobilize in time to meet the Egyptian-Syrian attack. He said that while he accepted the responsibility that fell on the Chief of Staff, the Agranat Committee failed to take adequate note of the decisive roles of the Defense Minister and the then Premier Golda Meir.
Meanwhile, a public committee has been established to plan projects honoring the late General. A memorial rally will be held on the “shloshim,” the 30-day anniversary of his death. Another project is publication of a book on the history of Israel’s security forces which Elazar was researching at the time of his death but had not started to write. The book will be compiled from his collected material.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
