Shmuel Gonen

Shmuel Gonen (né Gorodish; 1930-30 September 1991) was Chief of the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War. Image File history File links Gorodish. ... Image File history File links Gorodish. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... September 30 is the 273rd day of the year (274th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 92 days remaining. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (Hebrew: צבא ×”×”×’× ×” לישראל â–¶ (help· info) ([Army] Force for the Defense of Israel), often abbreviated צהל Tsahal, alternative English spelling Tzahal, is the name of Israels armed forces, comprising the Israeli army, Israeli air force and Israeli navy. ... Combatants Israel Egypt, Syria, (Jordan, Iraq) Commanders Moshe Dayan, David Elazar, Ariel Sharon, Shmuel Gonen Saad El Shazly, Ahmad Ismail Ali Strength 415,000 troops; 1,500 tanks, 3,000 armored carriers; 945 artillery units 100 mm and up; 561 airplanes, 84 helicopters; 38 battleships. ...

Early life

Born in Lithuania, Gonen immigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine with his family at the age of three. He served in the Haganah at fourteen, and participated in the battles over Jerusalem in Israel's War of Independence, being wounded five times. Map of the territory under the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Haganah Logo (1940s) The Haganah (Hebrew: The Defense, ההגנה) was a Jewish paramilitary organization in Palestine during the British mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948. ... Emblem of the Municipality of Jerusalem Jerusalem and the Old City. ... The 1948 Arab-Israeli War is referred to as the War of Independence (Hebrew: מלחמת העצמאות) or as the War of Liberation (Hebrew: מלחמת השחרור) by Israelis. ...

After the war, he remained in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), rising through the ranks of the Armored Corps. He commanded a tank company during the 1956 Sinai Campaign, and was awarded a medal for bravery. He was later charged with overseeing the integration of the new Centurion tank into the IDF, and later commanded the first battalion composed of these tanks. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (Hebrew: צבא ההגנה לישראל ▶ (help· info) ([Army] Force for the Defense of Israel), often abbreviated צהל Tsahal, alternative English spelling Tzahal, is the name of Israels armed forces, comprising the Israeli army, Israeli air force and Israeli navy. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Combatants Israel, France, United Kingdom Egypt Commanders Moshe Dayan (CoS of the IDF) General Sir Charles Keightley (C-in-C), Vice-Admiral Pierre Barjot (Deputy) Gamal Abdel Nasser Strength 45,000 British, 34,000 French, 175,000 Israeli 300,000 Egyptians Casualties 200 Israelis, 107 British, 43 French dead or... Centurion can mean: A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army. ...

In 1966, he was appointed commander of the 7th Brigade. It was in this capacity, during the Six-Day War, that he led his troops from the Rafah salient right up to the Suez Canal. After the war he delivered a famous speech, entitled "My Glorious Brothers, Deserving of Fame", which included the famous line: "We looked death straight in the face, and it lowered its eyes at us." 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... The 7th Brigade (Hebrew: Hativa Sheva) Israel’s most famous armored brigade, the 7th Brigade, had seen action in all of Israel’s wars. ... The Six-Day War (Hebrew: מלחמת ששת הימים transliteration: Milhemet Sheshet Hayamim), also known as the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Six Days War, or June War, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. ... Rafah (Arabic: رفح Hebrew: רפיח) is a town in the Gaza Strip, on the Egyptian border, and a nearby town on the Egyptian side of the border, on the Sinai Peninsula. ... 1881 drawing of the Suez Canal The Suez Canal (Arabic, Qanā al-Suways), west of the Sinai Peninsula, is a 163 km maritime canal in Egypt between Port Said (Būr Saīd) on the Mediterranean Sea and Suez (al-Suways) on the Red Sea. ...

Throughout his army years, Gonen was not well-liked by his subordinates, who viewed his methods as unjust and Draconian. He was known to set especially-low speed limits for the men of his brigade, only to flout these speed limits himself. It was also documented in a popular Israeli book "חשופים בצריח" ("Chasufim Batzariach", "Exposed in the Turret") that he would deliberately cause his men to fail inspections and then punish them for it. He was overly strict, often meting out severe punishment to soldiers accused of minor offenses such as failure to polish their boots. His subordinates often requested a transfer to a different unit.

In March, 1968, Gonen oversaw the failed offensive against the village of Karameh in Jordan , where Yasser Arafat and the PLO had their base. Nevertheless, he continued to rise through the ranks, and on 15 July 1973, he replaced Ariel Sharon as Chief of the Southern Command. 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Karameh was a big battle between the Elves and Dwarves of Middle Earth. ... Yasser Arafat (Arabic: ياسر عرفات‎) (August 4 or August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004), born Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (محمد عبد الرؤوف القدوة الحسيني) and also known by the kunya Abu `Ammar (أبو عمّار), was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (1969–2004); President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) (1993–2004); and a... The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Arabic Munazzamat al-Tahrir Filastiniyyah منظمة تحرير فلسطينية ) is a political and paramilitary organization of Palestinian Arabs dedicated to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state to consist of the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, with an intent to destroy Israel. ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... For more detail of Sharons recent illness, see Illnesses of Ariel Sharon; for an overview, see Health problems. ...

Yom Kippur War and Agranat Commission

Gonen's response to the Egyptian attack during the Yom Kippur War and his actions during the first days of fighting (culminating in the disaster attack on Hizayon on October 8) was deemed a failure by the army's General Staff, and he was replaced on 10 October by Chaim Bar-Lev. The Agranat Commission, which investigated the events leading up to the war, wrote about him that: Combatants Israel Egypt, Syria, (Jordan, Iraq) Commanders Moshe Dayan, David Elazar, Ariel Sharon, Shmuel Gonen Saad El Shazly, Ahmad Ismail Ali Strength 415,000 troops; 1,500 tanks, 3,000 armored carriers; 945 artillery units 100 mm and up; 561 airplanes, 84 helicopters; 38 battleships. ... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in Leap years). ... Chaim Kidoni Bar-Lev (November 16, 1924 - May 7, 1994) was a Jewish army officer during Israels pre-state and early statehood eras. ... The Agranat Commission was an official Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the circumstances leading to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. ...

He failed to fulfill his duties adequately, and bears much of the responsibility for the dangerous situation in which our troops were caught.

He was removed from all command upon the publication of the Commission's interim report, but this was revoked once the final report was released, and Gonen was given a new position on the General Staff. In both the media and public perception, however, he was considered responsible for many of the fiascos of the war.

Post-war

Gonen resigned from the IDF in 1974 and left for Africa, where he embarked on various business ventures. He never returned to Israel. 1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. ...

In writing of Gonen in his comprehensive book on the war, Abraham Rabinovich said of him: Abraham Rabinovich is a historian and journalist who has published several books on recent Jewish history. ...

The most tragic figure to emerge in the Israeli military hierarchy from the war was Shmuel Gonen. The ignominy of being superseded as commander on the southern front at the height of the war was compounded by his being forced to leave the army after the final Agranant Report. Although the Israeli establishment usually finds suitable jobs for retired generals, he was offered none. Gonen believed Dayan to be responsible for his disgrace and would tell reporters that he had considered walking into Dayan's office and shooting him.

Instead, he spent thirteen years in the jungles of the Central African Republic searching for diamonds with the intention, he said, of becoming wealthy enough to hire the best lawyers in Israel to prove the Agranant findings mistaken and clear his name. He reportedly made and lost one or two fortunes but rejected appeals by his family and friends to abandon his obsession. A reporter who visited him in the jungle after nine years found him somewhat mellowed, self-aware, and not without sardonic humor, and still sprinkling his conversation with apt quotes from the Talmud. The tough soldier appeared to find satisfaction in coping with the brutal challenges of the jungle rather than nursing his grievances in the cafes of Tel Aviv. Some would see it as a form of penance. He died of a heart attack in 1991 during one of his periodic trips to Europe. Among the few possessions returned to his family were maps of Sinai, on which he had apparently refought the war during his jungle exile, and a copy of Kabbalistic work in which the former yeshiva student may have sought explanations for the disaster that had overtaken him beyond what the maps could tell. (Rabinovich, The Yom Kippur War, p. 506)

In an interview with the Maariv daily newspaper on 7 August 2003, his personal assistant, Amir Porat, revealed that Gonen considered assassinating Moshe Dayan after the war, and that he lived in fear that he would somehow "disappear." Throughout his entire military career, he was considered to be a strict disciplinarian, a political right-winger, and even a militarist. Moshe Dayan ▶ (help· info) (Hebrew: משה דיין) (May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981), was an Israeli military leader and politician. ... The Talmud (תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories, which Jewish tradition considers authoritative. ... Tel-Aviv was founded on empty dunes north of the existing city of Jaffa. ... Penance is the actual name of the Catholic Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (also called Confession). ... A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kabbalah (Hebrew קַבָּלָה reception, Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah, Kaballah) is an interpretation (exegesis, hermeneutic) key, soul of the Torah (Hebrew Bible), or the religious mystical system of Judaism claiming an insight into divine nature. ... Yeshiva or yeshivah (Hebrew: ישיבה pl. ... Maariv (Hebrew evening) is a daily newspaper in Israel. ... August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Moshe Dayan ▶ (help· info) (Hebrew: משה דיין) (May 20, 1915 – October 16, 1981), was an Israeli military leader and politician. ...

His tragic life story was the subject of a play, Gorodish, by Israeli author Hillel Mittelpunkt.