Chief of Staff, Israel Defense Forces
"You don't make peace with friends. You make it with very unpleasant enemies."
Yitzhak Rabin was the military architect of the Six-Day War's victory and, decades later, the man who tried to build the peace that followed. As IDF Chief of Staff, he had spent years planning the pre-emptive air strike and coordinated ground assault. The weeks of waiting before the war, as Arab states threatened and massed forces, nearly broke him — he suffered a 24-hour incapacitation from what his physician called nicotine poisoning and stress before recovering. He had planned every detail of Operation Focus and the Sinai campaign meticulously. When the war ended in six days with all objectives achieved, he was the hero. He later served as Ambassador to the United States, Prime Minister twice, and Defense Minister. His second premiership produced the Oslo Accords — the first Israeli-Palestinian peace framework. He was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a Jewish extremist who opposed Oslo, as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv in November 1995.
Did you know?
Rabin suffered a near-breakdown from anxiety and nicotine poisoning on the eve of the Six-Day War — the stress of command, the weight of ordering a first strike that could go catastrophically wrong. He recovered in time to command the most successful Israeli military campaign in history. He later won the Nobel Peace Prize for the Oslo Accords and was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995.
June 5, 1967 · 450 total casualties
Operation Focus was one of the most decisive military strikes in history. Destroying Arab air power in the first hours gave Israel total air superiority for the entire six-day war. Every Israeli ground operation that followed was protected by aircraft while Arab columns were destroyed from the air. Without Focus, Israel would have faced a very different war.
June 5–8, 1967 · 15,000 total casualties
The Sinai battle destroyed Egypt's military credibility. Amer's panicked retreat order — made without Nasser's knowledge — transformed a fighting retreat into a catastrophe. Thousands of Egyptian soldiers died in the desert without water. The humiliation toppled Egypt's military leadership and ended any idea of Egypt as a regional military superpower.
June 5–7, 1967 · 1,800 total casualties
The capture of the Old City and the Western Wall was Israel's most emotionally charged moment of the war — the fulfillment of a 2,000-year longing. But it also created an unresolved problem: what to do with the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank. The occupation of the West Bank that began in 1967 became Israel's most enduring political and military challenge.
June 9–10, 1967 · 2,500 total casualties
The Golan Heights transformed Israel's strategic position — the high ground that had threatened northern Israel was now a buffer. But seizing territory from three neighbors in six days created the political problem that defines the Middle East today: what to do with occupied land and its inhabitants. UN Resolution 242, passed after the war, formed the basis of all subsequent peace negotiations.
March 1, 1922
🌅 Birth
Born in Jerusalem, British Mandate Palestine
1948
⚔️ Battle
Commanded Palmach forces in 1948 War of Independence
1964–1967
milestone
Served as IDF Chief of Staff; planned Six-Day War campaign
June 5, 1967
⚔️ Battle
Operation Focus launched at his order — 300 Arab planes destroyed in 3 hours
1968–1973
milestone
Served as Israeli Ambassador to the United States
September 1993
milestone
Signed Oslo Accords with Arafat on White House lawn
November 4, 1995
✝️ Death
Assassinated by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir at peace rally in Tel Aviv