Chaim Laskow

Chaim Laskow

Chaim Laskow ( Hebrew חיים לסקוב; born in 1919 in Baryssau (now Belarus ); died December 8, 1982 in Tel Aviv ) was an Israeli general and the fifth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces .

Early years

Laskow was born in the Belarusian city of Baryssau. In 1925 he and his family emigrated to what was then the League of Nations mandate in Palestine . The family settled in Haifa and lived in great poverty. His father was murdered by rebel Arabs in 1930.

Laskow joined the Hagana at an early age and served in various units, for example in the Special Night Squads command unit founded by Orde Wingate . Laskow acted as personal liaison officer for Yaakov Dori , who later became the first chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces. In 1940 he joined the British Army to take part in the war against National Socialist Germany . After he had held various positions within the British Army, he was assigned to the Jewish Brigade as an officer. As part of the Jewish Brigade, he took part in combat operations in Italy and was demobilized with the rank of major in 1945.

After the end of the Second World War , Laskow stayed in Europe and participated in the efforts of Aliyah Bet to facilitate illegal immigration to Palestine. He was also involved in various reprisals against National Socialists and their collaborators . After his return to Palestine, he rejoined the Haganah, while at the same time working in civil life as the head of the security service of an electricity company.

Military career in Israel

At the beginning of Israel's War of Independence in 1948, Laskow took on responsibility for creating the framework in which recruits should be trained. He organized the first officers course and formed a brigade from the graduates of this course , which was deployed during Operation Nachschon at Latrun. In May 1948 he returned to Latrun as commander of the first Israeli tank battalion, which was deployed there together with the 7th Brigade . During Operation Dekel , the conquest of Nazareth and the Lower Galilee , as well as Operation Hiram , the conquest of the rest of Galilee, he commanded the entire brigade. After the fighting was over, he returned to his previous role as a trainer with the rank of major general .

Although Laskow had never been a pilot, he was appointed Chief of the Israeli Air Force in 1951 . During his tenure, the purchase of the first jet fighter for the Israeli Air Force, the Gloster Meteor, fell . After his tenure, Laskow left the military and studied philosophy , economics and political science in Great Britain . There he received further military training.

In 1955 he returned to Israel and was appointed General Staff Officer and Deputy Chief of the General Staff. After a series of technical disputes with the Chief of the General Staff, Moshe Dajan , he was demoted to commander of the armored forces. In this capacity he was in command of the 77th Division , which was used on the Rafah el Arish - Kanatara Front during the Suez Crisis in 1956. After Asaph Simchoni , the commander of the South Command of the Israeli Armed Forces, was killed in a plane crash, Laskow was appointed his successor and in this capacity was responsible for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai Peninsula .

Chief of Staff

In 1958, at the age of only 39, Laskow was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces to succeed Moshe Dajan. His appointment came against the background of the unification of Egypt and Syria to the United Arab Republic on January 31 of the same year and the potential danger that this concentration of forces posed to the security of Israel. Just two months later, heavy artillery fire took place between Syrian and Israeli troops across the Sea of ​​Galilee . The clashes lasted for two days before a truce was finally agreed.

On April 24, 1958, Laskow led the great military parade in Jerusalem on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Israel's independence. The parade took place despite warnings from Jordan that it was an aggressive act. During the parade, Laskow displayed the latest military equipment from Israel, as well as material that had been captured from Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula and from Syria in the Hule Plains .

On November 6, Syria resumed artillery bombardment of the Galilee while Israeli workers were busy draining Lake Hules to gain more agricultural land. Under Laskow's command, the Israeli forces returned fire.

One of the biggest scandals during Laskow's tenure was the surprise exercise to mobilize the reserve on April 1, 1959. The radio-broadcast code word for the mobilization call was water bird , which is why the scandal that followed went down in history as the Night of the Ducks . The surprise was so complete that the whole country panicked and the armed forces of neighboring Arab countries were put on high alert. A committee of inquiry set up to find the cause assigned the responsibility for this fiasco to Major General Meir Zorea , a high-ranking general staff officer, and Yehoshafat Harkabi , the head of the military intelligence service . Both then resigned.

Tensions between Israel and Syria continued over the following months. On January 31, Israeli forces attacked the Syrian village of Twafik in the Golan Heights after Israeli allegations that the village had been used by Syrian forces to bombard Israeli villages in the Galilee. Three Israeli soldiers were killed during this military operation.

After a relatively peaceful term in office for Israeli terms, which had only been affected by firefights with Syria, Laskow resigned on January 1, 1961. During his tenure, he concentrated on strengthening the Israeli armed forces: the first submarine for the Israeli Navy was purchased under him, as well as a number of Super Mystère jets in France . Shortly before he passed, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion announced that Israel had built its first nuclear reactor near Dimona . However, this reactor is only for peaceful use.

civilian

In 1961 Laskow was appointed director general of the Israeli port authority. During his tenure, the port of Ashdod was developed and built. Today Ashdod is an important import and export port of Israel. He also continued to write military training manuals and published countless articles in military journals. In 1972 he became the first ombudsman in charge of the armed forces. He held this position for more than ten years until his death.

He was a member of the Agranate Investigation Committee that was set up after the Yom Kippur War to help clear up the errors and omissions that ultimately led to this war.

Web links

Commons : Chaim Laskow  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Chaim Laskow in the jewishvirtuallibrary (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://archive.jta.org/article/1982/12/09/2994861/haim-laskov-dead-at-63
2. ↑ https://books.google.de/books?id=YAd8efHdVzIC&pg=PA606&lpg=PA606&dq=Haim+Laskov+obituary&source=bl&ots=OUWp8Cr9eP&sig=PMaTvRvvQT9VhmzEITOEGsuHvJw&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi84u2v_szfAhUFKFAKHUjnAYw4ChDoATABegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=Haim%20Laskov%20obituary&f=false

predecessor	Office	successor
Schlomo Shamir	Commanders of the Israeli Air Force 1951–1953	Dan Tolkowskie

predecessor	Office	successor
Moshe Dayan	Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces 1958–1961	Tzvi Tzur