Moshe Dayan—whose signature eyepatch is depicted on this pin—was Israel’s Defence Minister during the Six-Day War in 1967 and Yom Kippur War in 1973.
In 1956, while he was chief of staff, he gave the eulogy for Roi Rotberg, who lived on Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza and was ambushed and killed while on security patrol.
Dayan said: “We will make our reckoning with ourselves today; we are a generation that settles the land and without the steel helmet and the cannon’s maw, we will not be able to plant a tree and build a home. Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken. This is the fate of our generation. This is our life’s choice – to be prepared and armed, strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down.”
Kibbutz Nahal Oz was also the site of a massacre by Hamas terrorists on Oct.7, 2023.
