Editing Moshe Dayan (section)

===Jerusalem===
[[File:Dayan and el Tell PA-5737197.jpg|thumb|300x300px|[[Abdullah el-Tell]] and Moshe Dayan reach cease-fire agreement, Jerusalem, 30 November 1948]]
On 23 July 1948, on [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s insistence over General Staff opposition, Dayan was appointed military commander of Jewish-controlled areas of Jerusalem.<ref>''Story of my Life'' pp. 110, 106–111, 115–120, 122.</ref> In this post, he launched two military offensives. Both were night-time operations and both failed. On 17 August, he sent two companies to attempt to occupy the hillsides around [[East Talpiot|Government House]], but they retreated suffering casualties.<ref>Teveth. Pages 193,194.</ref> On the night of 20 October 1948, to coincide with the end of [[Operation Yoav]] further south, ''Operation Wine Press'' was launched. Its objective was to capture [[Bethlehem]] via [[Beit Jala]]. Six companies set out but were pinned down by machine-gun fire in the wadi below Beit Jala and were forced to withdraw.<ref>Teveth. pp. 197–199.</ref>

Following the 17 September 1948 assassination of Count [[Folke Bernadotte]], it was over 20 hours before he imposed a curfew over Jewish Jerusalem and began arresting members of [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], the underground organisation believed to be responsible. One reason for this delay was the need to bring loyal troops from [[Tel Aviv]] into the city.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Dov Yosef|last=Joseph|first=Dov|year=1960|title=The Faithful City. The siege of Jerusalem, 1948|publisher=Simon and Schuster|lccn=60-10976|oclc=266413|pages=306–307|url=https://archive.org/details/thefaithfulcity0000unse/page/306/mode/2up|url-access=registration}}</ref>

On 20 October 1948, Dayan commanded the 800-strong [[Etzioni Brigade]] during the ill-fated ''Operation Yeqev'', in which the objectives were to join the [[Harel Brigade]] in the capture of the mountain range overlooking [[Beit Jala]].<ref>Yad Tabenkin Archives (Tabenkin Memorial), Testimony of [[Aviva Rabinowitz]], 16-12/52/65</ref> The mission was called-off because of misguided navigation, and [[Ben Gurion]]'s fear of upsetting the Christian world at Israel's capture of Christian sites. A ceasefire went into effect on the 22nd of October.<ref>''Har’el: Palmach brigade in Jerusalem'', Zvi Dror (ed. Nathan Shoḥam), Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishers: Benei Barak 2005, p. 270 (Hebrew)</ref>

In the autumn of 1948, he was involved in negotiations with [[Abdullah el Tell]], the Jordanian military commander of East Jerusalem, over a lasting cease-fire for the Jerusalem area. In 1949, he had at least five face-to-face meetings with [[Abdullah I of Jordan|King Abdullah of Jordan]] over the Armistice Agreement and the search for a long-term peace agreement.<ref>''Story of My Life'', 16 and 30 Jan: p. 135; 19 and 23 March: p. 142; 17 December p. 144.</ref> Following a February 1949 incident, he was courtmartialed for disobeying an order from his superior, Major-General Zvi Ayalon OC Central Command. A military court found him guilty and briefly demoted him from lieutenant colonel to major. This did not prevent him from attending the armistice negotiations on [[Rhodes]]. On 29 June 1949, he was appointed head of all Israeli delegations to the [[1949 Armistice Agreements|Mixed Armistice Commission]] meetings. In September 1949, despite being involved in these negotiations, Dayan recommended to Ben-Gurion that the army should be used to open the road to Jerusalem and gain access to the [[Western Wall]] and [[Mount Scopus]].<ref>''Story of My Life'', p. 147.</ref><ref>Teveth. p. 208.</ref>