Editing Moshe Dayan (section)

===Chief of the General Staff===
[[File:General Moshe Dayan 1955.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Chief of the General Staff (Israel)|Chief of the General Staff]] Moshe Dayan inspecting the honor guard during a ceremony marking the end of officers course at [[Bahad 1]], January 1955]]
The year 1952 was a time of economic crisis for the new state. Faced with demands of a 20% cut in budget and the discharge of 6,000 IDF members, [[Yigael Yadin]] resigned as Chief of the General Staff in November 1952, and was replaced by [[Mordechai Maklef]]. In December 1952, Dayan was promoted to Chief of the Operations (G) Branch, the second most senior General Staff post.<ref>Teveth. pp. 225, 226.</ref> One of Dayan's actions in this post was to commence work on the canal diverting water from the River Jordan, September 1953.<ref>Green, Stephen (1984) ''Taking Sides – America's secret relations with militant Israel 1948/1967''. Faber and Faber. {{ISBN|0-571-13271-5}}. p. 86.</ref>

During 1953, Prime Minister and Defence Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] began to make preparations for his retirement. His choice for defence minister was [[Pinhas Lavon]], who became acting MoD in the autumn of 1953. Lavon and Maklef were unable to work together and Maklef resigned. Dayan was immediately appointed CoS on 7 December 1953.<ref>Teveth, ''Ben-Gurion's Spy.'' p. 66.</ref> This appointment was Ben-Gurion's last act as prime minister before his replacement by acting Prime Minister [[Moshe Sharett]].

On taking command, based on Ben-Gurion's three-year defence programme, Dayan carried out a major reorganisation of the Israeli army, which, among others, included:<ref>Lau-Levie, ''Moshe Dayan – A Biography'', p. 38.</ref>
* Strengthened combat units at the expense of the administrative "tail".
* Raising the Intelligence and Training Branches of the Israeli Army.
* Surrendering the activities of stores and procurement to the civilian Defence Ministry.
* Revamping the mobilisation scheme and ensuring earmarking for adequate equipment.
* Starting a military academy for officers of the rank of major and above.
* Emphasised strike forces (Air Force, Armour) and on training of commando battalions.
* Developed [[Gadna (Israel)|GADNA]], a youth wing for military training.

In May 1955, Dayan attended a meeting convened by Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion raised the issue of a possible invasion of Iraq into Syria, and how this could be used to bring about change in Lebanon. Dayan proposed that:
<blockquote>All that is required is to find an officer, even a captain would do, to win his heart or buy him with money to get him to agree to declare himself the savior of the Maronite population. Then the Israeli army will enter Lebanon, occupy the necessary territory, and create a Christian regime that will ally itself with Israel. The territory from the Litani southward will be totally annexed to Israel, and everything will fall into place.<ref>[https://www.cafetelaviv.de/israel/2011/11/23/moshe-dayan-angriff-plaene-libanon-ben-gurion-1955/#orig] Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall, quoted by CafeTelAviv</ref></blockquote>
Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, shocked by the officers' indifference to neighbouring Lebanon, turned down the plan as divorced from reality.