David Elazar

LIEUTENANT GENERAL DAVID ELAZAR
OFFICIAL MEDAL 2007/5767
Third in the 11-Medal Chiefs of Staff of the Israel Defense Force Series

David Elazar was born in 1925 in Yugoslavia and made Aliyah to Israel in 1941. In 1946, he joined the Palmach, army of the pre-State, and fought in the War of Independence. After the war, he remained in the army and was Commander of the Infantry Brigade in the Sinai War of 1956.

David Elazar was one of the founders of the Armored Corps and, in 1961, was appointed as its Commander. Between 1964-69, he served as Chief of the Northern Command. He oversaw the IDF movements on the Syrian border and the War for the Water, to prevent attempts to divert the Jordan River sources. In the Six-Day-War, he commanded the Forces that broke into the north of Samaria and those that captured the Golan Heights.

In 1972, he was appointed the ninth Chief of Staff of the IDF. Despite the surprise attack of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, David Elazar led the war firmly. The Syrians were driven back from the Golan Heights, and the IDF Forces came into artillery range of Damascus. On the Southern Front, the Egyptian Third Army was surrounded in Sinai and the Israeli troops occupied the western bank of the Suez Canal. In January 1974, Israel Chief of Staff David Elazar, together with his Egyptian counterpart, signed the Separation of Forces Agreement at Kilometer 101, that was a first step towards the Peace Treaty with Egypt.
Following the Agranat Commission's report, David Elazar resigned on April 2, 1974. In April, 1976, he died of a heart attack.

Obverse: On the medal face, the likeness of Lieutenant General David Elazar.

Reverse: “Chiefs of Staff of the Israel Defense Force”

Edge: Smooth

Designer: Igal Gabay