IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographer · CC BY-SA 3.0

Dayan lost an eye to a sniper's bullet in 1941, fighting Vichy French forces in Lebanon with the Haganah's Special Night Squads, and the black eyepatch he wore afterward made him instantly recognizable as Israel commanded the battlefield in three wars over three decades. He led the Jerusalem front in 1948, ran the military as chief of staff during the 1956 Sinai campaign, and served as defense minister during the 1967 Six-Day War. As defense minister again during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, he was blamed for Israel's lack of preparedness and resigned along with Golda Meir's government; four years later, as foreign minister under Menachem Begin, he helped negotiate the peace treaty with Egypt.