Haim Bar-Lev

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Haim "Kidoni" Bar-Lev

Haim "Kidoni" Bar-Lev (Hebrew: חיים בר-לב‎), (November 16, 1924 - May 7, 1994) was a military officer during Israel's pre-state and early statehood eras.

He was born Haim Brotzlewsky in Vienna, Austria in 1924. Between 1942 through 1948, Bar-Lev served in various Jewish self-defense units (such as the Palmach) in the British Mandate of Palestine. He became both a pilot and a parachutist, which would later serve him in developing both of these military branches in the young Israel Defense Forces.

In 1946 Bar-Lev blew up the Allenby Bridge near Jericho to prevent Arab militiamen in Trans-Jordan from entering Jewish towns west of the Jordan River.

During Israel's War of Independence in 1948, Bar-Lev was a colonel and commander of the Eighth Battalion (Mechanized) in the Negev Brigade, which fought in the northern Sinai.
During the 1956 Suez War, Col. Bar-Lev commanded the 27th Armoured Brigade, which captured the Gaza Strip, before turning southwest and reaching the Suez Canal.
By 1962 he was the commanding officer of the Northern Command. Later, he became of Director of Operations within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

During the June 1967 Six-Day War he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff in the IDF. In late 1968 he accepted Maj. Gen. Adan's proposal that a high sand-dune wall be built along the east bank of the Suez Canal to prevent the Egyptian military from observing Israeli defenses along the Suez Canal. Behind the sand-dune a line of fixed fortifications was constructed. This became known as the Bar-Lev Line.

Between 1968-1971, Bar-Lev served as IDF's Chief of General Staff, which made him the highest-ranking military officer.

During the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, although retired from the army and serving as the Israeli Minister of Trade and Industry, he was recalled by Prime Minister Golda Meir back into military service to replace Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen as chief of the Southern Command, which defended the Sinai. Bar-Lev played a pivotal role in the war. Before his appointment the Southern front was in disarray to the point of near total collapse and Gonen was proving unable to effectively control the situation. Bar-Lev immediately took charge and worked towards stabilizing the front. His political and negotiating skills also proved instrumental in controlling his field generals who were feuding amongst themselves since each had their own notions, sometimes competing ones, regarding how the war in the South should be carried out. The effect that Bar-Lev's arrival had on the chaotic Southern command headquarters was described by Gorodish's deputy, Uri Ben-Ari, in tesimony (translated from Hebrew) to the Israeli military's historical department:

Bar-Lev brought calmness on all of us. Finally there was a feeling that we had a real commander in charge. This feeling spread between us and later also in the battlefield radios like fire. Bar-Lev also managed to calm Gorodish down. Prior to his arrival, general staff meetings were one loud shout out of Gorodish's mouth. Bar Lev instituted orderly working routines. No one challenged his authority. The country owes much to him. "Dovaleh" went back to being a real war-room, a departmentalized one. No one [who did not belong there] was allowed entry. Serenity descended on the war room. The general staff officers switched to carrying out their tasks in well organized shifts. Even Arik [Sharon’s] tone of voice changed when Bar Lev arrived.

Once the front was stablized Bar-Lev directed Maj.Gen. Adan to go on the offensive and initiate Adan's plan for an invasion across the Suez Canal into Egyptian territory just north of the Great Bitter Lake. It was General Ariel Sharon who then undertook the successful "invasion of Egypt" when leading the Israeli army onto African soil for the first time in history and by doing so, completely encircled the entire Egyptian Third Army whose fate was now entirely in Israel's hands, a fact which accelerated the Arabs' request for a cease-fire.

Bar-Lev remained Minister of Trade and Industry until the Labour government was defeated and replaced by the Likud under the leadership of Menachem Begin in 1977. From 1977 to 1984 he served as General Secretary of the party and as a Member of the Knesset. When the Israeli Labor Party formed a national unity government from 1984 to 1990 Bar-Lev served as Minister of Police and as a member of the "inner cabinet." He retired from the Knesset at the time of the 1992 elections. Between 1992-1994, during the second Rabin government Bar-Lev served in Moscow as Israel's Ambassador to Russia.

He died in Tel Aviv on May 7, 1994.