ABSTRACT
General Yitzhak Rabin, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, wanted to be Israel’s next ambassador to the United States. Eshkol wanted to know if Rabin thought he could bear up under the strain of cocktail parties and the boredom of long dinners. Rabin was one of Israel’s most successful chiefs of staff, probably the most successful after Moshe Dayan. Rabin was born in British mandate Palestine, of Russian parents who came there at the end of World War I. Rabin’s friendships and political alliances were fully formed. Though he had no part in politics, his Haganah and Palmach background placed him in the mainstream of labor Zionism. Rabin’s talent and Ben-Gurion’s interest in his career continued to propel him upward. In 1955 Rabin became the commander of the northern front, and in 1959, after Dayan left the army, he became chief of the Operations Branch of the General Staff, the number two position in the Israeli army.
