1949 – His IDF service
In November 1949, Yitzhak Rabin was appointed Commander of the School for Battalion Commanders. Many of the participants in the first Battalion Commanders course had served in the Palmach, and Rabin convinced them to continue to serve in command positions in the IDF, thereby preserving the spirit of the Palmach and its values. Rabin’s success in this position paved the way for his promotion in the IDF.
At the beginning of 1951, he was appointed Chief of Operations Department, a branch of the General Headquarters. During this period, he stood out as an outstanding figure, familiar with every detail in the many fields he handled, and he became a senior partner in the work of designing the IDF defense doctrine.
As a candidate for senior command positions, in November 1952, Rabin was sent to the Staff College of the British Royal Military Academy. In 1953, shortly after his return to Israel, he was appointed by the new Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, as Chief of the Training Department. In this position, he combined the experience he had gained in the Palmach and the British army, establishing the IDF training infrastructure. He was one of the founders of the Command and Staff School [known in Hebrew by its acronym, PoM], and he set new standards for educating commanders.
In 1956, he was appointed General Officer in Command of the Northern Command, and was responsible, among other things for fortification of Israeli control of the demilitarized territories between Israel and Syria, for protection of Israeli fishing freedom in the Sea of Galilee, and for defending the towns and settlements subject to shelling. During the Sinai Campaign, he remained in the north and prepared the forces under his command for the possibility of the opening of another front.
In January 1958, when Haim Laskov was nominated Chief of Staff and Tzvi Tzur as his deputy, Rabin felt that his promotion had been impeded, and planned to finally proceed with his studies, but that was not how things evolved. In April 1959, by mistake, the names of units called to participate in a military exercise were broadcasted on the radio. The announcement caused a public panic in Israel and an emergency military draft in Egypt and Syria. Following this blunder, which came to be known as “The Night of the Ducks,” the Chief of Operations was dismissed, and Rabin was appointed as his replacement.
During his term as Chief of the Operations Department, Rabin dealt with consolidating a comprehensive IDF combat doctrine suited to developments in the Middle East arena and to technological development, while expanding sources for equipping the IDF and purchasing advanced weapon systems. Likewise, he took the lead in conducting multi-corps maneuvers. He was active in all areas of routine defense: on the northern front in the war over the water against Syria, and on the southern front against offensive initiatives by the Egyptian army. As part of his aim for rapid modernization of the IDF, the Computerization Department was established during his term, and the first computer was subsequently put into use by the IDF. At this time, he also promoted IDF relations with third world armies such as Ethiopia, Congo, and Iran.
In January 1961, with the appointment of Tzvi Tzur as Chief of Staff, Rabin was appointed, in addition to his position as Chief of Operations, as Deputy Chief of Staff. This appointment was a public expression of his senior status in the system and marked him as the next candidate for the position of Chief of Staff.
In June 1963, Levi Eshkol was elected Prime Minister, and in December of that year, the government approved the appointment of Rabin as Chief of Staff.
