vault backup: 2026-05-13 21:30:09

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Pinhas Lavon.md

@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
 ---
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
 tags:
   - Person
-  - Politics
+  - CIA
+  - Politician
   - Israel
+  - Military
+summary: "Pinhas Lavon was an Israeli politician who served as Defense Minister."
 ---
+
 Pinhas Lavon was an Israeli politician who served as Defense Minister. He was a more hard-line figure than [[Moshe Sharett]] on the Arab question. The [[Lavon Affair]] in mid-1954, involving an Israeli spy ring bombing American, British, and Egyptian targets, led to Lavon's resignation, which was accepted by Sharett, who had not known of the operation.[^1]
 
 Lavon later became head of the Histadrut, the powerful federation of labor unions in [[Israel]]. He was a central figure in a scandal that resurfaced in the early 1960s, where he charged that [[David Ben-Gurion]], [[Shimon Peres]], and [[Moshe Dayan]] had undermined civilian authority over the military. These allegations were leaked to the press, breaking two cardinal rules of Israeli politics: discussing defense matters publicly and failing to keep party disputes private. Although a cabinet-level committee cleared Lavon of authorizing the failed operation in [[Egypt]], [[David Ben-Gurion]] refused to exonerate him, leading to further political turmoil.[^1]