BIBLE WITH SILVER BINDING Book printed by Sinai Publishing, Tel Aviv
Bezalel Academy
Finely decorated ...

BIBLE WITH SILVER BINDING Book printed by Sinai Publishing, Tel Aviv
Bezalel Academy
Finely decorated with the 12 tribes of Israel and Moses showing the Tables of the Law
Dedicated to Haïm Laskov, Chief of the Israeli General Staff
Jerusalem, 1958
H_13,5 cm W_10 cm D_3 cm
Weight : 456,5 gr. Gross
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL HAÏM LASKOV 5th Chief of Staff of the IDF (1958-1961)
Haïm Laskov (1919-1982) was born in the Russian city of Borisov in 1919.
At the age of six, he immigrated to Israel with his parents and other family members.
A youth marked by various British influences
Haïm Laskov became actively involved in the Haganah at the age of 16 and was considered the right-hand man of Yaakov Dori, who was then the Commander of the Haifa region and who would later become the very first Chief of Staff of the IDF. Later, Laskov served as a group commander and discovered his leadership skills, firmness, energy and persuasiveness.
One of the most exciting chapters in Laskov's life was his involvement in the "special night squads" alongside his friend, the British officer Charles Orde Wingate. Haïm Laskov was greatly influenced by Wingate's image both as a human being and as a commander.
In 1941, Laskov volunteered in the Jewish brigade of the British Army
fighting against the Axis powers. He became company commander of the second battalion and fought on the Mediterranean Sea front. During his service in the British Army, Haim Laskov was awarded the rank of "Major", the highest rank ever given to a volunteer from the land of Israel.
Return to Israel and decisive participation in the War of Independence
Upon his return to Israel, he took up the post of training officer in the
Haganah. He was responsible for the first training program for IDF officers.
When the War of Independence broke out, he held various command positions in different operations. Under the command of Major General David Marcus, commander of the Jerusalem front, he led the mechanized infantry battalion of the 7th Brigade, whose mission was to take control of the Latrun police station. At the end of the operation, General Marcus wrote: "The soldiers of the armored unit (under Laskov's command) were superb, while the infantry was one of our weak points".
He participated with his battalion in the operations "Dekel" and "Hiram", thanks to which the army managed to liberate Nazareth and the northern regions that were previously under full Arab control. Between 1948 and 1951, Laskov was the head of the IDF Training Branch and developed a model for the establishment of new armored and infantry units.
Gradual rise to the highest rank in the IDF
In 1951, Laskov was appointed Commander of the Air Force by the then Chief of Staff Yigal Yadin, even though he was not a pilot and despite his lack of experience in Israeli aviation. Yadin justified his decision by saying that Laskov was a commander of particularly high standards, that his discipline in wartime and in operations was unparalleled, and that he was in his opinion the most suitable to modernize the structure of the Air Force. In June 1956, he was appointed Commander of the Mechanized Armored Corps
.
During the Kadesh Operation (or the French-Israeli-British Sinai Operation of 1956), Laskov was appointed Commander of the 77th
Division, which fought along the Rafah - el-Arish - el Qantara axis. After the death of Major General Assaf Simhoni in a plane crash, Laskov became Commander of the Southern Region Command.
After the war, Moshe Dayan recognized that Laskov was right in the major conflict between them on how to involve the Armored Corps
Mechanized. This was the first time that the soldiers of this corps went out first, ahead of all other units of the ground forces.
On January 1, 1958, Haim Laskov was appointed the 5th Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Army. During his tenure, the borders remained calm despite a few incidents of shooting on the Syrian front due to the conflict over control of the demilitarized zones.
Haïm Laskov left a considerable legacy in the structure and development of the IDF, making the Armored Corps a major asset of the IDF.
Civilian Career On January 1, 1961, Laskov retired and served as the head of the
Port Authority Directorate from 1961 to 1970. In November 1972, he became the country's first Soldiers' Ombudsman, and did not leave this position until his death. He was also a member of the Agranat Commission which examined the course of events leading to