In almost all the years of Israel's existence, the heads of its military and other defense organizations were practically sacrosanct. Israel may be the only country in the world that is forced to fight for its very existence on a regular basis. Its people live under a long-standing state of siege, surrounded by enemies who would like to see them thrown into the sea. That is why Israelis are so aware that without a powerful Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the military's superiority in the air and top-notch intelligence agencies, the country wouldn't last a single day in this part of the world.

Ever since the state was first founded almost 70 years ago (1948), there has been a flourishing romance between Israel and its generals. The IDF's chief of staff was a consensus figure who almost always topped the popularity charts by an enormous margin. There was good reason that the position of chief of staff was considered to be a springboard to future political leadership. Two chiefs of staff, Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, went on to become prime minister. So did a major general — Ariel Sharon. At one point, Israelis knew the names of every general serving on the general staff, and flags with their pictures flew from the ramparts on Independence Day. Everybody knew their names.

While those days have long gone, even in the modern era, the IDF's generals and the heads and senior officials of the Shin Bet, the Mossad and other such organizations were the most popular people in Israel by an enormous margin.

The same is true about the various defense ministers. The position of defense minister was always considered the ultimate springboard to leadership, and anyone who held the office was at the top of every ranking of politicians by popularity. Israel's defense minister was usually someone with a heroic military past. He did not deal with mundane affairs. He would not dirty himself with politics. He did not deal with bureaucracy. Instead, the defense minister visited the various military bases and handed out ranks, usually in full battledress, sunglasses and a modicum of stardust. Even now, years after his death, and even after his pristine image was shattered by the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, with his black eyepatch, is still considered a mythological figure. He remains one of the most admired people from the young state's early days.