Immediately after his death was announced, TV stations hurried to publicize it as if the deceased had been an important political leader or a widely influential rabbi. “Assi Dayan has passed away” heralded the broadcasters in somber tones, their faces reflecting deep sadness. The reports of his death opened the news broadcasts, shunting aside important topics such as the crisis in the talks with the Palestinians and “price-tag” attacks by Jewish extremists against Arabs. Afterward, the TV stations screened excerpts of films that he directed or acted in, and interviews in which he detailed his depressions and quirks, his hospitalizations in psychiatric wards and suicide attempts. The Israeli filmmaker’s life story was brought out in its entirety, without cutting out chapters in his stormy life. Above all, Dayan's heartrending longing for the love of his father, Moshe Dayan, was exposed again and again.
In his own way and in complete contradistinction to his father, Assi Dayan was transformed into a mythological figure. Moshe Dayan, Israel’s defense minister in the Six Day War, symbolized a new, self-confident Israeliness. With his eye patch and military uniform, Moshe Dayan orchestrated Israel’s war victory — its greatest victory to this very day. Through his self-confidence, he mapped out the power of the young State of Israel — and, to an equal degree, the heights of its own arrogance. He was viewed as a war hero by many people in Israel and around the world. Out of all the figures of Israel’s founding generation, Dayan was the one who was transformed into a legend.
