to Israel, where he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Senior Staff Officer, however, after a series of professional disputes with Moshe Dayan, he was demoted to Commander of the Armored Corps. During the 1956 Sinai Campaign, he commanded the 77th Division, which operated on the Rafah–el-Arish–Kantara front. Upon the death of Asaf Simchoni, Chief of the Southern Command, in a plane crash, Laskov assumed his position, and oversaw the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai Peninsula. Chief of General Staff (1958–61) 1958 In 1958, Laskov was appointed Chief of General Staff, replacing Moshe Dayan. His appointment took place against the backdrop of the unification of Egypt and Syria as the United Arab Republic on January 31 of that year and the potential threat this posed to the security of Israel. Just two months later, on March 30, Israel and Syria exchanged heavy artillery fire across the Sea of Galilee. The clashes lasted for two days, until a ceasefire was finally achieved. On April 24, Laskov presided over a huge military parade in Jerusalem to mark the tenth anniversary of Israel's independence. This took place despite warnings by Jordan that such a parade would be considered an act of aggression. During the parade, Laskov displayed Israel's latest military hardware, including weapons captured from Egypt in the Sinai and from Syria during clashes in the Hula Valley. On November 6, Syria resumed its artillery bombardment of the Galilee, while Israeli workers were involved in a massive project draining Lake Huleh to obtain more agricultural land for the country. Under Laskov's orders, the IDF returned fire. 1959 One of the great scandals that occurred during Laskov's tenure, was a surprise exercise to test the mobilization of the reserves, on April 1, 1959. Known as the "Night of the Ducks" (one of the coded call-up signals broadcast over the radio was "Water Fowl"), the event caused panic throughout the country, and put the armies of the neighboring Arab states on high alert. A commission of inquiry which investigated the matter found Major General Meir Zorea, Senior Staff Officer, and Major General Yehoshafat Harkabi, Chief of Military Intelligence, responsible for the fiasco, and the two resigned their posts. 1960 Tensions between Israel and Syria continued over the following months. On January 31, Israel attacked the Syrian village of Tawfik, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, claiming that it had been used