The paradox of Israel’s pursuit of might by Max Hastings
Guardian 9 May 2009
Extracted from one of the Leonard Stein lectures delivered by Max Hastings.
Forty years ago, I was enraptured by Israel’s courageous sense of mission. For me today, as for many, that idealism has palled
I first visited Israel in 1969. It was a time when much of the western world was still passionately enthused about the country’s triumph in the 1967 six-day war. President Nasser had for years promised to sweep the Israelis into the sea. Instead, the tiny Jewish state, less than 20 years old, had engaged the armies of three Arab nations, and crushingly defeated them all. The Israelis successively smashed through Nasser’s divisions on the western front, scaled and seized the Golan Heights, and snatched east Jerusalem and the West Bank in the face of Hussein’s highly capable Jordanian army. Sinai was left strewn with the boots of fleeing Egyptians. The Israeli victory was an awesome display of command boldness, operational competence and human endeavour…