The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War
The geopolitical effects of the Six Day War, in 1967, have continued to exert immense power over both the Middle East and the wider world. So it is useful to be reminded that the war was fought over relatively small territories by generally young and inexperienced men on both sides. Pressfield has compiled an impressive collection of firsthand accounts by many men and women who took part in the war on the Israeli side. Some of these recollections are from professional soldiers who were veterans of the Israeli War of Independence or the 1956 Sinai campaign. But most interesting and poignant are the accounts by youthful citizen-soldiers who reveal their fears, hopes, and even their impatience with their political leaders as their nation moves toward war. Of course, this is a highly skewed collection, since we hear nothing from Egyptians, Syrians, or Palestinians. Still, this is an effective recounting of soldiers thrust, in a compressed time span, into life-and-death situations for themselves and their nation. --Jay Freeman