“For me, the most difficult thing was the loss of confidence. We, the commanders in the field, had plenty of confidence. We trained the forces well… There was an atmosphere of fear and anxiety in the public, and what bothered me and bothers me ever since was how a nation with such military might can suddenly lose its confidence about its ability to fight back and win, when war becomes inevitable. I didn’t know where this lack of confidence came from. To me it was very serious. We, the generals, sat with Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and made it very clear that we are capable of striking Egypt. We explained the danger that Israel was in and told him that not taking action right now would be a costly mistake. In the circumstances that Israel was in, there was no alternative but to go to war.”
– Ariel Sharon – written many years after the war [more…]
