The Lion’s Gate

by Steven Pressfield

  I was leaning over a news-stand at the time. The owner, reaching for my journal, suddenly went rigid at the sound of the voice. His eyes widened, staring right past me, and he uttered a surprised, “Ah, they’ve called me up too!”

  He stacked his papers and left. Across the street a salesgirl was leaving her store. She stopped a moment in the doorway, her head tilted; then she buttoned her jacket, closed her handbag firmly, and went off. The butcher next door whipped off his apron, pulled down the shutters, and departed. On a nearby lawn stood a group of men huddled round a transistor-radio. With the announcement of a code name, one of them would slip away, then another, then a third, silently, like a bundle of twigs that had fallen apart. Coming towards me was a girl, high heels clacking on the pavement. She, too, was suddenly caught by the voice, and pulled up abruptly. She listened, then turned about, and left. A silence like no other silence enveloped the city.

  I have seen cities in moments of destiny. I have seen nations going off to war. I have seen men marching to the blare of ear-shattering loudspeakers. I have seen them crowding the railway stations, embraced by weeping wives and distraught mothers. And I have seen them parading through the streets, receiving the kisses of women standing at the wayside . . .

  But never, never have I seen a city rising to its duties in such silence, nor seen a nation go forth into fateful battle so hushed, grim, committed. This is how they went in Nathania and Kiriat Shmoneh, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Beersheba. And these were my people, my people whom I knew not.

  Abba Kovner, “After These Things”

  IN GRATITUDE

  In my experience, the writing of a book is characterized by two qualities. One, the experience is solitary. Two, the research is scholarly. It is book-based.

  The Lion’s Gate was exactly the opposite.

  The process of writing this book was massively collaborative. And despite monumental amounts of reading, the subject matter was absorbed almost entirely through face-to-face conversation and personal contact—interviews (some that went on for days), lunches and dinners, shared expeditions, drives, treks, events, and so forth.

  First thanks to David Mamet, who invited me for Shabbat dinner in the summer of 2011 and introduced me to Lou Lenart, Israel’s first air force hero, who became the beacon and godfather of this book and to whom it is dedicated.

  Lou put me in touch with legendary fighter pilot and retired general Ran Ronen in Israel, who in turn introduced me to IAF lieutenant colonel Danny Grossman, who became my mentor and rabbi, spirit guide and consigliere (more about Danny later).

  Big-time thanks, as always, to my peerless editor/agent/partner and friend Shawn Coyne, who has been irreplaceable at every juncture of this project from conception to “Lock the text.” Thanks, pard!

  Thanks beyond words to Kate Snow, who lived and died with the construction of this ark, cubit by cubit.

  Thanks to Randall Wallace for keeping my heart brave at more than one critical juncture.

  Profound gratitude to Rabbi Mordechai Finley of Ohr HaTorah Synagogue in Los Angeles, my mentor in all things biblical and Judaic.

  To Christy Henspetter, who designed and drew the maps, and to Jasmine Quinsier for her superb computer graphics.

  Thanks, too, to Adrian Zackheim and Niki Papadopoulos for their faith in me and belief in this material, and to Kary Perez, who put this book together, shot by shot.

  My gratitude to every man and woman, veterans and participants in the Six Day War (and the photographers who recorded it), who sat down with me and patiently answered my questions, who took me around Israel, who translated and tutored and coached and instructed. I’m indebted to all who agreed to appear in this book. The contributions of those who, alas, were not included were in many ways equally indispensable:

  Jacob Agassi, Boaz Amitai, Micha Bar-Am, Zeev Barkai, Itzik Barnoach, Morele Bar-On, Danny Baror, Michael Bar-Zohar, Michal Ben-Gal, Joel Bernstein, Shimon “Katcha” Cahaner, Denis Cameron, Eitan Campbell, Eliezer “Cheetah” Cohen and Ela Cohen, Amir Cohen, Ruth Dayan, Uzi Dayan, Yael Dayan, Uzi Eilat, Shlomo Gazit, Roni Gilo, Raanan Gissin, Coleman “Collie” Goldstein, Yoel Gorodish, Yerah Halperin, Motty Havakuk, Shai Hermesh, Sharona Justman, Avigdor Kahalani, Zvi “Kantor” Kanor, Aliza Klainman, Haim Koren, Eli Landau, Arnon Levushin, Gary Littwin, Dana Lustig, Neora Matalon-Barnoach, Danny Matt, Moshe Milo, Nataniel at Givat HaTochMoshet, Ori Orr, Moshe Peled, Yossi Peled, Shirley Reuveni, Benny Ron, Gary Rubenstein, David Rubinger, Jakob “Kobe” Segal, Meir Shalit, Danny Shapira, Avremale Shechter, Menahem Shmul, Menachem Shoval, Zalman Shoval, Smoky Simon, Rafi Sivron, Nancy Spielberg, Dubi Tevet, Bentzi Tal, Matan Vilnai, Aharon Yadlin, Yonni Yaari, Yoram Zamosh, Dan Ziv, and Zvi in the City of David.

  Thanks to Michael Kovner, for his gracious permission to quote from his father Abba Kovner’s “After These Things” in this book’s postscript.

  Special thanks to Maya Eshet, who translated Neora Matalon-Barnoach’s A Good Spot on the Side from Hebrew to English for me.

  Yosi Ben-Hanan spent five days with me and Danny Grossman in Paris, not only providing tremendous detail and insight into the 7th Armored Brigade’s operations in Sinai but also contributing numerous photos of his own from that campaign, many of which have never been published.

  Raanan Gissin, a paratroop battalion commander and former spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, spent two days with me in Los Angeles and two more in Israel. His family used to run a stagecoach line. I am indebted to Raanan for his insights, both into the character and history of Ariel Sharon—his youth, his war years, and his legacy—and into the frame of mind and the life of the early pioneers of Palestine.

  Rachel Nir (Mrs. Lou Lenart) happened to be watching Tel Aviv Channel 10 one evening when she became engrossed in a documentary titled We Looked Death in the Eye . . . about the experiences of the Reconnaissance Company of the 7th Armored Brigade in the Sinai Peninsula during the ’67 War. Rachel contacted the film’s producer (and a platoon commander of that outfit), Eli Rikovitz, then put me and Eli in touch. Thank you, Rachel!

  Eli spent days with me, taking me to Gaza, to the Golan Heights, to training facilities of the contemporary Reconnaissance Company of the 7th Armored Brigade. Eli took me to places I had never heard of and to parts of Israel that I didn’t know existed. With endless patience he sat with me, detailing the exploits and tragedies experienced by him and his comrades. Eli introduced me to veterans of that company—the first to reach the Suez Canal—which suffered more casualties and were awarded more decorations for valor than any other unit of comparable size in the IDF.

  My gratitude as well to veterans and relatives of this formation whom I did not get to interview but whose words and stories, documented in the film, appear in this book: Gabi Gazit, Tani Geva, Bat Sheva Hofert, Itzhak Kissilov, Zvika Kornblit, Nehama Nissenbaum, Moshe Perry, Moti Shoval, and Moki Yishby. My thanks to Eli’s wife, Ruthy, as well.

  Giora and Miriam Romm extended the warmest hospitality to me at their home in Savyon, at social events and air force functions, and at their weekend place at Adamit on the Lebanese border. And Giora taught me about the Death Burst, which has proved indispensable in the writing of this book.

  Thanks likewise to Uzi and Naomi Eilam, who opened their home to me more than once. Uzi, the commanding officer of Paratroop Battalion 71, and his friend and fellow veteran Benny Ron took me to Jerusalem and walked me, step by step, along the route that they and the paratroopers of Battalion 71 took in their liberation of the Old City.

  Yoram Zamosh, commander of Company “A” of that battalion, along with his comrades Moshe Milo (my tutor and advocate in many researches and negotiations) and Avremale Shechter, escorted me along the track through the Lion’s Gate, onto the Temple Mount, and to the Western Wall, as they had done as paratroopers on June 7, 1967. Phyllis Gil-Ad assisted as our biblical and historical guide.

  The process of researching an
d writing this book took three years. For a significant portion of that time, Danny Grossman and I were inseparable.

  When I arrived in Israel I had in mind the concept and structure of this book. I knew that I wanted to interview the first paratroopers to reach the Western Wall, the first armored corps troopers to get to the Suez Canal, and a number of Mirage pilots who flew in the first wave of Operation Moked. I knew, too, that I wanted to speak to as many individuals as possible who could shed light on the actions and character of Moshe Dayan.

  Danny Grossman helped bring that vision into reality. Danny not only set up every interview and accompanied me upon them, he also influenced the book by his suggestions and selections of whom to interview. He took me to Masada; he took me four times to the Western Wall. My first evening in Israel, Danny drove me to a hilltop above his home in Kochav Yair. From that vantage, whose elevation was no taller than a five-story building, we could look east across a modest patch of pastureland to the ’67 Jordanian border. Turning west, we could see with ease the Mediterranean coast and the illuminated sky above Tel Aviv.

  You didn’t have to be an artilleryman to understand what this meant.

  When the first draft of this book was finished, Danny’s work with me had just begun. He was the one who took the pages back to each participant (except those of the 7th Brigade’s Recon Company; Eli Rikovitz took charge of that) and went over the text with him or her to be certain that the details and facts were straight, or as straight as we could get them. He worked with me for hours preparing these pages, before we exposed them to the interviewees, to make certain that my version of events was true not only to the facts as conveyed by the person interviewed but, perhaps more important, to the tone and intent, to the context and nuance.

  Through Danny I began to see that Israeli pilots and tankers and paratroopers are not simply Americans who happen to speak Hebrew. They are Israelis, who think, speak, and act differently than we Yanks. Danny, who is an American who made his career in the USAF, then emigrated to Israel and flew for another twenty years in the IAF (winning a medal for valor in a beyond-the-border operation that is classified to this day), exposed me to the subtleties (and not-such-subtleties) to which my GI Joe ears were often tone-deaf.

  I told Danny when we first met that his Long Island accent and his sense of humor reminded me of my cousin Bill. Two and a half years later, we finished closer than brothers.

  Thanks, Danny (and Lisa and Orli and Nili and Kivi and Ariella and Yonatan), for service above and beyond the call of duty. This book could not have been done without you.

  THE FALLEN AND THE DECORATED OF THE RECONNAISSANCE COMPANY OF THE 7TH ARMORED BRIGADE

  KILLED IN ACTION

  Yoram Abolnik

  Avi David

  Lieutenant Yossi Elgamis

  Sergeant Haim Fenikel

  Eliyahu Goshen

  Lieutenant Shaul Groag

  Eliahu Joseph

  Lieutenant Shlomo Kenigsbuch

  Shmuel “Borvil” Hacham

  Ben-Zion Nissenbaum

  Michael Polak

  Chen Rosenberg

  Yaakov Yaakovi

  Lieutenant Yaakov Yarkoni

  Ben-Zion Zur

  Mordechai “Max” Zvili

  DECORATIONS FOR VALOR

  Itur HaOz (Medal of Courage)

  Sergeant Haim Fenikel (posthumously)

  Itur HaMofet (Medal of Distinguished Service)

  Lieutenant Amos Ayalon

  Sergeant Shmuel Beilis

  Lieutenant Shaul Groag (posthumously)

  Sergeant Major Haim Lavi

  Moshe Perry

  Lieutenant Eli Rikovitz

  Lieutenant Yaakov Yarkoni (posthumously)

  Moshe “Moki” Yishby

  Uri Zand

  Photo by Micha Bar-Am.

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