52 E.g., one company of Harel Brigade is known to have had three women among 140 men; U. Ben Ari, Acharai [Follow Me] (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1994), p. 169 ff.
53 H. Avigdori-Avidav, Ba-derech She-halachnu: Mi-yomana shel Melavat Shayarot [The Road We Took: From the Diary of a Convoy-Escort] (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1988); Narkis, Chayal shel Yerushalayim, p. 78.
54 Figure from L. Tiger and J. Shepher, Women in the Kibbutz (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1975), p. 185. Here it should be added that in PALMACH as a whole women formed up to 20 percent of strength.
55 Kadish, La-meshek Ve-la-neshek, p. 238 ff.
56 The major categories were 3,200 secretaries and clerks, 1,360 cleaning ladies (the second largest category), 1,220 doctors and nurses, 730 communicators, 600 food-service workers, 600 telephone operators, and 480 commanders and instructors. Z. Ostfeld, Tsava Nolad: Shlavim Ikariyim Bi-bniyat Ha-tsava Be-hanhagato shel Ben Gurion [An Army Is Born: Main Stages in the Buildup of the Army Under the Leadership of Ben Gurion] (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1993), vol. 2, p. 819.
57 Women’s Corps memoranda, January 31, 1949, February 11, 1949, quoted in Ostfeld, Tsava Nolad, vol. 1, pp. 444-445.
58 Ben Gurion, Yichud Ve-yeud, p. 79.
59 Ostfeld, Tsava Nolad, vol. 1, p. 442 ff. On the British origins of CHEN see also A. R. Bloom, “Women in the Defense Forces,” in B. Swirski and M. P. Safir, eds., Calling the Equality Bluff: Women in Israel (New York: Pergamon Press, 1991), p. 134.
60 Avigdori-Avidav, Ba-derech She-halachnu, p. 154 ff.
61 Cf. Kadish, La-meshek Ve-la-neshek, p. 285.
62 Term used by CHEN commander, Col. Stella Levy, quoted in J. Larteguy, The Walls of Israel (New York: Evans, 1969), p. 195.
63 Jerby, Ha-mechir Ha-kaful, p. 139.
64 Gal, A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier, p. 49.
65 Israel Women’s Lobby, “Nahsim Ve-sherut Be-TSAHAL: Metsiut, Ratson Ve-chazon” [Women in the IDF: Reality, Will, and Vision] (Tel Aviv University: mimeographed, 1995), p. 41.
66 The attempt to train female divers was made in 1974. A. Peled, “Lochamot Hashayetet” [The Naval Commando’s She-Fighters], Yediot Acharonot weekend magazine, April 26, 1994, pp. 6-13.
67 On the eve of Independence Day 1997, a third woman was promoted to brigadier general as a “special gesture.” Maariv, May 8, 1997, p. 5.
68 Prime Minister’s Office, DOCH al Matsav Ha-isha [Report on the Status of Women] (Jerusalem: Government Printer, 1978), pp. 8-10.
69 Cf. A. Shapira, “Labour Zionism and the October Revolution,” Journal of Contemporary History 24 (1989): 623-656.
70 For example, see C. von Der Goltz, The Nation in Arms (London: Allen, 1887 [originally published 1883]), perhaps the most thorough discussion of the system ever.
71 Cf. M. van Creveld, Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982), chap. 3.
72 Cf. A. Oz, “Derech Haruach” [By the Wind], in Oz, Artsot Ha-tan [The Lands of the Jackal] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1965), pp. 41-59.
73 The unseemly proceedings are described in Segev, Ha-yisraelim Ha-rishonim, pp. 244-245.
74 Herzl Rosenblum in Yediot Acharonot, August 16, 1949, p. 2.
75 Cf. M. Azaryahu, Pulchanei Medina: Chagigot Ha-atsmaut Ve-hantshachat Ha-noflim, 1948-1956 [State Cults: Independence Day Festivities and Commemorating the Dead, 1948-1956] (Sde Boker: Ben Gurion University, 1995), p. 115.
76 O. Almog, Ha-tsabar—Djokan [Portrait of the Sabra] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1997), pp. 365-366.
77 A. Dankner, Dan Ben Amots, Biographia [Dan Ben Amots—a Biography] (Jerusalem: Keter, 1992), p. 165.
78 Ben Gurion, Yichud Ve-yeud, pp. 182-183.
79 D. Ben Gurion, “Le-baayot ha-bitachon” [Re. Defense Problems], lecture held on January 5, 1955, in Ben Gurion, Yichud Ve-yeud, p. 205 ff.; also Z. Tsachor, “Ben Gurion Kimeatsev Mitos” [Ben Gurion as Mythmaker], in D. Ochana and R. Wistrich, eds., Mitos Ve-zikaron [Myth and Memory] (Tel Aviv: Ha-kibbuts Ha-meuchad, 1996), p. 150; also S. I. Troen, “The Sinai Campaign as a ‘War of No Alternative’: Ben Gurion’s View of the Israel-Egyptian Conflict,” in S. I. Troen and M. Shemesh, eds., The Suez-Sinai Crisis 1956, Retroperspective and Reappraisal (London: Cass, 1990), pp. 180-195.
CHAPTER 9
1 By far the best account is B. Morris, Milchamot Ha-gevul shel Yisrael, 1949-1956 [Israel’s Border Wars, 1949-1956] (Tel Aviv: Ofakim, 1996), chap. 2.
2 Figures on the extent of infiltration in ibid., p. 154 ff.
3 Ibid., pp. 443, 445.
4 For some figures see ibid., chap. 4.
5 Ben Gurion, “Nochach Ha-metach Ba-gevulot” [Vis-à-vis the Tension Along the Borders], Knesset speech, January 2, 1956, in D. Ben Gurion, Yichud Ve-yeud: Devarim al Bitchon Yisrael [A Unique Destiny: Notes on Israeli Defense] (Tel Aviv: Maarachot, 1971), p. 235.
6 Ben Gurion, Yoman (unpublished diary), Ben Gurion Archive, September 21 and November 14, 1949.
7 Dayan talk to MAPAI leaders, June 18, 1950, MAPAI (Labor Party) Archive.
8 Dayan according to Moshe Sharet circular, October 26, 1954, quoted in M. Sharet, Yoman Ishi [A Personal Diary] (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1978), No. 22, p. 595.
9 Morris, Milchamot Ha-gvul shel Yisrael (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1996), p. 208 ff.
10 M. Bar Kochva, Merkevot Ha-plada [Steel Chariots] (Tel Aviv: Maarachot, 1989), pp. 105-111.
11 Unsigned IDF memo, “Infiltration to Israel, 1952,” undated but apparently written early in 1953, Foreign Ministry Papers, State Archive, Jerusalem, file 2428 A.
12 Record of Meeting in the Foreign Minister’s Office, February 2, 1953, ibid., No. 4373/15.
13 M. Bar Zohar and Ch. Haber, Sefer Ha-tsanchanim [The Book of the Paratroopers] (Tel Aviv: Levin-Epstein, 1969), p. 60.
14 U. Beeri to Y. Ben Aharon, June 4, 1953, Ha-shomer Ha-tsair Archive, file K 90-4/5.
15 Listed in Chief of Staff’s Office, “Report on Operational Activity Since 1953,” July 1954, TSAHAL Archive, file 13/636/1956.
16 Quoted in S. Teveth, Moshe Dayan: The Soldier, the Man, the Legend (London: Quartet, 1972), p. 239.
17 For his early years cf. U. Benziman, Sharon: Lo Otser Be-adom [Sharon: Does Not Stop at the Red Light] (Tel Aviv: Adam, 1985), p. 13 ff.
18 Quoted in Teveth, Moshe Dayan, p. 244.
19 There is a Jordanian report on the incident in Jordanian Foreign Ministry to British Foreign Ministry, undated (late October 1953?), Public Record Office (PRO), FO/816/193.
20 M. Dayan, Avnei Derech [Memoirs] (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1976), p. 115.
21 M. Sharet, “Yisrael Ve-arav—Milchama Ve-shalom” [Israel and the Arabs—War and Peace], Ot (September 1966), published version of an October 1957 lecture.
22 Eliav report, “Retaliation Along the Borders,” Foreign Ministry Papers, State Archive, No. 2448/15.
23 Brigadier General Gibli (Intelligence) to M. Dayan, June 20, 1954, TSAHAL Archive, file 13/656/1956.
24 Cf. E. N. Luttwak and D. Horowitz, The Israeli Army (London: Allen Lane, 1975), pp. 113-116.
25 Chief of Staff’s Office, “Report on Operational Activity Since 1953,” July 1954, TSAHAL Archive, file 16/636/1956.
26 From Morris, Milchamot Ha-gevul shel Ysrael, p. 327 ff.
27 Ibid., p. 361.
28 A. Sharon, Warrior (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 98.
29 Dayan, Avnei Derech, p. 147, note for July 3, 1955.
30 M. Har Tsion, Pirke Yoman [Chapters in a Diary] (Tel Aviv: Levin-Epstein, n.d.), pp. 162, 164.
31 A. Sharon, Warrior, pp. 133-134.
32 J. E. Talbott, “The Myth and Reality of the Paratrooper in the Algerian War,” Armed Forces and Society 3:1 (Fall 1976): 69-86.
33 S. Peres, “Ha-kumta Ha-aduma” [The Red Beret], in S. Peres, Ha-shalav Ha-ba [The Next Stage] (Tel Aviv: Am Ha-sefer, 1965), p. 126.
34 The attempts to negotiate with Egypt are described at length in M. Bar On, Be-shaare Aza: Mediniyut Ha-chuts Ve-habitachon shel Medinat Yisrael, 1955-1957 [At
the Gates of Gaza: Israel’s Defense and Foreign Policy, 1955-1957] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1992), chaps. 7 and 8.
35 The most recent full-size account is S. Teveth, KALABAN [Shearing Time: KALABAN] (Israel: Ish-Dor, 1992).
36 Cf. Morris, Milchamot Ha-gevul shel Yisrael, p. 354 ff., for the details.
37 Ibid., p. 359 ff.
38 Cf. the discussion in Benziman, Sharon, pp. 57 ff., 66 ff.
39 Dayan, Avnei Derech, p. 148.
40 All figures from Bar On, Be-shaare Aza, pp. 30-31.
41 For evidence that Nasser was planning an attack on Israel see M. Oren, The Origins of the Second Arab-Israeli War (London: Cass, 1992), p. 137.
42 Including Ben Gurion’s own talk, delivered to senior commanders on January 16, 1955, “Ha-yesh Makom Le-milchemet Mena Neged Mitsrayim?” [Should We Launch a Pre-emptive Attack on Egypt?] in Ben Gurion, Yichud Ve-yeud, pp. 218-225.
43 This is the thesis advanced by Morris, Milchamot Ha-gevul shel Yisrael, chap. 12.
44 The arguments in favor of Hagana Merchavit are summed up in Y. Ber, Be-maagali Bitachon Yisrael [Problems of Israeli Security] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1957).
45 Bar On, Be-shaare Aza, p. 90 ff.
46 U. Ben Eliezer, Derech Ha-kavenet: Hivatsruto shel Ha-militarizm Ha-yisraeli, 1936- 1956 [Through the Gunsight: The Emergence of Israeli Militarism, 1936-1956] (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1995), pp. 301-302.
47 Ibid., p. 171.
48 A. Eban to Foreign Ministry, March 29, 1956, Foreign Ministry Papers, State Archive, 5/2455.
49 Additional figures on weapons bought, and the sums paid for them, in Dayan, Avnei Derech, pp. 183-184.
50 Figures on the strength of the IAF in Moshe Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1957), p. 209.
51 Ezer Weizman, On Eagle’s Wings (Tel Aviv: Steimatzky’s, 1979), p. 135.
52 The most detailed account is M. Bar Zohar, Suez: Ultra Secret (Paris: Fayard, 1964); the most recent one, M. Bar On, “David Ben Gurion and the Sevres Collusion,” in W. M. Roger Louis and R. Owen, eds., Suez 1956 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), pp. 145-160.
53 Y. Serena, “Neshek Tmurat Chisulim” [Arms for Liquidations], Yediot Acharonot weekend magazine, October 25, 1996, pp. 13-14, 62.
54 D. Eisenhower to G. Mollet, July 31, 1956, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1955-1957, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1990, vol. xvi, pp. 77-78, No. 39; D. Eisenhower to A. Eden, September 6, 1956, printed in A. Eden, Full Circle: The Memoirs of Anthony Eden (London: Cassell, 1960), pp. 466-467.
55 Bar On, Be-shaare Aza, p. 220, based on the diary of the chief of staff’s office for which he himself was responsible.
56 Ibid., pp. 268-269.
57 Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign, p. 43.
58 Cf. the details in Y. Steigman, Me-atsmaut Le-kadesh, Chel Ha-avir Ba-shanim, 1949-1956 [The IAF from the War of Independence to Suez, 1949-1956] (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1990), pp. 155, 173-175.
59 Bar On, Be-shaare Aza, pp. 295-296.
60 Steigman, Me-atsmaut Le-kadesh, p. 184.
61 See Sharon’s description of the action in Warrior, pp. 136-140.
62 Dayan, Avnei Derech, pp. 250-251.
63 Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign, p. 70.
64 K. Love, Suez: The Twice Fought War (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969), p. 492.
65 M. Gur, “Nisayon Sinai” [The Experience of Sinai], Maarachot (October 1966): 17-22. Laskov, reporting to Ben Gurion shortly after the operation, felt as Gur did; M. Naor, Laskov: Lochem, Adam, Chaver [Laskov: The Soldier, the Man, the Friend] (Jerusalem: Keter, 1988), p. 263.
66 M. Heichal, Cutting the Lion’s Tail: Suez Through Egyptian Eyes (New York: Arbor House, 1987), pp. 177-178.
67 G. W. Gawrych, Key to the Sinai: The Battles for Abu Ageila in the 1956 and 1967 Arab-Israeli Wars (Fort Leavenworth, Kan.: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1990), p. 34.
68 Cf. ibid., p. 25, for the balance of forces as well as the most detailed account of these battles.
69 According to the diary of Egypt’s minister of municipal affairs, Abd al Latif al Bagdadi, quoted in S. I. Troen and M. Shemesh, eds., The Suez-Sinai Crisis 1956, Retroperspective and Reapparaisal (London: Cass, 1990), p. 339.
70 Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign, p. 116.
71 Bar Zohar, Suez, p. 196.
72 Cf. the detailed description of the battle in Dayan, Diary of the Suez Campaign, p. 128 ff.
73 Cf. Sharon, Warrior, p. 146 ff.; B. Amidror, “Ha-mitla: Malkodet Ha-esh” [The Mitla: The Fire Trap], Ha-olam Ha-zeh, October 9, 1974, pp. 16-17, 26.
74 Bar Zohar, Suez, pp. 193-195.
75 T. N. Dupuy, Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1947-1974 (New York: Harper and Row, 1978), p. 181.
76 Teveth, Moshe Dayan, p. 323.
77 R. Eytan, Sippur shel Chayal [A Soldier’s Story] (Tel Aviv: Maariv, 1991), p. 66; Bar Zohar, Suez, p. 188 ff. Bar Zohar, incidentally, mistook the French F-84s for F-86s.
78 Steigman, Me-atsmaut Le-kadesh, p. 290.
79 Cf. M. van Creveld, Command in War (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), pp. 196-198.
80 Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign, pp. 39-40.
81 Luttwak and Horowitz, The Israeli Army, pp. 161-163.
82 The episode is described in Steigman, Me-atsmaut Le-kadesh, pp. 281-282.
83 Eytan, Sippur shel Chayal, p. 70.
84 Benziman, Sharon: Lo Otser Be-adom, pp. 78-79.
85 Teveth, Moshe Dayan, p. 315.
86 Peres, “Ha-kumta Ha-aduma,” p. 125.
87 Ba-machane, October 29, 1957, p. 11.
88 Ha-arets, November 7, 1956; S. Peres, “The Road to Sevres: Franco-Israeli Strategic Cooperation,” in Troen and Shemesh, eds., The Suez-Sinai Crisis, p. 145.
CHAPTER 10
1 Cf. E. Orren, “The Changes in Israel’s Concept of Security After Kadesh,” in S. I. Troen and M. Shemesh, eds., The Suez-Sinai Crisis 1956, Retroperspective and Reappraisal (London: Cass, 1990), pp. 218-229.
2 For data on the proportionally very high number of kibbuts members among IDF officers, and their quality, see Y. Amir, “Bnei Kibbutsim Be-TSAHAL,” Megamot 15:2-3 (August 1967): 250-258.
3 A. Oz, Menucha Nechona [Perfect Peace] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1981), p. 167.
4 Ezer Weizman, On Eagle’s Wings (Tel Aviv: Steimatzky’s, 1979), p. 169.
5 Y. Tsiddon-Chatto, Ba-yom, B-layil, Ba-arafel [By Day, by Night, in Fog] (Or Yehuda: Maariv, 1995), pp. 177-178.
6 A. Perlmutter, Military and Politics in Israel (London: Cass, 1969), p. 66.
7 E. Gross, “The IDF Education Corps,” in D. Ashkenazy, ed., The Military in the Service of Society and Democracy (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), p. 57.
8 Cf. N. Eytan, “The Hasbara Branch of the IDF Education Corps,” and D. Novack, “The Cultural Branch of the IDF Education Corps,” in ibid., pp. 65-80.
9 For details on the program see R. Gal, A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986), p. 54; also M. Bar On, “The Process of Integrating Ethnic Groups in TSAHAL,” offprint, n.p., n.d., the Hebrew University Library, Jerusalem.
10 For a brief English-language account of its activities see J. Larteguy, The Walls of Israel (New York: Evans, 1969), pp. 196-201; also V. Azarya, “Israeli Armed Forces,” in M. Janowitz and S. U. Westbroad, eds., Civic Education in the Military (London: Sage, 1989), pp. 115-116.
11 Cf. Z. Drori, “Utopia in Uniform,” in I. Troen and N. Lucas, eds., Israel: The First Decade of Independence (New York: State University of New York, 1995), p. 600 ff.
12 A typical example is M. Lissak, Military Roles in Modernization: Civil-Military Relations in Thailand and Burma (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1976).
13 Cf. L. Laufer, Israel and the Developing Countries: New Approaches in Cooperation (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1967), pp. 30-31, 167-172; M. Kreinin, Israel and Africa—A Study in Technical Cooperation (New York: Praeger, 1964).
14 All figures from N. Safran, From War to War: The Arab-Israeli Confrontation, 1948-1967 (New York: Pegasus, 1969), p. 156 ff.
15 M. Bar Kochva, Merkevot Ha-plada [Steel Chariots] (Tel Aviv: Maarachot, 1989), p. 31.
16 A. Brezner, Nistane Ha-shiryon [The Origins of the Israeli Armored Corps] (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 1995), p. 8.
17 A. Sharon, Warrior (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), pp. 136-138.
18 Moshe Dayan, Diary of the Sinai Campaign (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1957), p. 61.
19 M. Naor, Laskov: Lochem, Adam, Chaver [Laskov: The Soldier, the Man, the Friend] (Jerusalem: Keter, 1988), pp. 248-249.
20 M. Bar On, Be-shaare Aza: Mediniyut Ha-chuts Ve-habitachon shel Medinat Yisrael, 1955-1957 [At the Gates of Gaza: Israel’s Defense and Foreign Policy, 1955-1957] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1992), p. 222.
21 Naor, Laskov, p. 264, quoting interview with Brig. Gen. Meir Zorea, who in 1956 was Laskov’s second in command.
22 M. Dayan, Avnei Derech [Memoirs] (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1976), p. 149. The figures were: armored corps: 324 percent increase; air force: 123 percent; navy: 224 percent (mostly spent purchasing two World War II destroyers); ground forces as a whole: 39 percent.
23 A. Kahalani, A Warrior’s Way (New York: Shaplovsky, 1994), p. 71.
24 Z. Levkovits, “Ha-vikuach al Ha-ugda Ha-meshuryenet, 1953-1960” [The Debate About the Armored Division, 1953-1960], Maarachot 329 (June-July 1992): 30-39.
25 Cf. E. N. Luttwak and D. Horowitz, The Israeli Army (London: Allen Lane, 1975), p. 186 ff.
26 Cf. R. L. Dinardo, “German Armor Doctrine: Correcting the Myths,” War in History 3:4 (November 1966): 384-397.
27 Bar Kochva, Merkevot-Ha-plada, p. 36.
28 For Tal’s training methods see S. Teveth, The Tanks of Tammuz (London: Sphere Books, 1970), p. 66 ff.
29 Weizman, On Eagle’s Wings, p. 101.
30 For details see Tsiddon, Ba-yom, Ba-layil, Ba-arafel, pp. 322-324. Tsiddon, incidentally, claims to have developed the weapon himself.
31 For the mechanics see Luttwak and Horowitz, The Israeli Army, pp. 196-197.
32 Cf. R. S. and W. S. Churchill, The Six Day War (London: Heinemann, 1967), p. 66, for a graphic description of the IAF’s methods.
The Sword And The Olive Page 52