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The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War
June 5, 1967.The nineteen-year-old state of Israel is surrounded by enemies who want nothing less than her utter extinction. The Soviet-equipped Egyptian Army has amassed a thousand tanks on the nation’s southern border. Syrian heavy guns are shelling her from the north. To the east, Jordan and Iraq are moving mechanized brigades and fighter squadrons into position to attack. Egypt’s President Nasser has declared that the Arab force’s objective is the destruction of Israel.” The rest of the world turns a blind eye to the new nation’s desperate peril.
June 10, 1967. The Arab armies have been routed, ground divisions wiped out, air forces totally destroyed. Israel’s citizen-soldiers have seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. The land under Israeli control has tripled. Her charismatic defense minister, Moshe Dayan, has entered the Lion’s Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem to stand with the paratroopers who have liberated Judaism’s holiest site—the Western Wall, part of the ruins of Solomon’s temple, which has not been in Jewish hands for nineteen hundred years.
It is one of the most unlikely and astonishing military victories in history.
Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with veterans of the war—fighter and helicopter pilots, tank commanders and Recon soldiers, paratroopers, as well as women soldiers, wives, and others—bestselling author Steven Pressfield tells the story of the Six Day War as you’ve never experienced it before: in the voices of the young men and women who battled not only for their lives but for the survival of a Jewish state, and for the dreams of their ancestors.
By turns inspiring, thrilling, and heartbreaking, The Lion’s Gate is both a true tale of military courage under fire and a journey into the heart of what it means to fight for one’s people.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 6, 2014
434 people are currently reading
3557 people want to read
About the author
Steven Pressfield
90 books5,852 followersI was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother.
I graduated from Duke University in 1965.
In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again."
Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined.
GATES OF FIRE is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. TIDES OF WAR is on the curriculum of the Naval War College.
From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of these novels.
My struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in my 2002 book, THE WAR OF ART.
I have worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. I have picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.
With the publication of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE in 1995, I became a writer of books once and for all.
My writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code — internal rather than external — in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that I have labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in THE WAR OF ART) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro."
I believe in previous lives.
I believe in the Muse.
I believe that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration, whom we call artists. My conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox.
There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist:
"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
I graduated from Duke University in 1965.
In January of 1966, when I was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, I looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again."
Forty years later, to my surprise and gratification, I am far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than I could ever have imagined.
GATES OF FIRE is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds. GATES OF FIRE is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. TIDES OF WAR is on the curriculum of the Naval War College.
From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of these novels.
My struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in my 2002 book, THE WAR OF ART.
I have worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. I have picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.
With the publication of THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE in 1995, I became a writer of books once and for all.
My writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code — internal rather than external — in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that I have labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in THE WAR OF ART) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro."
I believe in previous lives.
I believe in the Muse.
I believe that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration, whom we call artists. My conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox.
There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist:
"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 264 reviews
May 6, 2014
I’m not particular fascinated about war but the Six Day War was an altogether different story. It began with the closure of the Straits of Tiran by Egypt followed by the UN leaving Sinai. What was apparently thought to be a one-sided war with initial reports of massive damage being inflicted on the Israeli military, cities and civilians soon assumed frightening proportions with Israel wagging its tail and turning the tide of the war. The conquest of the Sinai peninsula, the West Bank and the Golan Heights are the stuff legends are made of. Six days after the war erupted, the Arab forces lay in tatters, brutally annihilated with its machines and engines scorched beyond repair across the hot deserts. What is an entirely different story is how the entire Arab forces were decimated, with soldier fleeing their posts, and many of them never heard of again.
The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War by Steven Pressfield is unmatched and unparalleled in its depiction of the Six Day War and is a must-read for history buffs. In this scorching book, Steven Pressfield writes about how a how force outnumbered 40-to-1 prevailed against overwhelming odds and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The book is particularly fascinating as it is narrated through the ruminations and recollections of those who actually fought the war. The title of the book The Lion’s Gate is a reference to an entrance into the Old City of Jerusalem through which the all-conquering Israeli army took possession of the most holy of sites.
A war as significant as The Six Day War demands much more than the 448 pages inside which Pressfield squeezed in the story. While it covers the entire war and much more, Pressfield has done a commendable job in presenting the important milestones of the war in chronological order. To this end, he tracked down sixty three military personnel who actually participated in the battle for control of Sinai, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights and allowed them to tell their own stories.
Through these participants, you will revisit the Six Day War as men and women met in the war-room and drew up plans for offensive and defensive tactics. You will get to meet many leaders who have since died but were prominent leaders of the time. This is a gripping and absorbing book about The Six-Day War was fought between June 5th and June 10th, 1967 with a tiny Israeli nation of 2.7 million facing the might of three Arab nations - Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Through The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War, Steven Pressfield takes you back in time to revisit an epochal event in world history whose final chapter is yet to be written.
The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War by Steven Pressfield is unmatched and unparalleled in its depiction of the Six Day War and is a must-read for history buffs. In this scorching book, Steven Pressfield writes about how a how force outnumbered 40-to-1 prevailed against overwhelming odds and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The book is particularly fascinating as it is narrated through the ruminations and recollections of those who actually fought the war. The title of the book The Lion’s Gate is a reference to an entrance into the Old City of Jerusalem through which the all-conquering Israeli army took possession of the most holy of sites.
A war as significant as The Six Day War demands much more than the 448 pages inside which Pressfield squeezed in the story. While it covers the entire war and much more, Pressfield has done a commendable job in presenting the important milestones of the war in chronological order. To this end, he tracked down sixty three military personnel who actually participated in the battle for control of Sinai, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights and allowed them to tell their own stories.
Through these participants, you will revisit the Six Day War as men and women met in the war-room and drew up plans for offensive and defensive tactics. You will get to meet many leaders who have since died but were prominent leaders of the time. This is a gripping and absorbing book about The Six-Day War was fought between June 5th and June 10th, 1967 with a tiny Israeli nation of 2.7 million facing the might of three Arab nations - Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Through The Lion's Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Day War, Steven Pressfield takes you back in time to revisit an epochal event in world history whose final chapter is yet to be written.
April 27, 2019
Brilliant blend of oral history and narrative retelling of a pivotal conflict about which I knew nothing. Pressfield is a genius.
January 26, 2016
I always wanted to know more about the Six Day War. When I chose this Pressfield book, I expected to get a detailed account of the military side of things. What Pressfield gave me encompassed much more - an oral history of first-hand accounts.
Told from the viewpoint of dozens of Jews that participated in the war, this book provides unique insight into the mindset of an entire people group as it fought for survival in a volatile and changing region and world. A young and tiny nation, devoid of power, wealth, and respect, Israel cobbled together an armed force made from spare parts but hardened by the attitude of "en brera" - no alternative.
Pressfield covers more than the war tactics, battalion movements, and battle decisions. He gets into the hearts and minds of Jews who survived the Holocaust, who never stepped foot in the Old City of Jerusalem, who faced hatred and annihilation on a daily basis, who moved to Israel in the face of the Arab threat seeking to fulfill the dreams of their ancestors. Without dwelling on the backstory, Pressfield gives enough of it to set the global stage and Jewish mindset leading up to this war.
With enlisted men allowed the freedom to think for themselves and make critical decisions, the rapid advance of the Israeli army destroyed a force much larger than its own in mere days. With an air force of used and misfit airplanes, the Israelis destroyed a powerful and modern opposing air force before it could get off of the ground. Truly amazing.
On one hand this book took a bit to get into because of all of the people and places I had to keep track of in my mind. But on the other hand, I flew through the book because it captured the intensity, the desperation, and the courage of the Jewish people and brought it to life on the pages.
Read this one.
Told from the viewpoint of dozens of Jews that participated in the war, this book provides unique insight into the mindset of an entire people group as it fought for survival in a volatile and changing region and world. A young and tiny nation, devoid of power, wealth, and respect, Israel cobbled together an armed force made from spare parts but hardened by the attitude of "en brera" - no alternative.
Pressfield covers more than the war tactics, battalion movements, and battle decisions. He gets into the hearts and minds of Jews who survived the Holocaust, who never stepped foot in the Old City of Jerusalem, who faced hatred and annihilation on a daily basis, who moved to Israel in the face of the Arab threat seeking to fulfill the dreams of their ancestors. Without dwelling on the backstory, Pressfield gives enough of it to set the global stage and Jewish mindset leading up to this war.
With enlisted men allowed the freedom to think for themselves and make critical decisions, the rapid advance of the Israeli army destroyed a force much larger than its own in mere days. With an air force of used and misfit airplanes, the Israelis destroyed a powerful and modern opposing air force before it could get off of the ground. Truly amazing.
On one hand this book took a bit to get into because of all of the people and places I had to keep track of in my mind. But on the other hand, I flew through the book because it captured the intensity, the desperation, and the courage of the Jewish people and brought it to life on the pages.
Read this one.
August 20, 2022
As a military buff, I have always been interested in Israel's conquest during the Six Day War. This book aims to cover the war through individual soldiers experiences. I found the planning and execution of the initial missions to be quite interesting. The soldier's perspective provides a Saving Private Ryan feeling. The book missed the mark in failing to adequately provide the diplomatic and geopolitical perspectives. I would give this book 3.5 stars.
March 27, 2017
Absolutely excellent oral history as seen through the eyes of various IDF vets of the 6 Day War. Had a hard time putting it down, emotional, visceral, and real.
May 8, 2019
Brilliant. There will be more Pressfield in my life after reading this book.
July 8, 2023
A 14 hour unabridged audiobook.
I have to give the author a lot of credit here. Wisely choosing what characters to follow after thorough research and interviews. It brought the events alive. It was a pleasure to listen to.
I have to give the author a lot of credit here. Wisely choosing what characters to follow after thorough research and interviews. It brought the events alive. It was a pleasure to listen to.
April 20, 2019
What an incredible book and an even more compelling story. The Six Day War came alive in a powerful and inspirational way.
October 28, 2022
Fascinating how Pressfield wove together the many accounts into a cohesive flowing story. Great job!
May 23, 2019
A remarkable account of the Six Day War. Comprised of 50+ interviews and accounts from Israeli soldiers of various ranks and units, the lead up to the war and the actual battle are vividly described.
June 14, 2014
An exceptional Steven Pressfield book. The Lion's Gate delivers a comprehensive book of the Six Days War between Israel and the surrounding countries. What I especially found interesting is it gives us a personal insight into the lives and battles of the actual persons in the war, it makes us aware of the political scene that was still developing if not in existence at that time. I think most of the world have forgotten how Israel stood alone at that time, the U.S., Britain, Russia, most all except
France stood on the sidelines. So with older firearms, tanks, aircraft (except the Mirage provided by France, Israel took on the entire mideast. The story gives us the history and personalities of the men and women of the IDF where men and women stood shoulder to shoulder to fight for a homeland. Then it gives he planning and thoughts that were brought into reality in the waging of war. This is a history book but more than that it is current history and with the developments in that region of the world it gives one appreciation and understanding of the situation there. At the conclusion of the war the surrounding nation's were still determined to destroy, or liquidate, the Jewish nation. Israel fought to have a homeland and for life itself. For every man, woman, and child. Every page is a new adventure that is part of our current page in history.
France stood on the sidelines. So with older firearms, tanks, aircraft (except the Mirage provided by France, Israel took on the entire mideast. The story gives us the history and personalities of the men and women of the IDF where men and women stood shoulder to shoulder to fight for a homeland. Then it gives he planning and thoughts that were brought into reality in the waging of war. This is a history book but more than that it is current history and with the developments in that region of the world it gives one appreciation and understanding of the situation there. At the conclusion of the war the surrounding nation's were still determined to destroy, or liquidate, the Jewish nation. Israel fought to have a homeland and for life itself. For every man, woman, and child. Every page is a new adventure that is part of our current page in history.
April 28, 2014
This was an interesting, informative book. I learned a lot about Israel and the Six Day War. While it did have many details about the war and battles and the political climate of the day, it wasn't just a recounting of the war. It was a first person telling...I like that each section was a different person's eyewitness account of what happened to them. The book seemed so much more personal this way. I enjoyed getting to know the Jewish people through this book. I definitely recommend it.
Thanks to the author and Goodreads for providing this free book to review.
Thanks to the author and Goodreads for providing this free book to review.
January 23, 2019
I find Israel's history--- whether ancient or modern--- to be fascinating. The Six Day War (1967) adds another amazing chapter to their unique story, and Steven Pressfield unfolds it chronologically by drawing forth detailed memories from the veteran soldiers who lived to tell.
Pilots, paratroopers, tank commanders, and soldiers of nearly every capacity were interviewed and then their contributions were meticulously fit together like pieces of a puzzle so that the reader gains a mosaic of the big picture.
One of the things that struck me was the youthfulness of the fighters. So many of them were still in their teens, yet they willingly (eagerly in some cases) took upon themselves the dangerous mission assigned them. Looking at their fresh faces was almost heartbreaking. They suffered great loss and cannot tell their part of the story without heartfelt sorrow over their fallen brothers and comrades.
I was also struck by their amazing resourcefulness. In comparison to their adversaries, the Israeli military lacked both in numbers and in sophistication, yet their lack seemed to call forth a latent genius. They refashioned and retooled. Nothing was ideal; nothing was guaranteed to work. I think their desperate desire to save their nation compelled them to take huge risks that made my blood race even as I read it.
The climax was the taking of the Old City of Jerusalem. After the frenzy and noise and adrenaline, it was a quiet moment, a moment in which each soldier felt deeply that they were experiencing the culmination of the hopes and prayers of generations. It was a breathtaking moment, recalled in vivid language and with deep emotion.
"The Old City stands as the highest aspiration, the soul center of the people. Jerusalem is that which is longed for, dreamed of, prayed for . . . We have a nation now at last. A Jewish state exists. . . Can deliverance for David's city be at hand? Is this the hour at last?"~ Sargeant Moshe Milo
When the shofar, the ram's horn, was blown at the Wailing Wall for the 1st time, I felt a shiver. What a thrilling moment this captures, a moment of destiny.
Pilots, paratroopers, tank commanders, and soldiers of nearly every capacity were interviewed and then their contributions were meticulously fit together like pieces of a puzzle so that the reader gains a mosaic of the big picture.
One of the things that struck me was the youthfulness of the fighters. So many of them were still in their teens, yet they willingly (eagerly in some cases) took upon themselves the dangerous mission assigned them. Looking at their fresh faces was almost heartbreaking. They suffered great loss and cannot tell their part of the story without heartfelt sorrow over their fallen brothers and comrades.
I was also struck by their amazing resourcefulness. In comparison to their adversaries, the Israeli military lacked both in numbers and in sophistication, yet their lack seemed to call forth a latent genius. They refashioned and retooled. Nothing was ideal; nothing was guaranteed to work. I think their desperate desire to save their nation compelled them to take huge risks that made my blood race even as I read it.
The climax was the taking of the Old City of Jerusalem. After the frenzy and noise and adrenaline, it was a quiet moment, a moment in which each soldier felt deeply that they were experiencing the culmination of the hopes and prayers of generations. It was a breathtaking moment, recalled in vivid language and with deep emotion.
"The Old City stands as the highest aspiration, the soul center of the people. Jerusalem is that which is longed for, dreamed of, prayed for . . . We have a nation now at last. A Jewish state exists. . . Can deliverance for David's city be at hand? Is this the hour at last?"~ Sargeant Moshe Milo
When the shofar, the ram's horn, was blown at the Wailing Wall for the 1st time, I felt a shiver. What a thrilling moment this captures, a moment of destiny.
June 17, 2014
Steven Pressfield acknowledges that this "...is not a comprehensive history of the Six Day War." Rather, it is a subjective account of ground and air operations told primarily in the first-person voice. This creates a slight paradox. The first-person accounts promote intimacy between the reader and the person relaying their experiences. The paradoxical nature of such a narrative is that by skipping from person to person to person, the bond between reader and storyteller is never allowed to take root. We hear about the up-close and personal experiences in the air and on the battlefield, but we are never fully permitted to gain familiarity with the individual. Thus the reader is left feeling both close and distant to the storyteller. But Pressfield does deliver a fresh approach to the Six Day War. With the narrative leaping from person to person and place to place, the reader is perpetually zoomed in on an engagement or activity that sweeps us from beginning to end in a single headlong rush.
I listened to Malcolm Hillgartner narrate the audiobook. Hillgartner does a great job of reading the text while providing a certain sense of authenticity and humanity. He never got in the way of the story, and he adds to the overall sense of place and history. The only fault I found with Hillgartner's reading was with the pace of his delivery. It seemed a touch slow, but this is more an issue of personal preference than production.
I listened to Malcolm Hillgartner narrate the audiobook. Hillgartner does a great job of reading the text while providing a certain sense of authenticity and humanity. He never got in the way of the story, and he adds to the overall sense of place and history. The only fault I found with Hillgartner's reading was with the pace of his delivery. It seemed a touch slow, but this is more an issue of personal preference than production.
October 15, 2021
It is David vs. Goliath Part 2 (or 3, 4, 5) because the Jewish people throughout history are pitted against a larger force and somehow God provides a way. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was far outnumbered yet may have trained better than any force in the world for this moment in time. One helicopter squadron leader shared, “Improvisation is not a wild scramble at the last minute. You are not pulling plans out of thin air. Improvisation is the payoff of scrupulous preparation and drill.”
I'm also reminded that great military leaders like Moshe Dayan are great not because of what they conquered but in how they recognize their place in history. Immediately after the cease-first, the mission became how to ensure peace and openness to Arab neighbors giving them the same freedoms of worship, especially to their holy sites like the Dome of the Rock. Jewish people were highly restricted from visiting the Wailing Wall for example during Arab rule so this was different policy and a new measure of tolerance. We know that vision was not carried out well by Israel in the next fifty years but we should look to the magnanimity of leaders like him.
One of the most beautiful scenes is the IDF entering the old city of Jerusalem and you are reminded why people wail when they come to the Wall, especially these soldiers. We fail to remember even today that it was almost 2,000 years of wilderness for the Jewish people and they have finally reclaimed this holy place.
I'm also reminded that great military leaders like Moshe Dayan are great not because of what they conquered but in how they recognize their place in history. Immediately after the cease-first, the mission became how to ensure peace and openness to Arab neighbors giving them the same freedoms of worship, especially to their holy sites like the Dome of the Rock. Jewish people were highly restricted from visiting the Wailing Wall for example during Arab rule so this was different policy and a new measure of tolerance. We know that vision was not carried out well by Israel in the next fifty years but we should look to the magnanimity of leaders like him.
One of the most beautiful scenes is the IDF entering the old city of Jerusalem and you are reminded why people wail when they come to the Wall, especially these soldiers. We fail to remember even today that it was almost 2,000 years of wilderness for the Jewish people and they have finally reclaimed this holy place.
September 2, 2016
An amazing book. I intend to read up more on this subject, and come back to The Lion's Gate. Cannot recommend it enough.
October 7, 2018
This is by far the finest oral history of a conflict I've ever read. As a youngster I didn't understand my parents and their astonishment at the accomplishments of Israel in the Six Day War. The news happened too fast for my young mind to grasp it and it seemed a sideshow to the escalations in Vietnam and general fear that the Russians were going to nuke us at any moment.
Reading this account educated me to what was at stake. Intellectually, I knew the fate of Israel hung in the balance, but this account shows just how precarious things were. It was by no means certain that the Jews would manage to hold on to the tiny sliver of land they were apportioned in Palestine, let alone expand it to historical proportions.
There is so much good to say about this book, but the one thing I find most remarkable about all the accounts is the sense of immediacy. That and the sense of purpose that all, regardless of their faith, were fighting for throughout the conflict. A masterful strategy that resulted in an unprecedented victory, the likes of which the world has never seen. The book recaptures the chaos and mayhem, leaving the reader confused at times, but mimicking the confusion of those days.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in military history or the resolve of the Jews to return to their homeland.
Reading this account educated me to what was at stake. Intellectually, I knew the fate of Israel hung in the balance, but this account shows just how precarious things were. It was by no means certain that the Jews would manage to hold on to the tiny sliver of land they were apportioned in Palestine, let alone expand it to historical proportions.
There is so much good to say about this book, but the one thing I find most remarkable about all the accounts is the sense of immediacy. That and the sense of purpose that all, regardless of their faith, were fighting for throughout the conflict. A masterful strategy that resulted in an unprecedented victory, the likes of which the world has never seen. The book recaptures the chaos and mayhem, leaving the reader confused at times, but mimicking the confusion of those days.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in military history or the resolve of the Jews to return to their homeland.
February 8, 2023
NOTE: I listened to the audiobook on Audible which I feel is partial cause of the mid-rating. The reader throughout the book was fairly monotone and separation between characters could have been more distinct. This caused a bit on confusion listening to the first portion until I caught on to the narrators extremely subtle cues.
The short of it: the story is compelling, and the military aspects, specifically aviation tactics, are eye opening. In the forward, Steven Pressfield mentions that admits he is not unbiased, which I fully agree is true, and take away a bit of the quality. If you like military history, stories about the conflicts of Israel, or Steven Pressfield in general you'll generally enjoy the book. But read it, don't listen...
The short of it: the story is compelling, and the military aspects, specifically aviation tactics, are eye opening. In the forward, Steven Pressfield mentions that admits he is not unbiased, which I fully agree is true, and take away a bit of the quality. If you like military history, stories about the conflicts of Israel, or Steven Pressfield in general you'll generally enjoy the book. But read it, don't listen...
October 8, 2019
A very unique history/war book narrated only through the words of participants. It highlights the emotions, heartbreak and despair of those who've been in the center of events. Obviously it is a subjective account of events, but one gets the feeling that it is as honest as can be from an Israeli viewpoint.
January 4, 2024
I chose this work about the 1967 war because of my previous reading of the author's 'Gates of Fire' and 'The Legend of Bagger Vance.' I would encourage you to read the reviews here and the author's prefatory note re 'hybrid history' before reading because this is not your standard journalistic or academic history. It's more like the old BBC 'The World at War' where the Israeli survivors 40+ years later recount their experiences. Which the author has then turned into a very compelling narrative and commentary. I would also encourage a perusal of the very thorough Bibliography. Is there a decade since 1948 where the Egyptians, Palestinians, Jordanians, Iranians, Syrians, Iraqis, etc have not tried to annihilate the Israelis? Almost makes you miss the Cold War - although I don't think any of our Eastern European friends are missing their Russian occupiers.
February 14, 2020
Ótima narrativa dos acontecimentos da guerra dos seis dias, as descrições dos combates aéreos são impecáveis.
June 22, 2021
Emocionante. Me fez sentir ao lado dos soldados.
October 29, 2023
I got "The Lion's Gate" by Steven Pressfield (2014) from the library in a way that I normally don't: I just wandered around and plucked it off the shelf. Normally I order a library book online and just go in to pick it up, almost always based on a recommendation. I've been reading so much lately that I've begun to notice that a) I enjoy good history books more than almost anything else and b) a book being good or not is heavily influenced by its author's writing style/ability. Based on that, I went to the isle for history books and as soon as I saw something with Pressfield's name on it, I grabbed it. I'd previously (i.e.: within the last year) read "Gates of Fire" and "The Virtues of War" and really enjoyed both of them. The style of both novels is to have both fictional and historical characters tell the tales of Thermopylae and the conquests of Alexander the Great, respectively. This is possibly the best way to tell such a tale, IMO, as everyone who participated in those events is long dead, as is anyone who would have even had a chance of knowing them. The Lion's Gate is different, as it covers the Six Day War, an event that took place only 55 years ago. Many of the participants (or, at least, people who intimately knew the participants) are still alive today and the book is almost exclusively made up of their recollections.
I had heard of the Six Day War and knew that it was a spectacular Israeli victory but hearing details about how it came to be was pretty stunning. One of the characters in the book posits that The Six Day War should actually be called "The Three-Hour War", because the first 3 hours of the air campaign that Israel waged against Egypt almost totally wiped out their air force and pretty much guaranteed victory for Israel in spite of being outnumbered by a couple orders of magnitude.
They discussed how the French were about the only nation willing to sell Israel weapons at all, much less sell them up-to-date weaponry. The IAF bought a bunch of Mirage interceptors and had Dassault modify them for their needs, mainly by replacing the missiles with twin 30mm cannon and getting rid of the unnecessary rocket booster and replacing it with extra fuel and cannon rounds. The Israeli Mirage would still carry two 500kg bombs on top of all this.
The next step was creating a plan for wiping out Nasser's entire air force on the ground, before they could take off. Exactly how to do this was hotly debated and the champions of the plan that eventually worked had to fight to get it approved. Once it was approved at the highest levels, the IAF did nothing but train for exactly one mission every day for years on end.
The plan had so many moving parts and limitations that the mind-blowing part isn't that it worked so well, but rather that it worked at all. Pilots interviewed said that they couldn't navigate by GPS (since that didn't exist in 1967), they couldn't navigate by landmarks (since there were none until the last minute, as they came in over the Mediterranean), they couldn't get a real birds-eye view of the target (since they had to fly below radar, about 100 feet off the ground!), and they couldn't even talk to one another over the radio, since that would give away the plan and their position. After all that, it's a miracle that all flights found their targets, which they all did. Did I mention that there were dozens of such flights and they all had to strike at the same instant, lest one Egyptian airfield warn the rest that an attack was coming their way?
The tactics for the attack were also hair-raising: the Soviet anti-aircraft doctrine that they were facing relied heavily on creating an "umbrella" of 23mm fire that the Mirages had to fly through. This meant they had to do everything at much higher speed than is normally desirable for ATG attacks. Combined with the need to fly at exceptionally low altitude when entering Egypt, this meant that the Mirages had to climb rapidly to about 6000' AGL, invert the plane so that they could actually see the target, drop towards the target (which was runways on these first passes) at exactly 35°, release the bombs at exactly 2500' AGL, pull out of the dive at about 1000' AGL (any higher and the bombs might miss, any lower and the blast from the bombs would endanger the plane that had dropped them), and then circle around 270° to begin gun runs on any grounded planes or other ground targets. The high speed of the Mirages had to be kept up, lest Egyptian AA fire have an easy target, and so the Mirages had to open fire at about 900m to have enough time to aim. Once all 30mm ammo was expended they would return to base to rearm and refuel and they would be sent out again and again to smash the Arab air forces as much as possible. After the Egyptians were incapacitated, the Jordanians and Syrians were next.
The ground forces' drive to the Suez canal was also covered and it seemed much more like a SNAFU than the air campaign. The IDF attacked in the dark with WWII surplus jeeps being used for recon and tanks (British Centurions and even US Shermans) following behind. A lot of stories were of guys getting shot, running over mines, or even getting run over by their own side's vehicles in the total darkness of the desert. Room to maneuver was nil, since the soft sand of the desert would cause even tracked vehicles to get mired or they'd fall into undetected wadis in the darkness. In spite of all that, the IDF was able to punch through the Egyptian defenses and take control of the roads, the only sure way to move west.
The use of helicopter-borne troops was being battle-tested at this period in history. One thinks of American troops in Vietnam when this subject comes up, but the IDF was trying things that the US hadn't done before, like overrunning artillery batteries after inserting air-mobile troops behind them, far behind the enemy lines. This was another tactic that worked better than the Israelis had dared to hope and something like a five-mile stretch of Egyptian guns were taken by the IDF paratroopers, allowing their armor to pour through with minimal opposition.
Once things went badly for the Egyptians, the Jordanians opened a second front with a much smaller attack, spearheaded by American M48 Patton tanks. This attack was met by other IDF paras, brought into battle by civilian buses. One thing I didn't realize was that eastern Jerusalem was part of Jordan until 1967 when Israel took it over. It was a calculated political move to seize this traditionally Jewish city in a way that allowed Israel to keep it without demands from the UN to restore it to Jordan.
A lot of the weaponry discussed was interesting since it came from so many disparate nations: each side had tanks and aircraft from France, the UK, US, and USSR, among others. This equipment was also from the most modern that was available in 1967 to whatever was left over from WWII. The leap forward made in a lot of weapons tech from the last days of WWII to the early days of the Cold War was stark but it was often all that was being offered to nations that couldn't produce their own arms yet.
Another striking thing is that the US was not on Israel's side at one point in time. These days one gets the impression that Israel is basically a US territory (or is that the other way around...?) and in my short life, it's always been that way. It's easy to forget that the US once had a more hands-off policy towards Israel, and the Middle East in general. The machinations of the British, French, and Soviets are also interesting: the Brits were pretty solidly anti-Israel (the Jordanian army was a copy of the British army and much of Egypt's military infrastructure was also British, adding to the impression) and the French were trying to play both sides, not wanting to tick off their Arab colonists and citizens.
The youth of the IDF and IAF members stood out to me too. Israel's system was (is?) one of a conscript army, where the 18–20-year-olds go into the regular units and then get shuffled into the reserves where they stay until they are literally too old to fight anymore. Even officers and pilots are sent to units at a very young age in Israel, unlike the US military where such personnel often go to college for a few years before even joining the military and sticking around there for months, if not years, of training. Values that I've often regarded as being especially American, like improvisation, seem to be equally alive in Israeli culture.
I learned some things about Israel that I'd not heard of anywhere else before from The Lion's Gate that aren't essential, perhaps, to the story of the war. I've already mentioned that Jerusalem was part of Jordan before but I learned what a kibbutz is from this book (a communal farm, basically) even though I'd heard that term all my life I'd never known what it meant. Also, it turns out that Hebrew doesn't have profanity! Israelis curse with foreign words, mainly from English and Arabic.
Judaism played an odd role in this story too: a noticeable majority of the characters in the book rushed to explain that they were non-believers but also invoked the Old Testament to explain what they were fighting for. "This is the land that God gave us and that Moses led us into and we're not giving it up!", a doubly interesting sentiment, considering that most Israelis are of European descent or from other Middle Eastern nations besides Palestine. I recall two of the people interviewed in the book claiming to actually be believers, one casually, the other somewhat sheepishly. At the end, when the Israeli paratroopers reach the West Wall, all are overcome by standing before this Jewish cultural symbol and all feel compelled to pray before it. Exactly one man in the whole unit had prayed before in his life and had to show the rest how. This doesn't seem to be a generational thing either; one of the many people in the book who hastens to emphasize that he's irreligious is Moshe Dayan, head of the IDF by 1967.
Dayan, among others, starts to flesh out what it means, then, to be a Jew, if Judaism isn't an essential part of that. He claims that, before 1948, the Jew was characterized by diaspora, having no home. The idea that Jews could simply integrate into other societies, especially in the Middle East and Europe, seems to have never worked out. While indisputable, the reasons for this are confusing to me, especially when so many of them seem to have abandoned their faith in those foreign lands. With Judaism out of the picture what remained to "other" the Jews in foreign lands, besides some minor phenotypes? This is something I'd never thought of before but am interested in now.
The Lion's Gate is a great read. If you don't know much about the Six Day War this will be a great introduction to that subject too. The overall outcome of the war is not lost in the human stories of those who fought it up close and personal. There's a reason I grabbed a Pressfield book without really caring what it was about, as I knew he would provide a book worth reading.
I had heard of the Six Day War and knew that it was a spectacular Israeli victory but hearing details about how it came to be was pretty stunning. One of the characters in the book posits that The Six Day War should actually be called "The Three-Hour War", because the first 3 hours of the air campaign that Israel waged against Egypt almost totally wiped out their air force and pretty much guaranteed victory for Israel in spite of being outnumbered by a couple orders of magnitude.
They discussed how the French were about the only nation willing to sell Israel weapons at all, much less sell them up-to-date weaponry. The IAF bought a bunch of Mirage interceptors and had Dassault modify them for their needs, mainly by replacing the missiles with twin 30mm cannon and getting rid of the unnecessary rocket booster and replacing it with extra fuel and cannon rounds. The Israeli Mirage would still carry two 500kg bombs on top of all this.
The next step was creating a plan for wiping out Nasser's entire air force on the ground, before they could take off. Exactly how to do this was hotly debated and the champions of the plan that eventually worked had to fight to get it approved. Once it was approved at the highest levels, the IAF did nothing but train for exactly one mission every day for years on end.
The plan had so many moving parts and limitations that the mind-blowing part isn't that it worked so well, but rather that it worked at all. Pilots interviewed said that they couldn't navigate by GPS (since that didn't exist in 1967), they couldn't navigate by landmarks (since there were none until the last minute, as they came in over the Mediterranean), they couldn't get a real birds-eye view of the target (since they had to fly below radar, about 100 feet off the ground!), and they couldn't even talk to one another over the radio, since that would give away the plan and their position. After all that, it's a miracle that all flights found their targets, which they all did. Did I mention that there were dozens of such flights and they all had to strike at the same instant, lest one Egyptian airfield warn the rest that an attack was coming their way?
The tactics for the attack were also hair-raising: the Soviet anti-aircraft doctrine that they were facing relied heavily on creating an "umbrella" of 23mm fire that the Mirages had to fly through. This meant they had to do everything at much higher speed than is normally desirable for ATG attacks. Combined with the need to fly at exceptionally low altitude when entering Egypt, this meant that the Mirages had to climb rapidly to about 6000' AGL, invert the plane so that they could actually see the target, drop towards the target (which was runways on these first passes) at exactly 35°, release the bombs at exactly 2500' AGL, pull out of the dive at about 1000' AGL (any higher and the bombs might miss, any lower and the blast from the bombs would endanger the plane that had dropped them), and then circle around 270° to begin gun runs on any grounded planes or other ground targets. The high speed of the Mirages had to be kept up, lest Egyptian AA fire have an easy target, and so the Mirages had to open fire at about 900m to have enough time to aim. Once all 30mm ammo was expended they would return to base to rearm and refuel and they would be sent out again and again to smash the Arab air forces as much as possible. After the Egyptians were incapacitated, the Jordanians and Syrians were next.
The ground forces' drive to the Suez canal was also covered and it seemed much more like a SNAFU than the air campaign. The IDF attacked in the dark with WWII surplus jeeps being used for recon and tanks (British Centurions and even US Shermans) following behind. A lot of stories were of guys getting shot, running over mines, or even getting run over by their own side's vehicles in the total darkness of the desert. Room to maneuver was nil, since the soft sand of the desert would cause even tracked vehicles to get mired or they'd fall into undetected wadis in the darkness. In spite of all that, the IDF was able to punch through the Egyptian defenses and take control of the roads, the only sure way to move west.
The use of helicopter-borne troops was being battle-tested at this period in history. One thinks of American troops in Vietnam when this subject comes up, but the IDF was trying things that the US hadn't done before, like overrunning artillery batteries after inserting air-mobile troops behind them, far behind the enemy lines. This was another tactic that worked better than the Israelis had dared to hope and something like a five-mile stretch of Egyptian guns were taken by the IDF paratroopers, allowing their armor to pour through with minimal opposition.
Once things went badly for the Egyptians, the Jordanians opened a second front with a much smaller attack, spearheaded by American M48 Patton tanks. This attack was met by other IDF paras, brought into battle by civilian buses. One thing I didn't realize was that eastern Jerusalem was part of Jordan until 1967 when Israel took it over. It was a calculated political move to seize this traditionally Jewish city in a way that allowed Israel to keep it without demands from the UN to restore it to Jordan.
A lot of the weaponry discussed was interesting since it came from so many disparate nations: each side had tanks and aircraft from France, the UK, US, and USSR, among others. This equipment was also from the most modern that was available in 1967 to whatever was left over from WWII. The leap forward made in a lot of weapons tech from the last days of WWII to the early days of the Cold War was stark but it was often all that was being offered to nations that couldn't produce their own arms yet.
Another striking thing is that the US was not on Israel's side at one point in time. These days one gets the impression that Israel is basically a US territory (or is that the other way around...?) and in my short life, it's always been that way. It's easy to forget that the US once had a more hands-off policy towards Israel, and the Middle East in general. The machinations of the British, French, and Soviets are also interesting: the Brits were pretty solidly anti-Israel (the Jordanian army was a copy of the British army and much of Egypt's military infrastructure was also British, adding to the impression) and the French were trying to play both sides, not wanting to tick off their Arab colonists and citizens.
The youth of the IDF and IAF members stood out to me too. Israel's system was (is?) one of a conscript army, where the 18–20-year-olds go into the regular units and then get shuffled into the reserves where they stay until they are literally too old to fight anymore. Even officers and pilots are sent to units at a very young age in Israel, unlike the US military where such personnel often go to college for a few years before even joining the military and sticking around there for months, if not years, of training. Values that I've often regarded as being especially American, like improvisation, seem to be equally alive in Israeli culture.
I learned some things about Israel that I'd not heard of anywhere else before from The Lion's Gate that aren't essential, perhaps, to the story of the war. I've already mentioned that Jerusalem was part of Jordan before but I learned what a kibbutz is from this book (a communal farm, basically) even though I'd heard that term all my life I'd never known what it meant. Also, it turns out that Hebrew doesn't have profanity! Israelis curse with foreign words, mainly from English and Arabic.
Judaism played an odd role in this story too: a noticeable majority of the characters in the book rushed to explain that they were non-believers but also invoked the Old Testament to explain what they were fighting for. "This is the land that God gave us and that Moses led us into and we're not giving it up!", a doubly interesting sentiment, considering that most Israelis are of European descent or from other Middle Eastern nations besides Palestine. I recall two of the people interviewed in the book claiming to actually be believers, one casually, the other somewhat sheepishly. At the end, when the Israeli paratroopers reach the West Wall, all are overcome by standing before this Jewish cultural symbol and all feel compelled to pray before it. Exactly one man in the whole unit had prayed before in his life and had to show the rest how. This doesn't seem to be a generational thing either; one of the many people in the book who hastens to emphasize that he's irreligious is Moshe Dayan, head of the IDF by 1967.
Dayan, among others, starts to flesh out what it means, then, to be a Jew, if Judaism isn't an essential part of that. He claims that, before 1948, the Jew was characterized by diaspora, having no home. The idea that Jews could simply integrate into other societies, especially in the Middle East and Europe, seems to have never worked out. While indisputable, the reasons for this are confusing to me, especially when so many of them seem to have abandoned their faith in those foreign lands. With Judaism out of the picture what remained to "other" the Jews in foreign lands, besides some minor phenotypes? This is something I'd never thought of before but am interested in now.
The Lion's Gate is a great read. If you don't know much about the Six Day War this will be a great introduction to that subject too. The overall outcome of the war is not lost in the human stories of those who fought it up close and personal. There's a reason I grabbed a Pressfield book without really caring what it was about, as I knew he would provide a book worth reading.
February 13, 2020
This is a good compilation of some intensely riveting eye-witness accounts of the war. Interesting, adventurous accounts and several touching moments are shared from the men and women who lived it.
If you're looking for an historical overview however, "Six Days of War" by Michael Oren is fantastic!
Cleanliness: there are at least three f-words said. Several instances of sh*t, d*mn, h*ll. b*tch. There are several intensely graphic scenes of war with missing limbs, massive body burns etc. I would recommend for 16+.
*Note: I listened to the audio version of this book so this Cleanliness Report may not be as thoroughly detailed as other reports are. Also, some inappropriate content may have been forgotten/missed and not included in the report.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
If you're looking for an historical overview however, "Six Days of War" by Michael Oren is fantastic!
Cleanliness: there are at least three f-words said. Several instances of sh*t, d*mn, h*ll. b*tch. There are several intensely graphic scenes of war with missing limbs, massive body burns etc. I would recommend for 16+.
*Note: I listened to the audio version of this book so this Cleanliness Report may not be as thoroughly detailed as other reports are. Also, some inappropriate content may have been forgotten/missed and not included in the report.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
September 27, 2019
I'm not new to the work of Steven Pressfield, but this book surprised me.
The touchy politics aside, never have I ever seen war so profoundly captured. At once Pressfield presents the glory, reality and horror of war. He takes a deep dive into the mindset and condition of soldiers and brilliantly reveals the toll war takes on people. The first person vehicle he uses to present the events from the perspective of the numerous individual actors is ingenious, never did I expect a non-fiction book to trigger such emotions in me.
I can't freely recommend this book because of the weight of the issues surrounding its subject matter, but one thing I can say is that this is non-fiction at its finest.
The touchy politics aside, never have I ever seen war so profoundly captured. At once Pressfield presents the glory, reality and horror of war. He takes a deep dive into the mindset and condition of soldiers and brilliantly reveals the toll war takes on people. The first person vehicle he uses to present the events from the perspective of the numerous individual actors is ingenious, never did I expect a non-fiction book to trigger such emotions in me.
I can't freely recommend this book because of the weight of the issues surrounding its subject matter, but one thing I can say is that this is non-fiction at its finest.
August 28, 2019
This was disappointing for me. It is unashamedly one sided. Probably the most significant thing that I need to do to feel more balanced is to read something from another sides perspective of the conflict.
The author does tell stories well. The part of the book that I enjoyed the most were the stories about the recon forces in their jeeps, as well as other tales of moving across the Sinai. The author does a good job of pointing out the qualitative advantages of the the Israeli troops.
I'd like to leave politics out of the review, but the book mentions Rabin calling Sharon the greatest field commander ever. Since the author gives glimpes into the lives of other characters outside of the six day war you're going to give glimpses of other parts of people's lives outside of the Six Day War, my feeling is that in addition to championing Ariel Sharon as a great warrior throughout the book it should have been brought up that as a result if an official Israeli investigation Sharon was found to bear personal responsibility for the Shabra and Shatila massacre of civililians later in time.
I recently read Spearpoint by Makos, another book told primarily from the first person narrative. That writer is more melodramatic, but I was satisfied at the end of that book rather than frustrated.
The author does tell stories well. The part of the book that I enjoyed the most were the stories about the recon forces in their jeeps, as well as other tales of moving across the Sinai. The author does a good job of pointing out the qualitative advantages of the the Israeli troops.
I'd like to leave politics out of the review, but the book mentions Rabin calling Sharon the greatest field commander ever. Since the author gives glimpes into the lives of other characters outside of the six day war you're going to give glimpses of other parts of people's lives outside of the Six Day War, my feeling is that in addition to championing Ariel Sharon as a great warrior throughout the book it should have been brought up that as a result if an official Israeli investigation Sharon was found to bear personal responsibility for the Shabra and Shatila massacre of civililians later in time.
I recently read Spearpoint by Makos, another book told primarily from the first person narrative. That writer is more melodramatic, but I was satisfied at the end of that book rather than frustrated.
May 5, 2014
I won this book from a Goodreads giveaway. Thanks for the opportunity to read first hand accounts of soldiers who fought in the Six Day War for Israel. While I enjoyed their personal stories, I found the book lacked a cohesiveness in putting those interviews together in the best way. At times I struggled to continue reading the book, but overall, I'm glad I did. If you enjoy history the interviews in this book bring history to life.
Read
June 19, 2020Decided only to list some quotes instead of writing a review
This also applies to startups:
> ... At the military boarding school, it was assumed that every graduate would volunteer for a fighting unit, the more elite, the better. We studied, we played sports, we trekked. We hiked all over Israel. We were unbelievably strong physically. But what was even more powerful were the principles that the school hammered into our skulls.
>
> First: Complete the mission.
>
> The phrase in Hebrew is Dvekut baMesima.
>
> Mesima is "mission"; dvekut means "glued to." The mission is every-thing. At all costs, it must be carried through to completion. I remember running up the Snake Trail at Masada one summer at 110 degrees Fahren-heit with two of my classmates. Each of us would sooner have died than be the first to call, "Hey, slow down!"
>
> Second: Whatever you do, do it to your utmost. The way you tie your shoes. The way you navigate at night. Nothing is academic.
>
> Third: En brera. "No alternative."
>
> We are Jews; we are surrounded by enemies who seek our destruction and the extermination of our people. There is no alternative to victory.
>
> In Squadron 119, Ran led us according to these principles. Complete the mission. Perform every action to perfection. Follow through at any cost.
Then there was one final principle, which was, and remains to this day, the secret weapon of IAF fighting doctrine. Here is how it was taught to me:
>
> I was talking with an older pilot. He asked me what I considered to be Ezer Weizman's most important contribution to the air force. Ezer was the IAF's boldest and most flamboyant commander.
>
> "That's easy," I said. "He got us seventy-two Mirages." Meaning the magnificent French-built warplanes that we flew in our squadron.
>
> "No, Giora," the veteran said. "Ezer introduced the culture of the ruthlessly candid debriefing."
At the end of each training day, the squadron met in the briefing room. Ran stood up front. He went over every mistake we had made that day—not just those of the young pilots, but his own as well. He was fearless in his self-criticism, and he made us speak up with equal candor. If you had screwed up, you admitted it and took your medicine. Ego meant nothing. Improvement was everything.
Leadership:
> I have learned one thing from this, my first experience of war: Leaders are everything.
>
> Individually, we soldiers may be brave. Collectively, we may make up a skilled, well-trained unit. But without a strong hand to guide us, we balk and freeze. We become confused and surrender initiative.
>
> I can see Uzi Eilat up front, leading the column. This is Israeli style: The company commander goes first. Is this crazy? He makes himself a prime target for a sniper. But by his presence, in the lead, we in the column are made strong.
>
> I know nothing. I can see nothing. But if Uzi tells me, "Do this," I will do it.
On planning:
> One thing must take place exactly as in the plans: the principle upon which these plans were made. Every man will attack. Every unit will push forward as fast as it can. Pay no attention to your flanks. Give no thought to resupply. If you lose nine tanks out of ten, keep advancing with the tenth. Stop for nothing.
Dayan:
> Dayan had more charisma than anyone I ever met. He turned it on one off like a light switch. You either loved him or hated him, often both at the same time. I used to ask myself, What is it about this guy that drives people so crazy? Why do his generals kiss up to him one minute, then con-spire to steal his credit in the next? Why do the Israeli people put him on a pedestal, then take such pleasure in tearing him down?
>
> One day it hit me.
>
> He is just like they are.
>
> Dayan is Israel, more even than Ben-Gurion.
>
> Dayan's strengths are Israel's strengths and his weaknesses are Israel's weaknesses. Sometimes his strengths and weaknesses are the same thing: his brashness, his aggressiveness, his willingness to act as a law unto himself.
Losing comrades:
> Moshe Perry:
> Chen Rosenberg was my friend. Ten years after he was killed, I am still carrying his photo in my wallet. I am out of the army, married. I have children. Yet Chen's picture is still in my wallet.
This hit a chord. I have not fought a war, at least yet. There was that friend of mine from the army who suddenly disapeared from answering emails and phone calls. Me and his buddies thought he had something going on with his marriage, hey he might be becoming a father. After a year with no signs one of us, Willy, reached out to his family: he had died instantly from a rare blood disease. He was feeling bad for some days, went to hospital and died in a month. No offence to my other friends but losing an army friend is tough. I kept things from him that I had bought for some years then gave them away, George was the person that no matter what would make us laugh without being a joker. George was the kind of person that was a living ray of sunshine for the lives of the people around him, deserved more than anyone else to live longer and up to the moment that I got my son, I would swap places with him in the underworld without even thinking about it. Guess we will meet you at the end of my journey.
This also applies to startups:
> ... At the military boarding school, it was assumed that every graduate would volunteer for a fighting unit, the more elite, the better. We studied, we played sports, we trekked. We hiked all over Israel. We were unbelievably strong physically. But what was even more powerful were the principles that the school hammered into our skulls.
>
> First: Complete the mission.
>
> The phrase in Hebrew is Dvekut baMesima.
>
> Mesima is "mission"; dvekut means "glued to." The mission is every-thing. At all costs, it must be carried through to completion. I remember running up the Snake Trail at Masada one summer at 110 degrees Fahren-heit with two of my classmates. Each of us would sooner have died than be the first to call, "Hey, slow down!"
>
> Second: Whatever you do, do it to your utmost. The way you tie your shoes. The way you navigate at night. Nothing is academic.
>
> Third: En brera. "No alternative."
>
> We are Jews; we are surrounded by enemies who seek our destruction and the extermination of our people. There is no alternative to victory.
>
> In Squadron 119, Ran led us according to these principles. Complete the mission. Perform every action to perfection. Follow through at any cost.
Then there was one final principle, which was, and remains to this day, the secret weapon of IAF fighting doctrine. Here is how it was taught to me:
>
> I was talking with an older pilot. He asked me what I considered to be Ezer Weizman's most important contribution to the air force. Ezer was the IAF's boldest and most flamboyant commander.
>
> "That's easy," I said. "He got us seventy-two Mirages." Meaning the magnificent French-built warplanes that we flew in our squadron.
>
> "No, Giora," the veteran said. "Ezer introduced the culture of the ruthlessly candid debriefing."
At the end of each training day, the squadron met in the briefing room. Ran stood up front. He went over every mistake we had made that day—not just those of the young pilots, but his own as well. He was fearless in his self-criticism, and he made us speak up with equal candor. If you had screwed up, you admitted it and took your medicine. Ego meant nothing. Improvement was everything.
Leadership:
> I have learned one thing from this, my first experience of war: Leaders are everything.
>
> Individually, we soldiers may be brave. Collectively, we may make up a skilled, well-trained unit. But without a strong hand to guide us, we balk and freeze. We become confused and surrender initiative.
>
> I can see Uzi Eilat up front, leading the column. This is Israeli style: The company commander goes first. Is this crazy? He makes himself a prime target for a sniper. But by his presence, in the lead, we in the column are made strong.
>
> I know nothing. I can see nothing. But if Uzi tells me, "Do this," I will do it.
On planning:
> One thing must take place exactly as in the plans: the principle upon which these plans were made. Every man will attack. Every unit will push forward as fast as it can. Pay no attention to your flanks. Give no thought to resupply. If you lose nine tanks out of ten, keep advancing with the tenth. Stop for nothing.
Dayan:
> Dayan had more charisma than anyone I ever met. He turned it on one off like a light switch. You either loved him or hated him, often both at the same time. I used to ask myself, What is it about this guy that drives people so crazy? Why do his generals kiss up to him one minute, then con-spire to steal his credit in the next? Why do the Israeli people put him on a pedestal, then take such pleasure in tearing him down?
>
> One day it hit me.
>
> He is just like they are.
>
> Dayan is Israel, more even than Ben-Gurion.
>
> Dayan's strengths are Israel's strengths and his weaknesses are Israel's weaknesses. Sometimes his strengths and weaknesses are the same thing: his brashness, his aggressiveness, his willingness to act as a law unto himself.
Losing comrades:
> Moshe Perry:
> Chen Rosenberg was my friend. Ten years after he was killed, I am still carrying his photo in my wallet. I am out of the army, married. I have children. Yet Chen's picture is still in my wallet.
This hit a chord. I have not fought a war, at least yet. There was that friend of mine from the army who suddenly disapeared from answering emails and phone calls. Me and his buddies thought he had something going on with his marriage, hey he might be becoming a father. After a year with no signs one of us, Willy, reached out to his family: he had died instantly from a rare blood disease. He was feeling bad for some days, went to hospital and died in a month. No offence to my other friends but losing an army friend is tough. I kept things from him that I had bought for some years then gave them away, George was the person that no matter what would make us laugh without being a joker. George was the kind of person that was a living ray of sunshine for the lives of the people around him, deserved more than anyone else to live longer and up to the moment that I got my son, I would swap places with him in the underworld without even thinking about it. Guess we will meet you at the end of my journey.
November 9, 2025
My intent was to read this book in tandem with Nasser: The Last Arab: A Biography, by Saïd Aburish, but the Aburish book was so good that I decided to finish it first before continuing with the Pressfield book. The Pressfield book is important, though, and provides a nice counterbalance to the rather hagiographical Aburish book. Nasser was an amazing leader, but he was a dictator and in the eyes of the Israelis a cruel one. One theme that runs through The Lion's Gate is the role that Nasser's radio show, The Voice of the Arabs played in broadcasting Nasser propaganda throughout the Arab world (and of course the Israelis were listening in). One Israeli recounts in The Lion’s Gate being terrified as a child when The Voice of the Arabs announced that the Arabs would destroy the Jews.
I cannot rate The Lion's Gate very highly. It is essentially a collection of war stories, which I abhor (although I did find the chapter "The BAT Squadron" interesting). I’m sticking with the Goodreads rating system of "it was ok" for two stars. It was *just* ok though there were parts that I found better than others, like the last section on the aftermath of the war, where Moshe Dayan expresses his sympathy for the Arabs. An Israeli had planted an Israeli flag atop the Dome of the Rock, which Dayan ordered removed.
The battle stories were designed to stir up our sympathies for the Israelis and against the Arabs. The constant depictions of the Arab arms being vastly superior to what the poor Israelis could scrape together were tiresome and for the most part incorrect. Coleman Goldstein's statement that in 1948, "The only fighter planes the Israelis could get: the Czech version of the Messerschmitt 109, a postwar hunk of junk they called a mezek, 'mule'" was the most accurate of these mostly inaccurate statements. According to Google AI, "Israel's first combat aircraft were 25 Czech-built Avia S-199 fighters (an inferior version of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109), which were notoriously difficult to handle. Later acquisitions, however, included high-quality surplus World War II aircraft such as P-51 Mustangs, more Supermarine Spitfires, and B-17 bombers."
Other statements, though, were inaccurate or misleading. Moshe Dayan: "Against us now in Sinai are 130,000 troops, 900 tanks, and 1100 guns. Egypt has fielded the equivalent of seven divisions. We have three."
This makes it sound like the Arabs have more than twice the forces than the Israelis. But Google AI: "In May-June 1967, on the eve of the Six-Day War, Egypt had amassed between 550 and 1,000 tanks in the Sinai Peninsula. Most sources specify a number in the range of 900-950 tanks. These forces, which also included around 100,000 troops, were organized into seven divisions (four armored, two infantry, and one mechanized infantry) and deployed in three coordinated defensive lines. By contrast, the Israeli forces concentrated on the border with Egypt included approximately 70,000 men and 700 tanks, organized in three armored divisions."
The main difference though was the superior nature of the Israeli tanks and training. Nasser was not ready for a war in 1967 and he knew it.
In another inaccuracy, Yael Dayan said Egypt had better cannon but Google AI says "Israel had superior weaponry in terms of quality, technology, and the effective use of its equipment, while Egypt relied on a larger quantity of arms that were often older or less well-utilized,"and "in 1967, Israel generally had a qualitative edge in artillery technology and effectiveness, with better systems, training, and operational flexibility, even though Egypt had a numerical advantage in the total number of artillery pieces."
Yoram Zamosh reported that the Jordanians had Patton tanks ("for which our ancient Sherman’s were no match"). But Google AI says:
Israel's tank force was a mix of different types, including:
* Upgraded World War II-era M50 and M51 Super Shermans.
* French-made AMX-13 light tanks.
* British-made Centurion tanks (known as Sho't in Israeli service).
* Some American M48 Patton tanks (codenamed Magach).
Crucially, many of the Israeli Centurions and some M48 Pattons had been upgraded with the powerful British-designed 105mm L7 cannon, which had a greater range and striking power than the Jordanian 90mm guns.
The reports of wounded soldiers on the Israeli side were gruesome, but of course there were more casualties on the Arab side. Aburish recounts the number of Arab soldiers that were denied humanitarian aid by the Israelis and died in the Sinai desert. As a result. And of course, no one in The Lion's Gate recounts the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 American crew members and wounded 171 others. The Liberty was on a spy mission and it's likely that the Israelis knew that what the Liberty would have found wouldn’t have put Israel in a good light.
So go ahead and read this book but take each report with a grain of salt. Pressfield, to his credit, says in the introduction that his book is not a history of the Six Day War, and that it is not meant to be objective. And when you finish reading this book, make sure to read the Nasser biography, too.
I cannot rate The Lion's Gate very highly. It is essentially a collection of war stories, which I abhor (although I did find the chapter "The BAT Squadron" interesting). I’m sticking with the Goodreads rating system of "it was ok" for two stars. It was *just* ok though there were parts that I found better than others, like the last section on the aftermath of the war, where Moshe Dayan expresses his sympathy for the Arabs. An Israeli had planted an Israeli flag atop the Dome of the Rock, which Dayan ordered removed.
The battle stories were designed to stir up our sympathies for the Israelis and against the Arabs. The constant depictions of the Arab arms being vastly superior to what the poor Israelis could scrape together were tiresome and for the most part incorrect. Coleman Goldstein's statement that in 1948, "The only fighter planes the Israelis could get: the Czech version of the Messerschmitt 109, a postwar hunk of junk they called a mezek, 'mule'" was the most accurate of these mostly inaccurate statements. According to Google AI, "Israel's first combat aircraft were 25 Czech-built Avia S-199 fighters (an inferior version of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109), which were notoriously difficult to handle. Later acquisitions, however, included high-quality surplus World War II aircraft such as P-51 Mustangs, more Supermarine Spitfires, and B-17 bombers."
Other statements, though, were inaccurate or misleading. Moshe Dayan: "Against us now in Sinai are 130,000 troops, 900 tanks, and 1100 guns. Egypt has fielded the equivalent of seven divisions. We have three."
This makes it sound like the Arabs have more than twice the forces than the Israelis. But Google AI: "In May-June 1967, on the eve of the Six-Day War, Egypt had amassed between 550 and 1,000 tanks in the Sinai Peninsula. Most sources specify a number in the range of 900-950 tanks. These forces, which also included around 100,000 troops, were organized into seven divisions (four armored, two infantry, and one mechanized infantry) and deployed in three coordinated defensive lines. By contrast, the Israeli forces concentrated on the border with Egypt included approximately 70,000 men and 700 tanks, organized in three armored divisions."
The main difference though was the superior nature of the Israeli tanks and training. Nasser was not ready for a war in 1967 and he knew it.
In another inaccuracy, Yael Dayan said Egypt had better cannon but Google AI says "Israel had superior weaponry in terms of quality, technology, and the effective use of its equipment, while Egypt relied on a larger quantity of arms that were often older or less well-utilized,"and "in 1967, Israel generally had a qualitative edge in artillery technology and effectiveness, with better systems, training, and operational flexibility, even though Egypt had a numerical advantage in the total number of artillery pieces."
Yoram Zamosh reported that the Jordanians had Patton tanks ("for which our ancient Sherman’s were no match"). But Google AI says:
Israel's tank force was a mix of different types, including:
* Upgraded World War II-era M50 and M51 Super Shermans.
* French-made AMX-13 light tanks.
* British-made Centurion tanks (known as Sho't in Israeli service).
* Some American M48 Patton tanks (codenamed Magach).
Crucially, many of the Israeli Centurions and some M48 Pattons had been upgraded with the powerful British-designed 105mm L7 cannon, which had a greater range and striking power than the Jordanian 90mm guns.
The reports of wounded soldiers on the Israeli side were gruesome, but of course there were more casualties on the Arab side. Aburish recounts the number of Arab soldiers that were denied humanitarian aid by the Israelis and died in the Sinai desert. As a result. And of course, no one in The Lion's Gate recounts the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, which killed 34 American crew members and wounded 171 others. The Liberty was on a spy mission and it's likely that the Israelis knew that what the Liberty would have found wouldn’t have put Israel in a good light.
So go ahead and read this book but take each report with a grain of salt. Pressfield, to his credit, says in the introduction that his book is not a history of the Six Day War, and that it is not meant to be objective. And when you finish reading this book, make sure to read the Nasser biography, too.
May 25, 2014
My only complaint about The Lion's Gate is that Pressfield didn't expand this book into a broader, definitive history of the conflict. And trust me, this is a minor complaint. Riveting.
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