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Book Review: Israel's 55th Paratroop Brigade

(Wall Street Journal) Elliott Abrams - In Like Dreamers, Yossi Klein Halevi tells the story of modern Israel - from 1967 to the present day - from the point of view of seven soldiers in Israel's elite 55th Paratroop Brigade. "I thought about interviewing veterans of the battle of Jerusalem," he writes. "How had the war changed their lives?" He has spent the past 10 years following their lives. The title of the book comes from the 126th Psalm: "When the Lord returned the exiles of Zion, we were like dreamers." Halevi explains, "For Jews to have learned to fight so well, so soon after they died in their helpless millions, was an affirmation of their life force. The world hadn't changed: not only was Auschwitz possible, but so was an assault on its survivors. No matter: the Jews had changed." Then, in 1973, Israel was caught by surprise on Yom Kippur. "It was the fifth war in Israel's twenty-five years of existence." The 55th Brigade pushed the Egyptians back from Sinai and crossed into Egypt. But these were no longer the youngsters of 1967: "Most of them were now in their late twenties and early thirties, married with children."
2013-10-04 00:00:00
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