Sad, But True

In his commentary, How Will Israel Fare Against Hezbollah and Hamas?, Barry Farber relates some very interesting stories about Israel. I had not heard any of them before. He saved the best for last though, when he interviewed General Haim Herzog after the 6-Day War in 1967. For the first 37 hours, even though Israel was wiping out their enemies, as far as the world knew, Israel was losing. Israel said nothing at all about their battlefield victories. His first question for the General:

I would simply repeat Gen. Herzog's eight-second answer to the question "Why did Israel for the first time in military history try to conceal battlefield success?"

"You see," replied Gen. Herzog, "we knew that as long as the world believed the Egyptians, as long as the world thought Israel was losing, THE UNITED NATIONS WOULD TAKE NO ACTION!"