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"Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight."
Gamel Abdel Nasser,May 3oth 1967.
From "A Nation Under Siege"
- Time Magazine Friday 9th June 1967
"...Only three-fourths of Israel's reserves were mobilized when war began. Now the radio read out the code names of the remaining units: Love of Zion, Close Shave, Men of Work, Alternating Current, Open Window, Good Friends. Throughout the tiny nation, youths and middle-aged men scrambled into the streets, half in uniform, half in mufti, bundles and knapsacks thrown over their shoulders as they headed for their prearranged secret rendezvous with buses.
The buses used to deliver the reservists to their units in the field were
often reserves too: laundry trucks, ice-cream trucks, even taxis and private
cars drafted along with Israel's men and women. All were elements of a superbly
organized and functioning system that Major General Dayan helped to create
between 1953 and 1956 when he was Israeli Chief-of-Staff. Israeli tanks,
each manned by a single regular of Israel's 50,000-man standing army, waited
in convenient tank parks for the two or three reservists required to complete
each crew. The tanks were ready to move out, complete with helmets, razors
and toothbrushes. Each crew had been assigned battle sectors, rendezvous
points and objectives. Israeli Intelligence had tracked the Arab enemy to
the last desert dune. The system worked so well that Israel was able to
field a fighting force of 235,000 men within 48 hours.