The Lion’s Gate

Drawing on interviews with Israeli soldiers, pilots, commanders and civilians, Steven Pressfield reconstructs the Six-Day War through the testimony of those who experienced it. The accounts follow the opening air campaign, the fighting in Sinai, the battle for Jerusalem and operations on the Golan Heights.

Rather than presenting a conventional strategic history, the book concentrates on individual decisions, fear, improvisation and the culture of the Israeli armed forces. Its speakers explain how a small state mobilised for a conflict it believed threatened its survival and how the rapid victory transformed Israel and the wider Middle East.