As it happens, I've just started reading Michael Oren's 'Six Days of War'; the parallels are striking. Then as now, (as I recall) Israel faced a bellicose and seemingly formidable enemy, backed by a ruthless superpower. Israel's allies, then as now, were determined to constrain it. Then as now, the enemy's power was a chimera and Israel's actions were more than justified by subsequent events.
Yet, then is not now and Israel, it seems to me, is in a weaker political position than 1967, not least of all because its allies are markedly more pusillanimous. China is unlikely to threaten to send in its paratroopers to back Iran, but it can certainly punish Israel in other ways.
In the end, though, Israel may have little choice but to act boldly - then as now.
As it happens, I've just started reading Michael Oren's 'Six Days of War'; the parallels are striking. Then as now, (as I recall) Israel faced a bellicose and seemingly formidable enemy, backed by a ruthless superpower. Israel's allies, then as now, were determined to constrain it. Then as now, the enemy's power was a chimera and Israel's actions were more than justified by subsequent events.
Yet, then is not now and Israel, it seems to me, is in a weaker political position than 1967, not least of all because its allies are markedly more pusillanimous. China is unlikely to threaten to send in its paratroopers to back Iran, but it can certainly punish Israel in other ways.
In the end, though, Israel may have little choice but to act boldly - then as now.