Reflective passage on post‑war Israel and early Arab conflict

the land, and of controlling the daily lives, however benignly, of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who lived there. Nor, crucially, did we ponder the limitations of military strength, alone, in addressing these questions. We — and I, too, at the time — were too caught up in a sense of post-war relief, celebration and, as the months of ostensible normalcy in this new Israel, complacency as well. But within only a few years, we would face a dramatically different series of challenges. First, a campaign of Palestinian terror. Then, another full-scale war, which began with a surprise attack by Arab armies which we had assumed would not dare to fight us again. 97 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_027945