Grandma's army

  A DIFFERENT WAR – I   The Israeli paratrooper battalion was duly dropped at the Mitla Pass , in the Sinai Peninsular of Egypt, as the detonator for an international bombshell - the French and British landings in Suez. That was its sole mission. As for the Israeli objective, Moshe Dayan , the IDF Chief of Staff, knew that the only way to get the Tiran Straits reopened and free passage guaranteed by the Americans was, if we are holding Sharm el Sheikh .   So, the children of Israel went marching once more into the Sinai desert as in Bible times - only this time going the other way! The route to reach Sharm was “man-killing” territory, murder on machines, and seventy miles of it uphill. They knew they had only three days in order to stall the UN from forcing them to withdraw.   When the brigade had at last struggled over the top of the seventy-mile rise, it was strung far out of sight along the slope, and desperately needed a respite.   The politica...

  A DIFFERENT WAR The idea for “Grandma’s Army” began when I had seven grandchildren in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the same time.   However, my family’s participation in the IDF started off   much earlier - when Israel barely had an army and I was decidedly not a grandma!   The war, in which my husband   took part, is   usually known as the Suez Crisis. It took place only eight years after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, and had far-reaching consequences - at both global and regional levels.  On regional levels, the war gave an impetus to the spread of pan-Arabic ideology, leading to the unification of Syria and Egypt and creating the UAR (United Arab Republic). On global levels it marked, not only the end of the British and French influence in the Middle East, but also the decline of the two European powers. It’s outcome was arguably one of the most significant episodes in post-1945 British history, highlighting Br...