ABSTRACT
In his ground-breaking work on civil-military relations Samuel P. Huntington summed up the changes in the pattern of the relationship between political leaders and professional military commanders. This chapter analyzes the crisis in civil-military relations before the war and its influence on the setting of war targets and on the conduct of the war, the greatest military victory in Israel's history. Levi Eshkol became prime minister and minister of defence following the resignation of David Ben-Gurion. The generals respected Eshkol and appreciated the public backing he usually gave them, as well as his arms policy and the success he had in the US in this regard. Looking at the results of the Six Day War, Mordechai Bar-On raised the question of whether Israel had a 'dormant wish' to conquer the West Bank, given the disproportional reaction of the Israel Defence Forces to the Jordanian provocation on the first day of hostilities.
