ABSTRACT
SOVIET evaluations were mistaken, not only with respect to Israel's military capacity to confront the Arab states on the field of battle on her own but also with respect to the significance of the psychological impact of the Holocaust on the consciousness of the population of Israel when faced with declarations from Nasser and the other Arab leaders of their intention to wipe out Israel, an element which considerably heightened Israel's motivation to break out of the noose closing round her. It must nevertheless be assumed that Israel's mobilizing the reserves, Moshe Dayan's joining the government as Defense Minister, and the formation of a government of National Unity must have alerted the Soviet leadership to the imminence of a conflagration in the region as a result of the maritime blockade of Israel on the Gulf of Aqaba, the Egyptian troop concentration to the south of Israel, and Nasser's threats of extermination.
