A few days ago we were en route to Jerusalem from a Druze village in the north, tight against the Syrian border. There was bloody fighting here in 1973, a surprise attack on the Israelis from Syria on Yom Kippur. The Israelis were apparently caught unawares and as a consequence were fighting for their survival.

There is a very good museum near there with a video of the military action. It’s grainy and unfocused but there is no doubt that these clumsy tanks are in a battle to the death. And for many of those in the tanks, that’s how it ended.

Israel’s hastily put together defenses held and the Syrians were pushed back. Today, nearly half a century later, you can see tanks and minefields and barbed wire in the area, and other signs of hostilities barely tamped down.

See the column of smoke from the Syrian civil war?