As a result of the armistice line in 1949, before the 1967 war Israel was living in a precarious military situation because of its lack of strategic depth in which to deploy… Furthermore the very nature of Israel’s borders meant danger: the Gaza Strip occupied by the Egyptians in 1948 was like a dagger poised against the main centres of population in southern Israel and along the coast; Jerusalem was divided and on a number of occasions Jordanian soldiers or local Jordanians had opened fire in the middle of the city with all that that had entailed. An advance by Jordanian troops of some 500 yards from areas along the main road to Jerusalem would have cut the main artery to the capital of Israel. Jordanian forces stationed on the hills above Kalkilyeh looked down upon Tel Aviv and its satellite cities, accommodating some 40% of Israel’s population, while those stationed at Tulkarm observed the coastal city of Netanya, 10 miles away, fully aware of the fact that an armoured thrust by them across this short distance would cut the State of Israel in two at its narrow Waistline. On the Golan Heights Syrian troops looked down on the Israeli villages in the Jordan Valley and harassed them with fire over the years.