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The Heights Of Courage Analysis

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Avigdor Kahalani’s “The Heights of Courage” gives a gritty, chaotic, and heroic first person account of the Yom Kippur War from the eyes of a Centurion Tank Battalion Commander at the tactical level of war and the complexities that lie their in. From his viewpoint, we are invited to witness the convergence of complex factors under difficult conditions in the pursuit of achieving victory.
Ultimately, his actions and those of countless others, was more than just a fight for retention of land but a fight for survival of the Jewish Nation as Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a coordinated attack against Israel on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Displayed throughout “The Heights of Courage” there is one key element that drives at the …show more content…
Battles are not won in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC), they are won by the men and women who are eye to eye with the enemy and death. During the six day war Kahalani recounts his first brush with death not even 24 hours into the war.
His tank bucked from the impact of the shell. He strained, trying to pull himself through the cupola not once but twice, as the intensity of the heat and roiling inferno consumed him and his tank crew. He describes “drowning man’s vision” what I can only assume is the last mental image of those he loved before dying. That withstanding, Kahalani uses ever fiber of his remaining strength to pull himself from the tank. He looked death in eye and willed himself out of its gaze. Other members of his family were not as fortunate during the Yom Kippur War.
Kahalani details the death of his brother, the pain can be sensed as he discusses the memories of Emanuel’s, “sad eyes” when they last parted before war. As well as the love he had for his brother during a joyfully memory of the smile on Emanuel’s face the day he got

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