Martin van Creveld writes in the Jewish Journal:
In 1973, the IDF fought as well as in 1967, if not better. Since then, however, its performance has steadily deteriorated.
Forty years after June 1967, the point remains that an army is only as good as its opponent. A force that beginning with the 1982 invasion of Lebanon has fought only opponents much weaker than itself has become weak; a sword thrust into saltwater will rust.
If the 2006 war in Lebanon proved anything, it was just how rusty Israel’s "Swift, Terrible Sword"
— the title of one of the countless books written about the 1967 war— has become. It also proved that as long as the Israelis go on fighting the weak, they risk leaving themselves unprepared to resist the strong who may still come at them.
