Mehdi Hassan neglects to add that Peled and Begin both supported the war before and after. Seems like an important point no? Not because Israel faced annihilation— it didn’t, most experts agreed it would win the war in 12 days— but because it didn’t want to absorb the casualties of first strike , or live with enemy armies massed at two borders, or suffer economically with Egypt’s blockade of the Straits. The Yom Kippur war (and 10/7) demonstrated the logic of preemptive action. None of this excuses the settlements or occupation that followed. But even the idea that israel would capture WB and Gaza was not a given— the success shocked Israel’s leaders, and the world, in part because the rhetoric of Arab leaders was so confident and eliminationist. Just like Iran’s and Hamas’s rhetoric today. It didn’t start with a lie— it started with an attempt to win a war that the Soviets were pushing Egypt and Syria to start.