Sharon, 17 years after the end of the reprisal raids

Arik, now a major general (he had the rank of captain as the commander of 101) pauses for a moment while studying maps with another general. Taken during the Yom Kippur War, October 1973.

Motive for forming the unit

The background for the formation of Unit 101 emerged in part from the low morale the officers and soldiers felt while serving in the IDF after the War of Independence. This is seen in this quote from a report Moshe Dayan presented while Deputy Commander-in-Chief:

"Despite the winnowing out of the good soldiers (to courses, to the professional corps), soldiers that were border-line cases with regard to discipline were posted to battalions, command headquarters or various military installations. Soldiers who smoked hashish, criminals and thieves ('graduates of the prisons'), pimps and the like were sometimes sent as reinforcements to battalions. The health classification given to soldiers before their recruitment changes within a short time after their recruitment. Within the first month of military service ten per cent of the soldiers manage to obtain low health classifications and are released from military duty or are transferred to other units. The health level of low-ranking officers is also low. The number of officers in infantry units is miniscule. There are almost no platoon commanders of officer rank. The length of stay of an officer in a unit is generally brief. The level of NCOs is low. The level of shooting in target practice is extremely poor...Given these facts, the units lack the capacity to become combat units. They remain only as units entered in an officially-listed ledger."

Source: Drory, Ze'ev. Israel's Reprisal Policy 1953-1956: The Dynamics of Military Retaliation. Frank Cass Military Studies, Oxon, UK. 2005.

2007 anti-terror raid, Kalkiliya

This is a video uploaded in 2007 of an anti-terror squad in Kalkiliya. This is the same village in the West Bank where Meir Har-Zion was shot in the neck in September 1956 while conducting a raid on a Jordanian police fortress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA8TMnoc5EI

Sharon's final word on Meir Har-Zion,1998

"Meir Har-Zion was not a sociable man. He was not made for lavish receptions, or good at public relations. He was a true fighter, the greatest fighter we have ever had. His activities were spread over a relatively short time period, but they left a strong impact on the IDF and on its soldiers for many years, for generations.

The Israeli nation is fortunate. Today, after fifty years of independence, the Israelis still can see with their own eyes that their hero Har is not a legend, but a flesh-and-blood man of the land - living up there in the heights of Kochav HaRuchot, his star of the winds."

Source: Bar-Zohar.

Gulliver before the Nebi Samuel raid

The Israeli Defense Force has a link to Unit 101's first official operation. See it here:

http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/about/History/50s/1953/default.htm

"The darkness in the mountains never falls, but rises. It comes up from the valleys and ravines, crawls along the mountain slopes like a winding snake, until it overpowers the sun. The greatest deeds are carried out at night. In the middle of the night God struck down every firstborn child in Egypt. The children of Israel left Egypt at night. Gideon and his boy went down at night and hit the enemies in the camp of Midian and Amalek. The night abounds with magic and splendor. It bestows upon its heroes legendary strength. I simply love the night."

Yitzhak "Gulliver" Ben-Menachem, on the eve of the Nebi Samuel raid

Source: Bar-Zohar, Michael. Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel.