Maintaining these boundaries

Maintaining these boundaries was not easy. Unlike in other books, books in which the participants are removed far from the process of writing, the protagonist's picture this time was painted without any poetic license. I knew the story must be published in every detail. All the dialogue is true. They also filmed movies based on his book.

Over the last year I paid many visits to Shoshanna's Estate and talked with Meir. From the balcony of the house I looked out over the mountains and valleys and appreciated the immensity and beauty of the open spaces. Though hidden then, later as I listened to the stories of Meir, their romance seized me as I sat in my room and began to tell the tale. I kept asking myself where it comes from - this impulse to break boundaries and conventions, walk little-trod paths, climb to the mountain eyries, to be the first and last visitor to those precious places no one sees.

Not all actions

Not all actions, while the diaries were being written, were recorded. If unmentioned, the action was unrecorded. But no recorded action was omitted. The diaries join Meir's story on Rose Manor - the story of rehabilitation after injury in a harsh action against the police. This occurred near the edge of Mount Hebron at the time of the Sinai Campaign. Read the discourse presented in the book with a grain of salt, though it is real. In the telling of one story, another unfolded. I asked Meir to come to me and tell me the story of my sister Shoshanna, murdered by Bedouins in the Judean desert at the end of 1954. Shoshanna's story led to Meir's story. Our conversations lasted over a year and were recorded on tape.

Foreword

Dear reader,

Here you are presented with a unique book. If in buying this book you seek a literary standard, remember that no literature is of use but that which claims the author's whole strength. This is a document of my life - this is a document of an era. General events and personal doubts, successes and failures, bad and good fit into the picture - described unembellished and without an attempt to excuse anything. The diary entries, begun by a young boy at Kibbutz Ein-Harod and continued by the same man as an IDF soldier, are submitted to the reader in their full content and original style. No corrections have been made from foreign tongues - to maintain the authenticity of the original ones. Over the years, various papers published some of the entries, but they were often distorted. There is thus no comparison between the passages as they appeared in the press and the events narrated in the diaries as they occurred.

At the store

Introduction by General Ariel Sharon, continued

Combat commanders are tested mainly when they are asked to carry out an assignment independently, when there is no higher officer of a higher rank around to help and rescue them if necessary from the battlefield, an officer who will notice them during a battle. The greatest effort is demanded of an independent officer. He leads his men, fights himself, heads the attack, and brings his men back to their base safely after the battle. An officer in this situation decides whether or not the mission will be carried out and decides how it will be carried out.

Introduction by General Ariel Sharon

Meir came to us when Unit 101 was established. He had been a corporal in the Nahal who could not find peace there for his stormy spirit, for his desire to be active, for his belief that we must and could find a way to overcome the Arab terrorist activity. Within a short time he became the most daring fighter in Unit 101 and the paratroopers, and an excellent scout, perhaps the best that the IDF has ever known.

He outshone the others by far in leadership qualities. His achievements on the battlefield were many. He commanded several operations himself, and played a major role in others. Meir Har-Zion became a symbol of a fighter in the paratroop units and in the army as a whole.

Memoir Chapters: Table of Contents

Memoir Chapters: Meir Har-Zion

Set by Naomi Frankel

Drawings & maps by Sol Baskin

1. Introduction by Naomi Frankel

2. About Meir Har-Zion's book by General Ariel Sharon

3. Dialogue on Mount of the Winds

4. Travel diary

5. Dialogue at midnight

6. Military diary

7. Ahuzath Shoshana

8. The Reprisal Raids: A lecture by Moshe Dayan (1955)