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"If all the talk, rumors and leaks about the impending war are not a ploy, then this government is going out of its political mind." That line comes from the opening of an article headlined "Bloody Poker" in Haaretz on May 14, 1982, in which the writer warned the government about the danger of a large-scale military operation in Lebanon. But prime minister Menachem Begin and defense minister Ariel Sharon, a highly thought-of leadership duo, ignored the warnings and three weeks later invaded Lebanon and embroiled Israel in a bloody war that went on for years, during which high school students about to enlist sang a song that went, in rough translation, "Fly us off to Lebanon / There we'll fight for Sharon / And come back in a coffin." That war begat Shi'ite power, brought Hezbollah to...