Milstein was one of the first academics to openly criticize the Israeli defense establishment . He is described as being too extreme in his conclusions , but his although he has been researching Israeli military history for over 50 years , claims to have conducted thousands of interviews and owns 500 gigabytes of interviews and documents . " In 1988 in Military Court in defense of the sentry from the " Night of the Gliders , Milstein testified that fleeing in the face of danger is a normal phenomenon , that even men who achieved high rank in the IDF acted thus . When the judges asked him to elaborate he told of Yitzhak Rabin ( then minister of defense ) fleeing the battle he commanded on April 20 , 1948 ( the " blood convoy " ) . The judges ignored his testimony and Rabin 's office refused to speak to journalists about it . Milstein claims that shortly before his death , at a gathering of ex-Palmach members ( hosted by Micha Peri in Tel-Aviv ) Rabin admitted fleeing the battle
Night of the Gliders
Night of the Gliders
Uri Milstein