But his views on Israel soon began to change. "I started to hear things, in the attitude of young officers above all, that I had never heard before, expressions of nationalism, anti-Arab xenophobia, land hunger - 'why didn't we go all the way to Damascus?', 'the only good Arab is a dead Arab' - that sort of thing." The "conquistador attitude in Israeli officers", Judt says, "gave the lie to the idea that there was something special about this war, this occupation, this army - myths that many Israelis still believe in ... By the time I went back to Cambridge at the end of the summer, I was already pretty critical of Israel: it was clear in my mind that the huge acquisition of land and people as a result of the war wasn't going to work. What kind of Jewish state was this