Editing Masada (section)

== Legacy ==
=== World War II ===
The Masada story was the inspiration for the "Masada plan" devised by the British during the Mandate era. The plan was to man defensive positions on [[Mount Carmel, Israel|Mount Carmel]] with [[Palmach]] fighters, to stop [[Erwin Rommel]]'s expected drive through the region in [[1942]]. The plan was abandoned following Rommel's defeat at [[Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ben-Yehuda |first=Nachman |title=Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoXUXvBUUjgC&q=Masada+plan&pg=PA131|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1995 |pages=131–132 |isbn=978-0-299-14833-1}}</ref>

=== Israeli army ===
[[File:Masada Stamps.jpg|thumb|Set of three Masada commemorative stamps, issued by Israel in 1965]]
The chief of staff of the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF), [[Moshe Dayan]], initiated the practice of holding the swearing-in ceremony of [[Israeli Armoured Corps]] soldiers who had completed their ''[[tironut]]'' (IDF basic training) on top of Masada. The ceremony ended with the declaration: "Masada shall not fall again." The soldiers climbed the Snake Path at night and were sworn in with torches lighting the background.<ref>Dan Bitan, [http://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=13096 Mesada the Symbol and the Legend], the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert, 1960, Yad Ben Zvi</ref> These ceremonies are now also held at various other memorable locations, including the [[Armoured Corps Memorial]] at [[Latrun]], the [[Western Wall]] and [[Ammunition Hill]] in [[Jerusalem]], [[Akko Prison]], and training bases.