India, July 26 -- Every year on the twenty-sixth of July, India pauses to remember the men who fought and died to reclaim the heights of Kargil. For those of us who have served in uniform, that anniversary carries a weight that does not diminish with time. It also carries a question that is seldom asked plainly: when India found itself fighting a war it had not anticipated, against an adversary dug into positions of commanding advantage, which country stood beside it without hesitation? The answer, now part of documented military history, is Israel.

The spring of 1999 exposed a series of critical gaps in India's military preparedness. Pakistani forces, occupying ridgelines in the Kargil-Dras sector at altitudes that made conventional gro...