[A serious graduate student at Tel Aviv University related:] He had been a non-commissioned officer in the tank regiment which took Nablus, an Arab stronghold to the north of Jerusalem. As the regiment rolled into the city, guns swiveling the turrets, treads chewing up the stones, the entire Arab population came out cheering and waving flags. The Nablusians had been listening to the Arab radio which had just announced that Tel Aviv was in flames, its streets red with flowing blood. What also deceived these people was that the Israeli tanks did not invade (כצ”ל) Nablus from the east but from the west, the rear of the city. The Nablusians thought these tanks belonged to an Iraqi expeditionary force.They kept cheering[…] until they saw the Mogen David. Then they stopped cheering and went home.
The Israelis – Portrait of a People, NY 1972, by Harry Golden, p. 85-86