The cluster of extinct volcanoes known as Mount Hermon actually encompasses three mountain peaks, not one: they sit on the border between Lebanon and Syria, as well as the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Today, other than the wind, the summits are quiet. The air feels thin and the sunlight diluted; the vast slopes roll away into hazy views of three countries long roiled by war and internal strife. On the Israeli side of Mount Hermon there is now a ski resort. But in 1973, when 20-year-old Nir Atir was stationed in the southern Golan, the view was very different. The tank...