MY SAY: THE SIX DAY WAR June 5, 1967
The Six-Day War broke out on June 5, 1967 and changed the map of the region and the pride of Jews throughout the world. The late Ida Nudel the famous and heroic “refusenik” who defied the KGB thugs once told me that Israel’s victory inspired her and others to accelerate their fight against Soviet oppression of its Jewish population. In America, it opened a floodgate of support and admiration as thousands of American Jews entered academic and business institutions formerly restricted to them.
After repeated provocations and terrorism from all the surrounding Arab nations, with blood curdling Jihadist threats from the entire Arab/Moslem world, Nasser announced “The hour has come in which we will destroy the Jewish State.”
Arab troops surrounded Israel, the straights of Tiran were closed to Israeli shipping crucial for commerce and movement of goods and oil. When Jordan allied itself with Egypt, Nasser announced: “The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel…to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. ” To match arms to their threats the Arabs amassed 465,000 troops, more than 2,800 tanks, and 800 aircraft ringed Israel.
The rest is history:In a surprise move, Israeli Air Force destroyed 400 Egyptian planes, drove Syria from the Golan Heights and captured all of Jerusalem, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula and Judea and Samaria.
Twenty three years and virtually to the day of the Normany Invasion of 1944 which was the beginning of the end of a war which killed one of every three Jews in world, the Jewish nation struck back against superior and well armed enemies and prevailed. Wow!
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