June 5, 1967: The Six Day War
In six daysIsrael barely 19 years old and 31 years after the end of the Holocaust captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. It was a crushing defeat for the Arabs.
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had ordered the United Nations out of the Suez region and had their peace-keeping troops replaced with Egyptian military personnel, enforced a naval blockade which closed off the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, and declared: “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight.”On one occasion, he told listeners of Voice of the Arabs that “every one of the 100 million Arabs has been living for the past 19 years on one hope – to live to die on the day that Israel is liquidated”. He emphasized his threats by massing over 100,000 troops in the Sinai. Syrians massed 75,000 troops, artillery and armor on the Golan Heights. Jordan moved 55,000 troops and 300 tanks to the border.
These unendurable and blood curdling threats were echoed from Jihadist cheerleaders in every single Arab state. On June 5th, 1967 Israel launched pre-emptive strikes, overwhelming their armies and air power, and captured the Golan, the Sinai Peninsula, and liberated Judea and Samaria, and East Jerusalem.
This stunning victory reverberated and inspired Jews in every corner of the world- from Moscow to Argentina- from Uzbekistan to London- from Capetown to Los Angeles.
It is worth revisiting the value of premption and the will to forgo appeasement and worthless negotiations with implacable enemies.
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