HAKOL Six Day War - October 2012

Israel’s Six Day War 45th Anniversary

Surrounded, Israel makes preemptive strike This year marks the 45th anniversary of Israel’s Six Day War. Those days still loom vividly in the minds of those who were there. They also explain how Israel came to control the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

“Moshe Dayan: Story of My Life,” he says, “I sensed with my entire being the tension that gripped the country …these seemed to be political-military problems.

But I knew in my bones that there were basically historical Jewish problems which were rooted in our past. How we tackled them would determine our future.”

Assessing a growing threat

Pre-empting military strikes

By Jennifer Lader Editor, HAKOL

After Israel’s war for Independence in 1948 and in Sinai in 1956, the nation experienced several years of relative peace.

Military leaders like Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan settled down with their families.

However, beginning in 1966, terrorist attacks from outside Israel increased, with dozens occurring in early 1967. On March 5, 1967, for example, an Israeli tractor plowing near Kibbutz Shamir, close to the Syrian border, ran over a mine, and the farmer was seriously injured.

On May 20, Syrian Defense Minister Hafez Assad (father of the current president of Syria) referred to that country’s stance toward Israel when he said: “The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united …”

In response to the terrorism, Israel carried out reprisal attacks in Jordan and against Syria.

Meanwhile, the Soviets, who had for some time been involved in the region, passed false information to Syria about Israeli plans for future attacks, leading Syria to request that Egypt honor their mutual defense pact.

On May 22, Egyptian President Nasser ordered the United Nations out of the Egyptian-Israeli border and closed the Straits of Tiran, a recognized act of war, stopping the flow of oil from Israel’s main supplier, Iran. He assembled armies on the borders of Israel: Egypt had allies in Syria and Jordan, as well as Kuwait, Libya and Lebanon. “We aim at the destruction of the State of Israel,” Nasser said.

On June 4, 1967, Iraq joined the military alliance with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Approximately 465,000 troops, more than 2,800 tanks and 800 aircraft, now ringed Israel.

The Eshkol government in Israel was reshuffled and Moshe Dayan was appointed Minister of Defense. In

At the Western Wall of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Goren blew the shofar …

Nearby, troops of the 55th Brigade, finish their song.

Jerusalem of gold, Let me be the violin for all your songs!

They could not stay to celebrate, but went on to take the Golan Heights.

Major General Mottie (Mordecai) Hod commanded the air force and had made its operations into a science. He told the Israeli cabinet, “Egypt has at least 800 planes and Israel 350.” This shook the cabinet. However, Hod went on to say, “We can destroy Egypt and any others who intervene.”

Israel decided to preempt the expected Arab attack and needed the element of surprise. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol gave the order to attack Egypt.

The entire Israeli Air Force, except for a dozen fighters assigned to defend Israeli air space, took off starting at 7:14 a.m. on June 5. They bombed Egyptian airfields while the Egyptian pilots were eating breakfast.

Israeli fighters then attacked the Jordanian and Syrian air forces, as well as one airfield in Iraq. By the end of the first day, nearly the entire Egyptian and Jordanian air forces, and half the Syrian’s, had been destroyed on the ground.

Later that day, Dayan spoke via an armed forces broadcast: “… We are a small people but a brave one, seeking peace, but ready to fight for its life and its country,” he said. “Soldiers of Israel’s Defense Forces, in you today we repose our hopes.”

Later, Army General George C. Marshall called the military operations “the greatest gamble with the largest payoff in the history of military aviation.”

Crossing the desert

Brigadier General Yisrael Tal then moved in on the ground with tanks in the south, capturing Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula.

General Abraham Joffe crossed the sand dunes to secure a continuous land link with units in Sharm el-Sheikh, near the Straits of Tiran. For two days, he and his forces had little sleep; they struggled

General Abraham Joffe crossed the sand dunes to secure a continuous land link with units in Sharm el-Sheikh [near the Straits of Tiran]. For two days, few slept and vehicles foundered in the sand. Finally, Joffe ordered a two hour rest. He lay down and gazed at Mount Sinai.

Suddenly, came a voice [from the radio] …

Abraham, Abraham, where are you?

[Thinks: It’s Moshe Dayan.]

Abraham is here.

How are your camels?

OK. Then drive faster!

Joffe and his men arose and continued.

on even as their vehicles foundered in the sand. Finally, Joffe ordered a two-hour rest. He lay down and gazed at Mount Sinai.

Suddenly, came a voice from the radio: “Abraham, Abraham, where are you?”

“Abraham is here,” Joffe answered.

He recognized the voice as belonging to Moshe Dayan.

The voice from the radio asked, “How are your camels?”

“OK,” Joffe said.

“Then drive faster!”

Joffe and his men arose and continued.

Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon and his men aimed to break through the central axis.

However, on the way, they lost their artillery battery in the sand.

“Leave the men, but take the bulldozer,” Sharon said.

The Israeli soldiers met fierce fighting.

Fifteen hundred yards from their target area, Sharon ordered a 15-minute break.

Suddenly, out of the swift-falling dark, came the lost artillery battery. It placed its guns in five minutes and opened fire.

Eventually, the Sinai was secured and the Straits of Tiran reopened for international navigation.

Reclaiming the Old City

In the first days of the war, teacher Mattan Gur had gone to school as usual.

When he came home, a staff car awaited.

He returned to school and gave his students assignments for the homefront, and then joined his men at the 55th Paratroop Brigade.

Gur’s brigade of Jordan was assigned to take from King Hussein the Old City of Jerusalem. On the hot and crowded bus to Jerusalem, the soldiers sang, “Your name burns my lips like a seraphim’s kiss, Let me not forget thee, O Jerusalem of gold … ” Once off the bus, they had to attack the Jordanian Police School compound. The fighting was fierce on the streets of Jerusalem.

The Israelis were victorious. Access to the Wall had been denied to Jews for the previous 19 years. When the soldiers entered the Old City, someone cried, “No longer will the Western Wall be known as

the Wailing Wall!”

Dayan reported that the Israelis pulled the bars and barricades down and reunited the two halves of Jerusalem and that there was a festive air. “Arabs crowded Zion Square in the heart of the New City and Jews went into the Old City bazaars,” he writes in “The Story of My Life.”

At the Western Wall of Jerusalem, Rabbi Shlomo Goren blew the shofar.

Nearby, troops of the 55th Brigade sang once again, “Jerusalem of gold, Let me be the violin for all your songs!” However, they could not stay to celebrate, but went on to take the Golan Heights.

Scaling the Golan Heights

Dayan writes: “The battle for the Golan turned out … to be a one-phase operation, the breakthrough phase.” The Syrian troops retreated and Israeli troops moved into Syria, near Damascus.

U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk advised the Israelis to accept a ceasefire out of concern for awakening active Russian participation. On June 10, Israel agreed.

The war was over by that evening.

Laying down their swords

Later, speaking before the United Nations, Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban said, “It was the only war in history where the victor sued for peace and the vanquished demanded unconditional surrender!”

The troops had unified Jerusalem and captured the Sinai, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip the and West Bank. In the process, Israel had tripled the size of the area it controlled, from 8,000 to 26,000 square miles. Israel now had jurisdiciton over three-quarters of a million Palestinians.

As the Israeli Defense Forces returned to civilian life, Dayan spoke to them in a radio address. “The battle is over,” Dayan said, “but there is no end to our struggle.

Return your swords to their scabbards, but keep them ready, for the time has not yet come when you may beat them into plowshares.”

Illustrations by Stacey Goldberg HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | OCTOBER 2012 17

Photo courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by MICHA HAN & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Israel’s Six In early June, 1967, neighboring nations surround Israel with 465,000 troops. The Egyptian leader speaks of pushing Israel into the sea. On June 6, 1967, the Israeli Air Force uses most of its 300 fighter planes to begin a preemptive strike that destroys most of Egypt’s 800 fighter planes while they were on the ground at Egyptian air bases and while Egyptian pilots are at their breakfast.

Photo by RUBINGER DAVID & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

LEFT, Army Chief Chaplain Rabbi Shlomo Goren, flanked

by IDF soldiers, blows the shofar in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

ABOVE, Israel succeeded in opening the straits of Tiran. Here, an Israeli gun boat passes through the straits.

RIGHT, Brigade General Ariel (Arik) Sharon and Brigade General Gavish Yeshayahu and field commanders confer with other field commanders in Sinai.

Photo courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by YAACOV AGOR & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Prior to the Six Day War, Jordan controlled the Old City of Jerusalem. Here, Commander Motta Gur and his brigade observe the Temple Mount from their command post on Mount Olive just prior to their attack of the Old City.

RIGHT, Shortly after the IDF wrested control of the Old City from Jordan, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan (center), Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin (right) and Jerusalem Commander Uzi Narkis enter through the Lion’s Gate into the Old City.

THIS 4-PAGE SUPPLEMENT ON ISRAEL’S SIX DAY WAR IS UNDERWRITTEN BY:

CHARLES KLINE B’NAI B’RITH LODGE Allentown, Pennsylvania

Israeli tanks advance on the Golan Heights.

18 OCTOBER 2012 | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY

Photo courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by TAL SHABTAI & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Day War LEFT, Israeli armored units prepare for ground action on the outskirts of Rafa, located at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, to reinforce the air strikes.

Members of the Army Medical Corps evacuate wounded soldiers by air from El Arish Airport.

An Israeli gun boat at Sharem El Sheikh near the straits of Tiran.

LEFT, By the end of the Six Day War, Israel had jurisdiction over threequarters of a million Palestinians. Here, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan (right) talks with a local Arab at King Solomon’s pool south of Bethlehem.

BELOW, One of the paratroopers who took part in the battle for the Old City of Jerusalem celebrates his wedding in front of the Western Wall.

Photo by AHARON TZUKERMAN & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by ARYEH KANPER & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by ASSAF KUTIN & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by MOSHE MILNER & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Egypt had closed the straits of Tiran, critical to Israel’s oil supply, to international shipping in the days leading up to the Six Day War. This photo shows an Israeli communications unit at Sharem El Sheikh, near the straits of Tiran.

Photo by YAACOV AGOR & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by YAACOV AGOR & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

Photo by ILAN BRUNER & courtesy of the Government Press Office of Israel

ABOVE, An Israeli armored unit enters Gaza.

Two Israeli soldiers hoist the Israeli flag on top of the entrance to the police fortress in Jenin.

HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY | OCTOBER 2012 19

Israel’s Six Day War For Valley residents, crisis leads to connection

By Kathleen Mory Interim Marketing Associate In early June of 1967, Israel became entangled in a war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria and their allies. The Israeli forces immediately took the offensive stance, using a preemptive and critical air strike against the Egyptian Air Force and bold military action on the ground. Because of this strategy and the ability to take action quickly, Israel was able to defeat their opponents in six days, despite the odds stacked against them. It was a true testament to Israel’s perseverance as a nation.

American newspapers, including the precursor of The Morning Call covered the story that unfolded over the following days. Every morning, concerned Lehigh Valley readers looked to their local newspaper to learn the advancements in the rapid-paced war. The war progressed as quickly as the minutes passed and printing that information was vital to the papers’ readership. Jews and non-Jews worried about what was happening in Israel, shocked at the odds against Israel.

“It was an emotional time,” remembers “Natalie” who preferred to not have her real name be used. She and others recalled that the Lehigh Valley Jewish community at the time extended their heartfelt and charitable sympathies by offering up donations to help support loved ones and fellow Israeli community members in their time of need.

Over the course of June 5 through 11, community members obtained $400,000 in pledges, $175,000 of it in cash. The Jewish Federation of Allentown held a rally to collect the donations, as did other cities and towns in the Lehigh Valley and across the country.

“I gave $1,000,” recalled “Eli,” who asked that his real name not be used. “I was scared because it was the first time I had given anything.” He said that other people wanted to give more than they had and mortgaged their homes, concluding: “They were scared too.”

This charitable outpouring was a visceral reaction to the risks that the Israeli army was taking to defend Israel, a risk that would cost some their lives.

Although unfounded, there were worries that funds would not be used for their designated purpose.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1967 The Six-Day War has resulted in profound changes in the relationships between American Jews and the Israeli people and, particularly, between the youth of the two countries, the North American Jewish Youth Council was told here yesterday.

Addressing the three-day conference of the council at Surprise Lake Camp, Yaacov Morris, Israeli diplomat and representative of the Jewish Agency, said that the war had “not only brought Western Jews back to Judaism but also brought many Israelis back to the Jewish people as well. In terms of the future,” he added, “this means that the two-way bridge between the Jews of Israel and the United States has been strengthened and in some ways rebuilt. There is now a two-way bridge between equals.”

Haber says diversion of funds following war have hurt programs throughout world “That wouldn’t have been fair,” Eli said. Because rumors abounded that the money may be used locally, the community found itself in a state of unrest. However, the donations were delivered to Israel to help pay for food, supplies and all other necessities that the cost of the war would diminish.

The real issue, as it transpired, was that charitable giving requires an element of trust. Since this was many donors’ first time giving money, the experience was new and at first discomfiting.

The aftermath and reaction of the Six-Day War in the Allentown area were notable in what they accomplished. Israel won the war and found itself with new, more defensible borders.

In the Lehigh Valley, the crisis created a greater sense of connection with Israel.

Both Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the area celebrated with a sense of relief and accomplishment once the announcement came that the war was over. “Everyone was overjoyed,” said Natalie.

The shared sense of purpose established within the Allentown Jewish community a bond that could not be matched or shaken.

It is a bond that is still evident today and has grown to include the entire Lehigh Valley.

The Six-Day War was a time of not only Israel’s military success, but also of the unification of the Jewish community in the United States and Israel.

THIS 4-PAGE SUPPLEMENT ON ISRAEL’S SIX DAY WAR IS UNDERWRITTEN BY:

CHARLES KLINE B’NAI B’RITH LODGE

Allentown, Pennsylvania 20 OCTOBER 2012 | HAKOL LEHIGH VALLEY

Six-Day War rebuilt bridge between US Jews and Israelis, diplomat says

NOVEMBER 6, 1968 The Executive Vice Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee reported here that thousands of Jews throughout the world went without needed help in 1968 as a result of the SixDay War in Israel. According to Samuel Haber, emergencies such as the migration of over 2,000 Jews from Poland following a renewed outbreak of anti-Semitism and the flight of 4,000 Jews from Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion forced the relief agency to divert funds from on-going programs. The JDC, which aids 350,000 Jews in 27 countries, is a major beneficiary of the United Jewish Appeal.

Mr. Haber listed specific groups of people hurt by the diversion of funds and lack of funds. In North Africa and Iran, he said, 2,000 aged, sick and handicapped Jews received cash relief grants that were inadequate to maintain a minimum standard of health and decency; an additional $144,000 is needed.

In France, according to Mr. Haber, 5,000 Jews, half of them newcomers from North Africa, receive only 60 cents a day toward food. The 65,000 Jews of Marseilles, France's second largest city, have no old age home or adequate Jewish schools and the 20,000 Jews in Lyons also lack a Jewish day school.

In Israel, Mr. Hber said, many thousands of non-aged, chronically ill patients have suffered from deferment of an outlay of $85,000 for a rehabilitation program. A geriatric unit in a Jerusalem hospital for the chronically ill costing $85,000 had to be deferred and a day care center for mentally retarded children in a district north of Beersheba cannot be built for the lack of $25,000, Mr. Haber reported.

Round-up of the news ... in 1969 FEBRUARY 10, 1969 “Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was quoted today as declaring that Israel was willing to negotiate with the Arabs over most of the areas occupied in the Six-Day War but he made it clear that Israel would never give up Jerusalem and would insist on continued control of the Golan Heights. He described the Israeli position on the future of the occupied territories as “flexible” but avowed that “there will be no return to the situation preceding the June (1967) war.” Mr. Eshkol’s statements were made to News week magazine which said that the Israeli leader rejected proposals made by President Nasser of Egypt last week. Mr. Eshkol told the magazine, “I am ready to meet him (Nasser) anywhere, anytime, and I won’t quarrel about procedure, agenda or the shape of the table.”