The Six Day War

Forty Years

The War

    On the 15^th of May, 1967, a large Egyptian force consisting of 900 tanks and seven divisions dug in at Israel’s southern frontier. One week later, on May 22, the U.N. withdrew its Emergency Force from the Sinai at the request of the Egyptian dictator Nasser .The U.N. force had been there since the 1956 war between Israel and Egypt, as agreed at that time. The next day, on May 23, the Egyptians blockaded the port of Eilat, Israel’s only outlet to the Red Sea and all of Asia. On May 30, the king of Jordan, Hussein,  visited Nasser in Cairo and announced that Jordan would also join with Egypt and Syria in a “holy war” against Israel. In addition, Iraq had recruited an army, which was then marching into Jordan in order to attack Israel from the rear.

    Meanwhile Egyptian planes, all made in Russia, were flying over the few Israeli airbases each day even as the Egyptians fired mortars into southern Israel and set wheat fields afire. It was announced that on June 2-4 several Egyptian battalions had arrived in Jordan, so that the whole Jordanian army was then under the command of Nasser, who promised his people that Israel will be annihilated and that the Arabs will feast on Jewish bodies and that “the soil of Palestine will be soaked in Jewish blood.” Included in the Egyptian army were Nazi criminals who had gone to Syria and Egypt in the hope of gassing the Jews of Israel after the anticipated Arab victory.  In fact, the Egyptian army was equipped with mobile gas ovens and accompanied by German murderers.

    In addition to the threat from Egypt, Syria bombarded Israel from the Golan heights every day for years. Syria too had a large Russian made air force and a huge number of tanks and other weapons, all supplied by Russia. 

     In this situation the people of Israel were utterly alone. The world was already enjoying another holocaust, for it seemed that Israel was doomed. President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, promptly abandoned the Jewish people to mass murder as he announced that: “Our position is neutral in thought, word and deed,” which meant that Israel could expect no help from the United States (this has been the view of Democrats ever since then).  In fact, President Johnson imposed an “arms embargo” against Israel, as did France, even as the Arab states received unlimited supplies of tanks, aircraft, guns and other arms from the Soviet Union (Russia).

   Jews all over the world began to believe that the end of Israel had come and that nothing could save the Jews of Israel in the face of such overwhelming might. In every Jewish community mass rallies were held at which prominent rabbis and others spoke and tried to reassure everyone that in face of the possibility that yet another mass slaughter the good Lord would yet prevent the end of Jewish existence. The media were of course already counting the Jewish dead, as mass graves were being dug in Israeli cities and the Arab haters were telling their followers that soon all Israel would be turned into a cemetery.

 Nasser had good reason to make such an announcement. The Arabs had ringed Israel with 465,000 men, 2,800 tanks and 800 aircraft. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria were all sending men and Soviet armor to Syria and Egypt to participate in the attack on Israel. Since the port of Eilat was blocked and no European country nor the United States was willing to supply Israel with weapons, the defeat of Israel seemed certain.

   Israel had only 300,000 soldiers out of a population of 2,300,00 and a negligible air force and armored brigades in comparison of the overwhelming size of the Arab armies. It seemed certain that the end had come and that after only 19 years of Jewish liberation the killers would once more succeed in a mass slaughter of the Jews of Israel.

   Then, on June 5, 1967, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol gave the order for Israel to attack Egypt. At 7:14 in the morning, the entire Israeli air force struck the Egyptian air fields and destroyed 300 aircraft in two hours. Then the Israeli air force hit the Syrian and Jordanian aircraft in the same manner, so that historians say today that Israel won the war in four hours. This assessment is based on the view that the Arabs had no air cover and therefore lost the ensuing tank battles and infantry battles as well.

   Despite the loss of their air force, the Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians and their allies fought on. In the north, Israeli infantry fought hand to hand up the 3,000 foot high Golan Heights, including the 9,000 foot Mt. Hermon.  In the Sinai, the greatest tank battles ever took place. Yet, the Egyptians lost everything. The truth is that Israel could have easily taken Cairo after the Egyptian army was utterly defeated. Then, however, the UN decided to call for a cease fire because Israel was winning the war. No one raised a finger to defend Israel in its near destruction. Yet, the minute Israel won, all kinds of haters screamed how Israel was the aggressor and that “the Jews must be stopped" from humiliating the terrorists. 

The Consequences

  Israel lost 115 men in the Syrian campaign and another 777 dead in the Sinai campaign. 2,586 Israeli men were wounded . Egypt lost 15,000 men, Syria 2,500 and 800 Jordanians were also killed.

Today, forty years after the miraculous survival of the Jewish people in 1967, Israel still holds the ancient Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria. Israel still governs Jerusalem, which the Jordanians had divided and which no Jew was allowed to visit, let alone live in, while under Arab control. The lesson learned in 1967 and again in 1973 is that only the Israelis and a few Jews defend the Holy Land against the murderers and terrorists. Nevertheless, a contingent of about 55 million American Christians have been of immense help to the Jewish people since 1967.  These Christians have established a Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and are constantly raising funds to help Russian Jews to move to Israel.

   After 1967, the American Jewish community remembered the Holocaust and began, in 1968, to commemorate that horror every April. Most importantly, 1967 taught anyone who wanted to see it that killing Jews for entertainment is no longer cheap. For 1900 years Jew were persecuted in both Moslem and Christian lands to satisfy the sadism of the populace and the bigotry of the clergy. Jews were defenseless and therefore anybody’s victim.Today, Jews all over the world, with the exception of most academics, stand up for themselves and proclaim  with one voice: “Am  Yisroel Chai, the People of Israel Live” now and forever, Bimhayro veyomenu.

Shalom u’vracha.

Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The Restoration of Israel (2006).

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