Israel - why all the fuss ? (part 5)
Miracles, schmiracles!
Miracles? Bah! There's no such thing as a miracle! Then how do we explain ...
(iv) 1967 : The Six Day War
God rested on the seventh day and was pleased with his creation; the Israelis, similarly, had much to be pleased about on their seventh day. Seven days earlier they looked south and saw Egyptian tanks at the border with a blockade on Israeli shipping; to the north Syria was bombarding Israeli villages from the Golan Heights; to the east Jordan and Iraq were gnashing their teeth, ready and waiting. War had not been officially declared, but you'd hardly believe it. The airwaves around Israel were full of boasting rhetoric, Arab nations vying with each other to be first to 'liberate' Palestine. Nassar, the Egyptian leader, declared a jihad, a 'holy war' against the infidel Israel. They outnumbered Israel 5 to 1 in troops, 3 to 1 in tanks and nearly 3 to 1 in combat aircraft. Like schoolyard bullies they postured and posed, growling and showing off their claws and teeth.
But the Israelis hadn't read the script, especially as it was written in Arabic, in blood. Orde Wingate, their British mentor, would have been proud of them as they clinically unleashed one of the most decisive battle plans in military history.
On June 5th, Israel attacked. It destroyed almost all of Egypt's air force, the largest in the Middle East, in three hours. Most hadn't even taken off. For all intents and purposes the war was over. From then on confusion and fear reigned in the Arab forces. By the end of the week Israel had captured Sinai and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and the rest of Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria.
Israel had increased its size by an incredible 300%! Historian Cecil Roth later described the Six Day War as "perhaps the most brilliant campaign in military history ... the Israeli army had shown itself the best fighting force in the world."
The truly interesting fact concerns Jerusalem, the holiest city in the Jewish Bible and the site of the magnificent Temple. Jerusalem wasn't included in the original U.N. Partition Plan agreed by the Jews, yet they took the Western part of it as spoils of war in the War of Independence. Similarly, knowing that any battle for Jerusalem would be costly, the Israeli leadership tried to come to a compromise with Jordan over it, during the Six Day War. But Jordan refused, having being confused by a false report that Egypt had destroyed the Israeli air force! So the Israelis took the whole of Jerusalem after the heaviest fighting of the war. It seems that Jerusalem was being coaxed into Jewish hands, by fate, providence ... or do we dare to say, through a miracle?
Jerusalem - such a small place, yet so much trouble
My abiding memory of the 'holy' Old City of Jerusalem after my visit there last year are the choking exhaust fumes from the cars straining through the steep gradients of the narrow streets, the persistent T-shirt salesmen, the intermittent Muslim chanting of the muezzin and the combined aroma of coffee, hashish and sweaty tourists. But then I'd just had a bad day, tramping along the streets in the midday sun with a two year old on my shoulders, looking for an eating place that would meet the approval of the traditional western palate of my father and fighting against the 'shopaholic-ism' that had inflamed the senses of my wife and sister.
Other people have, of course, seen Jerusalem as simply 'heaven on earth' ... In the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament), the word Jerusalem (or Zion) appears 821 times. In the Moslem holy book, the Koran, it is not held in such esteem. Do we hear 500 times? No! Do we hear 100 times? No! How about 20 times? No! 10 times? No! In fact the Koran does not mention Jerusalem even once!
Then why is it the third holiest city for Moslems, after Mecca and Medina? You tell me? Why, even the various names Muslims have had for the city are all derived from Jewish names. The name Al Kuds comes from 'Hakodesh', the Hebrew name for holiness and the name Ursalim comes from the Hebrew 'Yerushalayim'.
So why all the fuss? Why is Jerusalem suddenly a holy city for Moslems? They need three holy cities, when they've got two perfectly good ones of their own? Oy! You get the sneaking feeling that we've crept out of the realm of religion, particularly in terms of scriptural texts, and into the murky world of politics and nationalism.
The city of Jerusalem, as well as the 'rights of the Palestinian people' are useful rallying-points for those who need a point of focus to vent their anger against the 'blot on the landscape' that is Israel. The continued existence of Israel, at the deepest level, somehow signifies the triumph of the Jews and the Jewish God against the might of the Arabs and Islam. The word Islam may mean 'submission' in Arabic, but that is certainly not a good description of those in power in the Moslem world and when they look at Israel, with its advanced technology and its western culture, they see their own failures and they do not like what they see.