REJOICE WITH JERUSALEM! Seriously... This year marks the 47th year since the unification of Jerusalem the 3,000-year-old capital of Israel, which occurred as a result of the SIX DAY WAR, which was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, with Israel defending herself against Egypt, Jordan and Syria, who were supported and fortified by the armies of by 10 other Arab countries JERUSALEM DAY (Hebrew date, 28 Iyar) celebrates the day the war ended, when the paratroopers liberated the Old City and eastern sectors of Jerusalem and restored the whole city to Jewish sovereignty for the first time since the Roman general Pompey invaded Jerusalem in 63 B.C.E. In many ways, the Six Day War - like each of Israel’s wars of defence - is considered one of miracles. Most of the individual battles which Israel won can be explained as, although the Arabs outnumbered and outgunned Israel on four borders, Israel enjoyed specific tactical advantages – shorter supply-lines, superior communications, a fortuitous wind in the Sinai Desert which raised a dust-storm at just the right moment, the rising sun dazzling the Egyptians in the morning of the first day of the war, the setting sun dazzling the Jordanians that evening, Egyptian soldiers who were unable to read the instructions for their missiles and were therefore unable to fire them…the list goes on. The statistical likelihood of all these events occurring by pure happenstance is minuscule. In the Six Day War, Israel had zero margin for error. Hostile Jordanian forces, stationed in the centre of Jerusalem (half of which was under illegal Jordanian occupation), were poised to sweep across Israel from east to west, to link up with the Egyptian army preparing to invade from the south-west. Meanwhile the Syrian Army was preparing to attack from the north and then sweep through the country to link up with the other Arab forces in the Tel Aviv region. Had any Arab army won even one single land battle, then Israel would have been destroyed. Israel had no strategic depth, no opportunity to recover from a single lost battle. Under those circumstances, the perfect functioning of all Israel’s military systems without even a single mishap over the course of the war was statistically impossible. What may, in retrospect, be seen as another miracle... on the 11th of Sivan 5727 (19th June 1967), just nine days after the war finished, Israel declared that she was willing to withdraw from vast areas of the land recovered in return for peace treaties, normalization of relations with the Arab states, and guarantee of navigation through the Straits of Tiran. The Arab response was expressed in the Khartoum Conference two months later: “No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it.” The Six Day War was indisputably a series of miracles. And the aftermath – by now close on half a century – has been a series of miracles no less. Baruch HaShem! Praise G-d! (Based on information from Arutz 7 & Wikipedia) Pics: 1. Wikipedia map of region at the time 2. Three of the original paratroopers overcome at the sight of the Western Wall, in 1967 and 40 years later.
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 21:17:59 +0000
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