The Six Day War

1967

There are numerous agnostics and atheists who claim that there are no miracles.

In the movie “The Ten Commandments” we see the Red Sea recede and  the Israelis walk on dry land while the water is piled up like a wall on both sides. At the Battle of Jericho, we are told, the sun stood still, making for a longer day. Moses tossed his walking stick on the ground before the Pharoah so that it became a snake, etc. All these miracles suspended the laws of nature and were therefore derided by the unbelievers.

Yet in 1967 a miracle did occur. This miracle did not suspend natural laws. Yet, it was indeed unbelievable until it occurred.

For some time before 1967 and for over five months thereafter, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon threatened to invade Israel and kill all Jews there, Nazi style. The threats made by Egypt, a nation of 80 million, were believable. Egypt had acquired 957  Russian planes. Israel had only 300 planes. Egypt and Syria had twice the number of tanks as  Israel. Saudi, Jordan and  Iraq  had  567,000 men in their armies while Israel had only 264,000 combat soldiers.       

It seemed obvious to all who read and heard about these uneven strengths of Israel and their Arab adversaries that Israel had no chance of defeating itself against a coalition getting ready to slaughter another 3.5 million Jews. The media drooled with enjoyment at the prospect of seeing another Holocaust, with thousands of Jewish corpses piled up in the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. In the United States, rabbis held special prayer meetings asking Shem Yisborach to save the Jews, who were once more threatened with annihilation. The Arabs were already celebrating a huge victory, which would allow them, like the Germans before them, to steal all the possessions of the Jews they intended to kill.

Then came June 5, 1967. On that day a true miracle occurred. That morning, the Israeli air force, much smaller than the Arab murder force, flew over all the Egyptian air fields and destroyed the entire Egyptian air force before it could get off the ground. This gave Israel total air superiority, as the Egyptian ground forces were exposed to assault from the air. Likewise, Syria and Jordan lost whole sections of illegally seized land. Israel’s attack on the Golan Heights gave Israel that territory to this day.   Israel’s invasion of Jordan together with the defeat of that British commanded country allowed Jews, for the first time in centuries, to pray at the wall of the ancient Temple. The Egyptians capitulated in the Sinai desert and the Syrians lost the Golan Heights. Jordan was evicted from the Temple area as a Jewish army reached the wall of the ancient Jewish temple as the chief rabbi of Israel blew a shofar. In six days, Israel won a total victory over the Arab killers, whose manpower and equipment was far greater than that of Israel.

In 1973, the Arabs tried once more to invade Israel and kill all Jews living there. They lost again and so, to this day, Israel holds all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Indeed, the Arabs keep screaming for Jewish blood even as the U.S. government has recognized the Golan Heights as a permanent part of Israel and several Arab states have recognized Israel and agreed to live in peace with the Jewish state.

Yes, miracles do occur.

Shalom u’vracha.

 Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including The American Jewish Community in the 20th and 21st Century (2021).

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