By Yael Kirschner, City College of New York, Hasbara Fellow
I remember the announcement the principal at my Zionist elementary school would make each year on Yom Yerushalayim. He would say proudly, “When I was about your age, in the year 1967, I remember my principal coming on the loudspeaker to announce that Israel had recaptured Jerusalem.” Although my Principal was not physically in Israel to hear Motta Gur’s infamous words, ‘the Temple Mount is in our hands,’ he still felt the enormity of the moment. He wanted to relay what it was like to go from having the State of Israel in our hands, to also having Jerusalem at our personal grasp. I do not think I could ever understand what it would mean to visit Israel and not immediately go to the Western Wall, and I think many people born post the Six Day War feel the same. On top of not ever living in a world where Jerusalem was not under Jewish Sovereignty, I was unaware for many years what the Six Day War truly encompassed. We said it as if it was no big deal; but when learning the critical details of the days before this war, during the war and after, one gains a whole new appreciation for what the Paratroopers of 1967 were able to accomplish not so long ago. For they did not just reunite a land; they reunited a vision, a dream, and a particular people.
It is clear on many levels that Israel is the ancestral homeland to the Jewish people. Pearl Gasner, High School Advisor for Hasbara Fellowships Canada, highlighted this idea, by teaching me and other Hasbara Fellows that Israel is specifically mentioned in all the books of Tanach 699 times. What I would like to focus on is that Jerusalem, Israel’s historic and current capital of the land, is mentioned an additional 154 times. Our roots are not only embedded in the Land of Israel, but they are also intimately intertwined with the seeds of Jerusalem.
This is why, for so many, Israel’s full independence was not achieved in 1948. Daniel Gordis writes in, Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, the opinion of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook. Rabbi Kook explains how he felt about Israel before The Six Day War, “Where is our Hebron? Have we forgotten it? And where is our Shechem- have we forgotten it? And where is our Jericho- have we forgotten it?… I couldn’t celebrate. “They divided my land!” they divided the land of God!… I couldn’t go outside and rejoice. That is how the situation was 19 years ago” (Gordis 261).
19 years after Israel’s War of Independence, Israel held a parade on May 15th. On that day, Egypt armored vehicles in the Sinai Peninsula. A period called, “Hatmanah,” or waiting period began for Israel. A mere few weeks felt like the longest years for Israelis who feared for the destruction of their state, but even more so, feared for their lives. This fear was real and logical for Nasser had declared on the day of the parade, “Brothers, it is our duty to prepare for the final battle in Palestine” (Gordis 263). The situation facing Israel only grew more dangerous. On June 4th, Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Defense Minister, presented his military proposal to the cabinet. As Gordis explains, “The situation was dire: the Egyptians had at least 100,000 troops and 900 tanks in the Sinai. To the north, Syria had readied 75,000 men and 400 tanks, while the Jordanians had amassed 32,000 men and almost 300 tanks. In total, Israel faced a potential force of 207,000 soldiers and 1,600 tanks. With full mobilization, Israel could muster 264,00 soldiers but only had 800 tanks. When it came to planes, the situation was even worse. The Arabs had 700 combat aircraft, while Israel had only 300” (Gordis 272). Although the situation seemed impossible, this was not the first time Israel had to face such odds, and would not be the last. Dayan insisted that Israel had to strike first in order to have a chance at surviving; this is what began The Six Day War. The preemptive airstrike by Israel on June 5th, basically won the war as it destroyed almost all of Egypt’s air force. It was a decisive choice that in hindsight was absolutely necessary.
Once Jordan entered the war, Menachem Begin asked a critical question that would soon change the reality of Israel, “Our soldiers are almost in sight of the Western Wall. How can we tell them not to reach it? We have in our hands a gift of history. Future generations will never forgive us if we do not seize it” (Gordis 274). So on June 6th, IDF Paratroopers rode buses to Jerusalem, singing “Jerusalem of Gold.” On June 7th, Jerusalem was back in the hands of Israel.
There were many victories and challenges that came along with the end of the Six Day War, but the unification of Jerusalem was and still is, paramount. The actions of the paratroopers 54 years ago continue to impact soldiers who serve in that same unit today. As one soldier who recently finished his service as a paratrooper remarked, “Life as a paratrooper is one of the most difficult jobs in the world, but being a part of the same unit that changed history forever makes me understand what I am protecting and sacrificing my life for.”
The paratroopers of 1967 helped fulfill the prophecies promised to the Jewish Nation many times over and allowed me to never know a day of what it is like to not have Jerusalem. We must not allow our familiarity with this privilege get in the way of internalizing the significance of the words, “Har Habayit beyadeinu.”
