Yes, history (still) matters.

In our “post-truth” society, history is now just someone’s opinion. But it turns out, there are (still) some objective facts.

Israeli soldiers during the 1967 Six-Day War (photo: Rafi Rogel/Wikimedia Commons)

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This is a guest essay written by David Harris, Executive Vice Chair of The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Share this essay using the link: https://www.futureofjewish.com/p/yes-history-still-matters

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Mention history these days, and you are likely to get a roll of the eyes. 

Who cares what happened years, much less decades, ago, the thinking too often goes? And anyway, in our “post-truth” society, history is now just someone’s opinion. You have your “facts” and “narratives,” and I have mine.

Turns out, there are (still) some objective facts. Two plus two equals four. The world is round. There never was a Palestinian state. And in May 1967, leaders in Cairo and Damascus upped their rhetoric and announced an impending “holy war” against Israel was coming.

The result? From June 5th to 10th of that year, war raged between Israel, fighting for its life, and the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, whose declared aim was the Jewish state’s annihilation. Israel prevailed, thankfully winning a decisive victory in just six days.

The legacy of that war remains relevant even after 57 years. In fact, without an understanding of that period, it is impossible to grasp the regional situation today.

Here are 10 factors worth considering.

First, in June 1967, there was no state of Palestine. It did not exist and never had, despite what pro-Palestinian activists want the world to believe. Its creation, proposed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947, was rejected by the Arab world because it also meant the establishment of a Jewish state alongside.

Second, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem were in Jordanian hands. Violating solemn agreements, Jordan denied Jews access to their holiest places in eastern Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, Temple Mount, and Jewish Quarter. To make matters still worse, they desecrated and destroyed many of those sites.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control, with harsh military rule imposed on local residents. And the Golan Heights, which was regularly used to shell Israeli communities far below, belonged to Syria.

Third, the Arab world could have created a Palestinian state in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip any day of the week. They did not. There wasn’t even discussion about it. And Arab leaders, who today profess such attachment to eastern Jerusalem, rarely, if ever, visited. It was viewed as an Arab backwater.

Fourth, the 1967 boundary at the time of the war, so much in the news until now, was nothing more than an armistice line dating back to 1949 — familiarly known as the “Green Line.” This is after five Arab armies attacked Israel in 1948 with the aim of destroying the embryonic Jewish state. They failed. Armistice lines were drawn, but they were not formal borders. They couldn’t be. The Arab world, even in defeat, refused to recognize Israel’s very right to exist.

Fifth, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which energetically supported the war effort, was established in 1964, three years before the conflict erupted. This is important because it was created with the goal of obliterating Israel. Remember that in 1964 the only “settlements” were Israel itself.

Sixth, in the weeks leading up to the 1967 Six-Day War, Egyptian and Syrian leaders repeatedly and publicly declared that war was coming and their objective was to wipe Israel off the map. There was no ambiguity in their blood-curdling announcements. Some 22 years after the Holocaust, another enemy spoke about the extermination of Jews.

The record is well-documented, including that Israel — in the days leading up to the war — passed word to Jordan, via the United Nations and United States, urging Amman to stay out of any pending conflict. Jordan’s King Hussein ignored the Israeli plea and tied his fate to Egypt and Syria. His forces were defeated by Israel, and he lost control of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. He later acknowledged that he had made a grave error in entering the war.

Seventh, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser demanded that United Nations peacekeeping forces in the area, in place for the previous decade to prevent conflict, be removed. Shamefully, without even the courtesy of consulting Israel, the UN complied. That left no buffer zone between Arab armies being mobilized and deployed, and Israeli forces in a country one-fiftieth, or two percent, the size of Egypt — and just 15 kilometers (nine miles) wide at its narrowest point.

Eighth, Egypt blocked Israeli shipping lanes in the Red Sea, Israel’s only maritime access to trading routes with Asia and Africa. This step was understandably regarded as a casus belli (an act of war) by Jerusalem. The United States spoke about joining with other countries to break the blockade, but, in the end, regrettably, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson did not act.

Ninth, France, which had been Israel’s principal arms supplier, announced a total ban on the sale of weapons on the eve of the June war. That put Israel in potentially grave danger if a war were to drag on and require the resupply of arms. It was not until the next year that the U.S. stepped into the breach and began to sell vital weapons systems to Israel.

And finally, tenth, after winning this war of self-defense, Israel hoped that its newly-acquired territories — seized from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria —would be the basis for a land-for-peace accord. Feelers were sent out. The formal response came on September 1st, 1967, when the Arab Summit Conference famously declared in Khartoum, Sudan: “No peace, no recognition, no negotiations” with Israel.

Fortunately, in the ensuing years, six Arab countries made peace with Israel, starting with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. The majority, though, have not. Nor have the Palestinians, of course.

Some wars quickly fade into obscurity. The Six-Day War must not. It negates many of the lies spewing from the know-nothing crowds of protesters in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney.

Again, it cannot be repeated often enough: There never was a Palestinian state in history.

And yes, it also cannot be repeated often enough: There could have been one on multiple occasions in our lifetimes, but Palestinian leaders rejected those chances, one after another, if it meant living alongside a Jewish-majority state, whatever its final borders.

These are not simply “my facts” or “my narrative.” They are objective, demonstrable realities. And they still matter in a world where the worldwide Palestinian sales force is trying to push a pack of lies, distortions, and half-truths.

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