The Six Day War, Gaza, Hamas & Mideast Peace

It seems like yesterday, but it was forty seven years ago.

The date was 5 June 1967.  I had just enjoyed a sumptuous,

very early morning breakfast at the General Von Steuben

Hotel in Wiesbaden, Germany. An American Air Force

Officer and two Jordanian military men were seated at an

adjacent table in that Officer's Club. They were busily

discussing the transfer of American armor to Jordan.

My ears should have been burning.

 

Two hours later I was aboard an aircraft that had departed

Rhein-Mein Air Force Base near Frankfurt on its way to

McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Shortly after takeoff,

the pilot made an abrupt announcement. I shall never forget

his words. He said: “War has broken out in Israel. At the

rate Egyptian planes are destroying Tel Aviv, there will be

no Israel by the time we land.”  

 

That flight lasted an almost interminable eight hours. The
pilot never gave a single update to that terrifying newsflash.
My very first question upon setting foot on American soil
was: “Is there still an Israel?”

 

By then the world was well aware that all the initial reports 
from Egypt about its crushing military successes were flat-out
fabrications of fact. Yes, war had erupted on June 5, 1967.
Israel had launched preemptive strikes against Egyptian airfields.
Israeli forces were unmistakably dominant. The Egyptian air
force had been decimated. A wave of relief washed over me. 
That was forty seven years ago. Now rewind the clock back
almost precisely four years to 1963.

 

Back then a friend and I were leisurely hiking down an unpaved
Israeli road that abruptly ended in a double furrow. Adjacent to that
furrow was what looked like a small kiosk. That kiosk was manned
by a lone U.N.-helmeted Swedish soldier. His post was exactly on
the Gaza Strip. There was no separation wall. There was no security
fence. Only that double furrow marked the border.

 

It was hot that day. My friend and I were thirsty. We approached
the swedish border guard and asked if he had some water for us.
He politely told us that if we needed water, we could get some just
up the road at the nearby kibbutz known as Nahal Oz. So, off
we went.

 

Upon entering the kibbutz, someone called out to me:
“Elovitz, what the hell are you doing here on the Gaza Strip?”
I was stunned. I turned to my companion and exclaimed: 
“I don’t know anyone on the Gaza Strip.” To which my friend
smugly responded: “Well, whoever she is, she knows you!”

 

As it happens, I had met and befriended that woman a number
of years earlier at summer camp in the north woods of
Wisconsin. She told me that her Jewish parents, who worried
that she would not marry a nice Jewish boy, had sent her to
Israel. “So, what happened?” I asked. “Well,” she delicately
and gracefully responded, “you know that Swedish border
guard who sent you here to get water? I married him!”

 

Just last month I returned from an very brief visit to Israel. Kibbutz

Nahal Oz is still there. But the double furrows that marked the Gaza

Strip border are gone. That kiosk with the Swedish border guard no

longer exists. Nahal Oz now has a population of about 290 souls,
but their kibbutz has been privatized.  

 

Regrettably, I did not ascertain the well-being or status of my friend

from Minneapolis who married that Swede. More importantly, the

Gaza Strip has been controlled by Hamas since 2007. Rewind back

to 1967 and The Six Day War aka Milhemet Sheshet HaYamim.

 

Israel’s preemptive land attack launched against Egypt actually
started exactly opposite Kibbutz Nahal Oz. That is where an Israeli
armored division, commanded by Major General Israel Tal, crossed
the Gaza border at both Nahal Oz and Khan Yunis.

 

Simultaneously and father south in the Sinai, Major General
Ariel Sharon (a future Israeli Prime Minister) was leading another 

armored division in a successful assault on heavily fortified
Egyptian positions. Within six days, Israel had captured all of the
Sinai peninsula, expressly including the Gaza Strip.

 

After the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the ensuing 1979 peace
treaty with Egypt, Israel returned the Sinai, but not Gaza, to Egypt.
It is anecdotally rumored that Egypt refused to take back Gaza
because it did not want to deal with its Palestinian populace. As a
result, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip from 1967 until 2005. That
is when the Israelis unilaterally departed. Enter Hamas.

 

Hamas came to complete power in the Gaza Strip by staging a

violent coup in June 2007. That is when Hamas overthrew its

rival Fatah party's executive authority. But Hamas had earlier

won a popular vote in the January 2006 parliamentary elections.

That effectively sealed the deal for Hamas’ control of Gaza that

continues to this day.

 

But, Hamas is now in its most weakened state of affairs in years. 

That situation is related to the dramatic rise of Field Marshal Sisi

in Egypt coupled with the downfall of President Morsi and his

Muslim Brotherhood (of which Hamas is an offshoot). As a

consequence, Hamas has now agreed to establish a unified

Palestinian government with Fatah in the West Bank. How that

will play out is an open question.

 

But some matters are not subject to debate. It is now three and

a half years since the Arab Spring sprung. The Mideast is a mess.

Syria is a war zone. Anarchy and chaos reign in Libya. Egypt is

on the brink of an authoritarian abyss. The Palestinians and

Israelis cannot seem to find even a scintilla of light at the end of

their tunnel of tensions. But U.S. Secretary of State Kerry

seemed unable to even find the tunnel...unless reference is made

to one of the Hamas-built tunnels under Gaza into Egypt!

 

In short, the path to peace and stability across the new Mideast 

remains unusually treacherous. That path is a severely rutted and

deeply potholed road. It runs directly through the countless

enmities and relentless rancor that infested the old Mideast.

 

All of which reminds me of a pertinent anecdote about an old

Israeli. He was unhurriedly strolling down a Tel Aviv beach

when he spotted something glinting in the sand. Curious, the

old Israeli bent down, picked up a glinting bottle and began

rubbing away the encrusted sand. Suddenly, there was a

WHOOSH and a Genie appeared.

 

The Genie looked at the old Israeli and exclaimed: “Master,

you have freed me from containment in the bottle. I can grant

you one wish.”

 

Both surprised and amused, the old Israeli responded: “How

come only one wish? I thought Genies granted three wishes?”

 

To which the Genie replied: “My Dear Master, I am just a Genie

in training.One wish is my limit. What is your wish?”

 

The old Israeli paused and thought for a moment. He then pulled

a badly crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. He carefully

unfolded the paper on which was printed a map of Israel and the 

Mideast. The Israeli showed the deeply creased map to the

Genie and declared: “I wish for peace in the troubled Mideast.”

 

The Genie pondered the map for a moment and declared:

“Honorable Master, that is an extremely significant wish. But,

as a genie in training, I’m not sure I do that. Do you have an

alternative wish?”

 

The old Israeli thought for a moment and responded: “My wife,

Rivka, and I have been married for fifty years, but we haven’t

had sex for ten years. I want to have sex. That is my wish.”

 

The Genie paused, carefully scrutinized the gray-haired, deeply

wrinkled and somewhat bent, old Israeli and then sheepishly asked:

"Can I see that Mideast map again?”