When General Motta Gur cried out to the world, "הר הבית בידינו!" (The Temple mount is in our hands!), the world was changed forever. Nothing and no one would be the same. And the world was in a state of complete shock.
How is it possible that this could have happened?
For almost two thousand years, at every Passover, the Jews have said to each other "לשנה הבאה בירושלים," Next year in Jerusalem. It was their heart's desire, and now it was possible. And our theologians didn't know what to say.
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On Wednesday, June 7th, 1967, one of my first Bible teachers turned on the radio as he drove to work and heard the one thing that he never expected to ever hear. Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were in the hands of Israel. In Bible college, he had been taught that The Rapture would happen at the moment that this occurred. So, when he got to work, he called his wife. No answer. He called his mom. No answer. He called his pastor. No answer.
For a moment in time, he had missed The Rapture.
Teachers of Bible prophecy struggled to understand how they could have gotten it wrong - but, only for a moment. Instead of looking again at their understanding of prophecy, they redefined what it means to control Jerusalem and moved on (Luke 21:24). They failed in their test of truth, but my Bible teacher did not.
He and his wife gnawed on this problem until they realized that Gog and Magog must come before the Antichrist arrives. When confronted with evidence of their own error, they chose truth, instead of something more comfortable. My hope is that we will always do the same.
We'll talk more about that, but let's look at the events of those six days that shook the world.
June 5th was the beginning.
Operation Focus was launched just before 8 a.m. when Israeli fighter bombers took off and headed out to sea. The goal was to grab control of the air as soon as possible, so that Israel’s air force could assist forces on the ground. Of course, the air strike was also timed to happen as the Egyptian High Command was commuting to their offices - and stuck in traffic at 8:45.
A half an hour after Israel’s Air Force takes off, General Gavish orders the army to engage Egyptian forces massed on Israel’s southern border.
Units of the Israeli army on the Jordanian and Syrian fronts were ordered to hold their defensive positions at all costs. The hope was that a quick defeat of the Egyptian army would keep the Jordanians and Syrians out of the war.
In just two sorties, Israeli air power had neutralized Egyptian airbases and destroyed the majority of Egypt’s military aircraft on the ground. By noon, Jordan and Syria had entered the war, but early successes allowed the Israeli Air Force to redirect aircraft to attack and neutralize Jordanian and Syrian air fields.
Most sources confirm that Israel was very interested in keeping Jordan out of the war altogether and had been sending messages to that effect, asking them to maintain their defensive posture. The Jordanian army was small but extremely well trained and had a high level of moral. Furthermore, the Jordanian army needed only to advance eight miles to cut Israel in half.
Unfortunately, Gamal Abdel Nasser was more persuasive, claiming that Egypt was winning its battles in the Sinai. Nasser told King Hussein that his armies were pushing back across the border into Israel and that he’d better get in on the victory – or look like a fool.
Israeli intelligence intercepted Jordan’s agreement to enter the war, and Israeli population centers came under attack by Jordanian artillery. In response, at 3 p.m., Israeli armor crossed into the northern part of the West Bank, near Jenin. General Uzi Narkis also ordered the Har El Brigade, near Jerusalem, to take Jordanian fortifications on Radar Hill. After one of the toughest battles of the Six Day War, Radar Hill fell by 7:30 p.m.
The way to Jerusalem was open.
Day One was an unparalleled success, and the question was whether day two would be as unqualified a victory.
One of the most famous sayings attributed to military battle plans is this one:
No plan survives the first enemy contact
— Helmut von Moltke (1800-1891)
The plan had already had one failure. The goal was to avoid combat with the Jordanians. That part had failed already. But the great power of Israeli war fighting, and the Israelis themselves, was flexibility. Provision had already been made for the opening of the Jordanian front, and Israeli units were making steady progress.
Imagine the mindset of the commanders as they met with one success after another.
When was the plan going to fail?
Commanders on the Israeli front were meeting every single objective on, or ahead of, schedule. But it would be the Jordanian front that would bring the greatest concern on Day Two.
One of the cruelest battles of the war began at 2:30 a.m. at Ammunition Hill, near the Old City of Jerusalem. In attempt to rescue the units cut off on Mount Scopus, a company from a reserve battalion of paratroopers was sent in to take the Jordanian fortifications near the Jordanian police school. A reinforced company of 150 Jordanian soldiers held Ammunition Hill and refused to surrender. The next three and half hours was the ugliest in trench warfare and the Jordanians fought to the last man.
Just as the battle for Ammunition Hill was winding down, combat in the north of the West Bank was heating up. In attempt to pry the 45th Brigade of the Israeli Army from Jenin, the 40th Brigade of the Jordan Legion began its counterattack at 6 a.m. The Israeli advance in the north would be stalled for the next eleven hours as both sides fought for control of the Dotan Valley. It wasn’t until 5 p.m. that the Israeli army would be able to restart its advance.
Meanwhile, the conquest of Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Sinai was moving along quickly. By the end of the day, both the Egyptian and Jordanian armies were beginning their first organized retreat.
As Day Two came to a close, the commanders of the Israeli army were finally coming to realize that they were going to make it. It would be several days later before the rest of Israel would see it for themselves.
The best was yet to come.
Day three would mark the most important moment of the war.
During the first two days of the war, the Egyptians had been meeting defeat after defeat and had been falling back in a semi-orderly manner. But, on the third day, as the Egyptian 125th Brigade retreated towards the Suez Canal, they ran into elements of Ariel Sharon’s 4th Division that had captured the Mitla Pass and the Jidda Pass. The orderly retreat became disorganized chaos as officers abandoned their units to flee towards Cairo.
Yet, even as the Egyptian armies were disintegrating, Gamal Abdel Nasser still refused to acknowledge his untenable position by refusing the UN Security Council cease fire initiative.
But the decisive moment of the war was on the Jordanian front.
Early on the morning of the 7th, Israelis heard this radio broadcast:
Colonel Motta Gur [on loudspeaker]: All company commanders, we’re sitting right now on the ridge, and we’re seeing the Old City. Shortly, we’re going to go in to the Old City of Jerusalem, that all generations have dreamed about. We will be the first to enter the Old City. Eitan’s tanks will advance on the left and will enter the Lion’s Gate. The final rendezvous will be on the open square above.
[Moments later]
Yossi Ronen: We are now walking on one of the main streets of Jerusalem towards the Old City. The head of the force is about to enter the Old City.
[Gunfire.]
Yossi Ronen: There is still shooting from all directions; we’re advancing towards the entrance of the Old City.
[Sound of gunfire and soldiers’ footsteps.]
[Yelling of commands to soldiers.]
[More soldiers’ footsteps.]
The soldiers are keeping a distance of approximately 5 meters between them. It’s still dangerous to walk around here; there is still sniper shooting here and there.
[Gunfire.]
We’re all told to stop; we’re advancing towards the mountainside; on our left is the Mount of Olives; we’re now in the Old City opposite the Russian church. I’m right now lowering my head; we’re running next to the mountainside. We can see the stone walls. They’re still shooting at us. The Israeli tanks are at the entrance to the Old City, and ahead we go, through the Lion’s Gate. I’m with the first unit to break through into the Old City. There is a Jordanian bus next to me, totally burnt; it is very hot here. We’re about to enter the Old City itself. We’re standing below the Lion’s Gate, the Gate is about to come crashing down, probably because of the previous shelling. Soldiers are taking cover next to the palm trees; I’m also staying close to one of the trees. We’re getting further and further into the City.
[Gunfire.]
Colonel Motta Gur announces on the army wireless: The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!
All forces, stop firing! This is the David Operations Room. All forces, stop firing! I repeat, all forces, stop firing! Over.
Commander eight-nine here, is this Motta (Gur) talking? Over.
[Inaudible response on the army wireless by Motta Gur.]
Uzi Narkiss: Motta, there isn’t anybody like you. You’re next to the Mosque of Omar.
Yossi Ronen: I’m driving fast through the Lion’s Gate all the way inside the Old City.
Command on the army wireless: Search the area, make sure to enter every single house, but do not touch anything. Especially in holy places.
[Lt.- Col. Uzi Eilam blows the Shofar. Soldiers are singing ‘Jerusalem of Gold’.]
Uzi Narkiss: Tell me, where is the Western Wall? How do we get there?
Yossi Ronen: I’m walking right now down the steps towards the Western Wall. I’m not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the Western Wall and I’m touching the stones of the Western Wall.
Soldiers: [reciting the ‘Shehechianu’ blessing]: Baruch ata Hashem, elokeinu melech haolam, she-hechianu ve-kiemanu ve-hegianu la-zman ha-zeh. [Translation: Blessed art Thou Lord God King of the Universe who has sustained us and kept us and has brought us to this day]
Rabbi Shlomo Goren: Baruch ata Hashem, menachem tsion u-voneh Yerushalayim. [Translation: Blessed are thou, who comforts Zion and bulids Jerusalem]
Soldiers: Amen!
[Soldiers sing ‘Hatikva’ next to the Western Wall.]
Rabbi Goren: We’re now going to recite the prayer for the fallen soldiers of this war against all of the enemies of Israel:
[Soldiers weeping]
Rabbi Goren sounds the shofar and makes this prayer in Hebrew:
Merciful God in heaven, may the heroes and the pure, be under thy Divine wings, among the holy and the pure who shine bright as the sky, and the souls of soldiers of the Israeli army who fell in this war against the enemies of Israel, who fell for their loyalty to God and the land of Israel, who fell for the liberation of the Temple, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem the city of the Lord. May their place of rest be in paradise. Merciful One, O keep their souls forever alive under Thy protective wings. The Lord being their heritage, may they rest in peace, for they shalt rest and stand up for their allotted portion at the end of the days, and let us say, Amen.
[Soldiers are weeping. Rabbi Goren sounds the shofar. Sound of gunfire in the background.]
Rabbi Goren: Le-shana HA-ZOT be-Yerushalayim ha-b’nuya, be-yerushalayim ha-atika! [Translation: This year in a rebuilt Jerusalem! In the Jerusalem of old!]
At 10 a.m., on June 7th, the Old City of Jerusalem was captured. After 2,000 years, Jerusalem was finally in the hands of the Jewish people.
It was a victory heard ’round the world.
As the sun rose on Day Four, the war was essentially over. There was only a little more fighting and dying left to do.
In the Sinai, some Egyptian units were still putting up a fight, and the Jordanians continued an organized retreat. But by 3:30 p.m., Egypt would accept a cease fire, and a few hours later the last major battle in the Sinai (at Kalat a-nahal) would wind down. Just after midnight, Israeli units would begin linking up and consolidating their victories on the eastern side of the Suez Canal.
By 8 a.m., on the Jordanian front, Israeli forces from all three command areas (Northern, Central, and Southern) were linked up. Israeli units would even move a short distance into Jordan itself, before returning back across the river. At 1 p.m., combat engineers blew up the bridges across the Jordan River to keep the Jordanians from making any counter attacks.
Day Four was turning out to be an incredible success.
However, there was one important failure.
At 5:55 a.m., Israeli reconnaissance aircraft spot a ship off the coast of Gaza. They later identify the ship as a US ship. US commanders instruct the ship, the USS Liberty, to move to a position 100 miles away from the Israeli and Egyptian coasts. The orders are not received.
At 9:00 a.m., reconnaissance aircraft again spot the USS Liberty 30 kilometers off the coast of the Sinai, near El Arish. Israeli command staff mark the ship’s location. The Israeli Chief of Staff, Yitzhak Rabin, contacts the Naval Attache of the US Embassy and asks the US to remove their ships from the battle zone. Rabin repeatedly asks the US to provide him with a Naval Liaison.
The United States refuses Rabin’s request.
At 11 a.m., the duty officer goes off shift, taking the marker for the USS Liberty off the board.
24 minutes later, ammunition dumps at El Arish explode, and Israeli commanders indicate that they had been shelled by Egyptian naval units. Rabin orders all unidentified ships attacked and sunk.
At 1:41 p.m., Israeli torpedo boat squadron Pagoda sights a ship near El Arish and requests air support. Pagoda begins moving toward the ship. Reconnaissance aircraft sight the ship but cannot make a positive identification. The torpedo boats identify the ship as an Egyptian supply ship, the El Quesir.
At 1:57 p.m., two Israeli Mirage fighter aircraft make strafing runs, and Israeli Mysteres fighters drop napalm bombs. The ship begins to burn. Israeli aircraft break off their attack when they see that the ship has been marked with characters from the Latin alphabet. The Israeli torpedo boat squadron is ordered to not attack the ship.
As torpedo boats approach the ship, crewmen on the ship open fire, and the torpedo boats launch five torpedoes in response. One torpedo strikes the ship.
The torpedo boats break off their attack when they identify the ship as American. They hold off at 500 yards and ask the ship, via Morse code (flashing light), if they require assistance.
The USS Liberty responds that they do not require assistance and begins to retreat from the area.
As a result of tragic miscommunication, 35 US crewmen were killed and 141 were wounded. Israel would immediately offer its apologies and give compensation to the families of the crewmen.
In subsequent formal hearings, records supplied by the Israeli government and the sworn testimony of the US crewmen would exonerate Israel of malicious intent. However, some of the crewmen would later publish statements contradicting their testimony and accusing Israel of intentionally targeting the USS Liberty.
(I will provide a far more detailed account of this tragic incident later.)
The moral of the story?
Do not enter the battle zones of other peoples’ conflicts. The Fog of War is deadly.
However, the rest of Day Four was a great success.
It is an irony, that the instigators of the war had suffered little damage. The Syrians were getting off Scott free.
As Day Five began, it was clear that the war for Israel’s survival was over. What was left were loose ends. Or, maybe I should say, one very important loose end.
Syria.
For years Syria had been shelling communities in the north, confident that her impregnable positions on the Golan would deter any counterattack by Israeli forces. Artillery barrages were a fact of life for those living within range of Syrian guns. And a personal friend suffered from those artillery barrages herself.
Furthermore, Syria had become a Soviet client and was being used by the USSR to destabilize the region. The month before, the Soviets sent fabricated intelligence to the Assad regime, claiming that Israel was planning to invade Syria. The result was the mobilization of the armies of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt – and tensions that eventually led to the Six Day War.
Just a few years later, in 1972, Syria would start the process of invading Jordan, and it would be Israel’s threat to attack Syria that would keep her from conquering her Arab neighbor to the south.
The point is that you didn’t need to look far to see that Syria was a problem, and a problem like Syria that held the Golan Heights was a serious problem.
That’s why, on Day Four, Moshe Dayan had okayed Operation Hammer, which was Israel’s operational plan to sweep the Syrians away from the ridge and deny the Syrians the ability to bombard Israeli towns and villages. Once the plan had been okayed, Israeli aircraft immediately began attacking Syrian fortifications. Moshe Dayan would eventually cancel the operation, hours after it had been okayed.
However, Israeli forces would continue to race to the north to prepare for the possibility of action with Syria.
The tipping point came when the United States communicated a carefully worded message suggesting that it was a shame that the chief instigator of the war was getting away unscathed. And, at the same time, Israeli Intelligence intercepted a communique by Nasser indicating that Arab forces were near collapse.
Moshe Dayan immediately put Operation Hammer back in motion, and Israeli jets once again began pounding Syrian targets early in the morning of Day Five.
By 11:30 a.m., the 8th Armored Brigade was in motion, advancing on Syrian positions in the north of the Golan, near Q’ala. The Syrians had been counting on the difficult terrain to blunt any Israeli attack and had concentrated on defending the southern areas of the Golan – which is precisely why Israel chose the north as the initial invasion route.
However, as inventive as the plan had been, the 8th Armored would still lose most of its bulldozers and tanks and suffer heavy casualties.
At the same time, an infantry brigade advanced on Tel Fakhir, a few kilometers south of Q’ala. For seven hours, Israeli infantry fought to dislodge the Syrian defenders. At the end, the battle was won, but at a terrible cost.
Of the 800 soldiers who began the battle, only 4 survived uninjured and alive.
The cost for both of these battles was high, but the end result was that the Syrian wall of steel and concrete had been breached.
The next day would mark the end.
It’s the last day of the war.
Pressure was building to finish the conflict, from the outside and from the inside. The Soviets were worried that a total collapse of the Syrian army would irreparably damage their influence in the region. The Arab countries were screaming bloody murder about Israeli aggression. The Europeans were disconcerted by the quickness of Israel’s victories. And the Arabists in the U.S. State Department were moaning about the damage to relations with the oil producing countries of the Persian Gulf.
Israel, on the other hand, had a far more serious concern. Strategic stockpiles of munitions were running out. There was a limit to how long they could maintain the incredible pace of their victories without having to start rationing.
However, the worst of the war was over. Jordan and Egypt had been taken off the board, and the hardest battles on the Golan Heights were over. There were still tough fighting left, but Israeli commanders could see that the end was clearly in sight.
This is a good time to also insert a mention of one of the largest factors contributing to Israel’s success against the Syrians: the Israeli spy, Eli Cohen. Just before he was caught in May of 1965, he had penetrated the upper levels of Syrian society and government. He had even been considered for the position of Assistant Defense Minister. One important success had been his recommendation that Syrian bunkers in the Golan be shaded by Eucalyptus trees – providing excellent targeting information to Israeli pilots.
When you go up to the Golan, you can still see those trees.
But let’s get back to Operation Hammer, as the operation on the Golan was called.
On June 10th, Syrian resistance was faltering. The static line defense strategy that the Syrians had picked up from the Soviets was crashing down around their ears. Fresh Israeli units were pouring through the breaches in the Syrian defenses that had been opened the evening before.
Israeli forces quickly took the Banias and then turned south to assault Mas’ada. Israeli mechanized units also began positioning to take the last bastion of a Syrian presence on the Golan, Quneitra (also spelled Kuneitra).
Then, the Syrians did something interesting. At 8:45, Damascus radio announced that Quneitra had fallen (when most Israeli units were still 10 kilometers from the town). The Syrian government had hoped to obtain Soviet intervention to pressure Israel to stop advancing further into Syrian territory.
The idea backfired. Syrian soldiers also listen to the radio, and upon hearing that Quneitra had fallen, began to panic and flee their positions. Resistance on the Golan began to collapse. Quneitra fell in the early afternoon, and Mas’ada followed a few hours later. Fighting had ended on the Golan by 6:15 p.m.
The Six Day War was over.
The Six Day War stunned the world. The tiny country of Israel had successfully fought off the most powerful armies of the Arab world and tripled its territory. The Soviet Union’s attempt to unite the Arab world under its leadership was given an embarrassing defeat.
In response, a humiliated Arab world expelled their Jewish citizenry, and Egypt, the USSR, and the PLO redoubled their efforts against Israel. Egyptian artillery dueled with Israeli artillery. Israeli and Egyptian pilots fought for control of the skies of the Sinai. The PLO sent waves of terrorists across the border. By the time a new cease fire was agreed upon, this War of Attrition would produce almost as many casualties as the Six Day War.
At the same time, Israel struggled to integrate hundreds of thousands of Jews that had been expelled from Arab countries with little more than the clothes on their back. It was a reenactment of a previous generation. Just twenty years before, Israel had been forced to integrate similar wave of refugees.
There also ensued a massive propaganda war, and Arab spin doctors found a willing audience in the leadership of Europe and much of the US. However, Israel found itself supported by an unexpected ally: Evangelical Christians. Christians flocked to the holy places of Israel and demanded that their political representatives support Israel.
The United States government also slowly woke up to this new situation on the ground in the Middle East. Not only were Evangelicals demanding that the government support Israel, but Cold War strategists were beginning to see Israel as a new ally in the undeclared ‘war’ with the USSR.
But to Israel, the most important situation of all was the realization that she was alive and kicking.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
שאלו שלום ירושלים
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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you... Hosea 4:6
