Looking Back at Past June Highs and Lows for Israel and World Jewry

The June 1967 “Six Day War”
Probably THE central June event for Israel and World Jewry was the June 5-10, 1967 “Six Day War.”  You have to be at least in your mid-sixties to have even the slightest memory of what it was like to be a supporter of Israel in late May and early June in 1967. The pre-war fears that this could be the end of Israel and  President Johnson warning “Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go it alone…”
And then post-war, the jubilation – even hubris – as Israel gained control over the vast swaths of the Sinai, Gaza, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and of course, East Jerusalem – enabling Jews to be able to pray at the Western Wall. (Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan – he of  the famed eye patch (having lost his eye in June 1941 in a military action in Lebanon) – spoke of  “waiting for the phone to ring” from Arab Capitals. The war also saw the tragic accidental Israeli attack upon the US ship, The Liberty.)

Other June Wars or Military Actions
1978: Israel Withdrawal from Lebanon (under US Pressure) after Operation Litani….1981: Israeli strike on the Iraqi Nuclear reactor at Osirac, leading to World  – including US condemnation of Israel)…..1982: The shooting in London of Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Shlomo Argov – resulting in the Lebanon War -“Operation. Peace for Galilee


.”

Looking back to Israel’s early days.  In 1946  Operation Agatha (“Black Sabbath”) The British crackdown on the Jewish of Palestine….1948: saw the Last British troops leave Palestine/Haifa while that same month: The David Ben-Gurion ordered sinking of the Altalena which brought the country to the brink of the Civil War. And as noted; it also saw the tragic death of Mickey Marcus.

Terrorism Against Israel and Israeli Responses
The 1976 Hijacking of Air France to Entebbe, Uganda, with Jewish passengers being separated, leading to the July 3/4 rescue at Entebbe….2001: The Dolphinarium night Club bombing on the Tel-Aviv beach front killing 21 people….2002 – Work begins at the security fence…2006 Gilad Shalit Exchange after 5 years in Hamas captivity…. 2014: Three Israeli Teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenke were kidnapped and murdered. (Two Weeks later their bodies were found – Leading to Israel’s Operation “Protective Edge”)…2016
: Terror Attack Sarona market in Tel-Aviv kills 4 Israelis…And of course over the years, there have been countless other June Palestinian terror attacks against Israel.

The Holocaust
1939: The SS. Louis departs Cuba, returning to Europe with its 900+ Jewish refugees…..1942: News of Final Solution reported on the BBC….1944: President Roosevelt informs Congress of  Hitler’s plan to exterminate Jews of Europe…1962: Adolf Eichmann hanged

US-ISRAEL
1948:  Mickey Marcus (the subject of the 1960 Hollywood film “Cast A Giant Shadow”) is tragically killed in Israel and buried at West Point….1964: Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol meets with President Johnson at the White House….1974: President Nixon becomes the first US President to visit Israel….1977 Carter signs anti Boycott legislation…1981: President Reagan suspends F-16 sales to Israel…1982: Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin famously told certain US Senators:  “Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees….” 1990: Secretary of State  James Baker cold comment to Congress. “When Israel is serious about peace  call us.”

Changes of Israeli Government:
1963: Levi Ehskol took over as Prime Minister from Ben Gurion….1974: Yitzhak Rabin sworn in as Prime Minister, succeeding Golda Meir….1977: Menachem Begin/Likud Government of Israel (The First Non-Labour Party Led Government of Israel)..1992 Yitzhak Rabin defeats Yitzhak Shamir…1996: Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Shimon Peres …2021: Naftali Bennett becomes Prime Minister replacing Netanyahu.

Terrorism against America
  1985: Hezbollah terrorist hijack TWA-847  plane to Lebanon and murder US Navy pilot, Robert Stethem… 1996; The attack at Khobar Towers

In the broader World – many which impacted strongly upon American Jews.
1914 – Assassination Archduke Franz Fedinand….1916: Start of the “Arab Revolt” (with “Lawrence of Arabia”) Vs Turkish Forces….1919 Treaty of Versailles….1940: “Dunkirk”… 1944 “D Day”…..1948 – The Berlin Blockade and the  Berlin Airlift…. 1949: “1984” is published…1953: The Rosenbergs – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – are  executed….1954 -The Army McCarthy Hearings….1963 – President Kennedy at The Berlin Wall “Ich Bin Ein Berliner“…1964: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) founded.…The 1964: The Civil Rights act after filibuster….1964: “Mississippi Burning” – The murder of civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner …1968: The Murder of Senator Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan….1969:  Stonewall riots in New York…1970: Jordan’s King Hussein escapes assassination attempt…1972: The Watergate Break In… 1986: Former UN Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim (banned from the United States for his World War II activities) is elected President Austria….1987: President Reagan urges the Soviet Union to “tear down this [Berlin] wall”…1989 Tinamen Swuare… Tiananmen Square…1989: Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Khomeini dies…1993: President Clinton’s response after Iraq plot to kill former President Bush

More parochially, at my former organization, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
One year ago this month – June, 2024:  AIPAC announced that the organization’s leadership had selected Elliot Brandt to replace Howard Kohr who had headed the organization for almost 30 years.  (Completely unrelated; that same week AIPAC, to my sorrow and disappointment, decided that my almost 40 year time at AIPAC should come to an end.)
In 2020: After criticism of AIPAC’s silence over the death of George Floyd; AIPAC responded in a message to its supporters and then a public AIPAC Statement re George Floyd.
In 2008: AIPAC held its annual Policy Conference where speakers included the Presidential contestants, Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

In June 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave his famed speech in which he  declared “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It’s an admonition which Israel, World Jewry – especially American Jewry – and even the United States as a whole, might pay serious heed to. There are a lot of divisions in Israel that supporters of Israel hate to see. And a lot of divisions among American Jews – even among Jews who all say they are pro-Israel. Personally it tears me apart!

Happy Shavuot/Chag Sahmeach