‘The Guns Of August’ – Past August Highlights

Past August Highlights and low points in Zionist, Israeli and Jewish history. As always; this monthly retrospective is not a comprehensive compilation. Suggested additional events are always welcomed.

Pre-Statehood Zionism
At a time when Zionism and Israel are under Worldwide attack….In 1897: The First Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland with Theodor Herzl in attendance.  As Herzl famously wrote in his diary shortly after “At Basle I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it.”…

In 1929: The 16th Zionist Congress concluded its two-week long meeting in Zurich…. 1940 – “Revisionist Zionist” leader, Ze’ev Vladimir Jabotinsky  dies in New York at age 59.

Anti-Israel Terrorism
In 1929: The Hebron Massacre as part of the Arab riots in “Palestine…1973: Black September Athens Airport Attack..1978: Two El Al crew killed in London…. 2001: The Sbarro Pizzeria Bombing in Jerusalem killed 16 people including seven children.
…2002: Terrorist attack on an Egged bus Egged bus near Safed….2003: 23 people killed on an Egged bus in Jerusalem…2004: Two bus bombings in Beersheba kill 16 people.

War and Peace 
1955: Mass funeral in Tel-Aviv for  the 58 victims of the El Al Plane shot down in late July by Bulgarian fighter planes. 1970: A US-brokered ceasefire in the Israel-Egypt “War of Attrition 1(Nothing was done about it; but Egypt violated the ceasefire by immediately moving anti-aircraft missiles into the ceasefire zone)… 1970: Menachem Begin quits the National cabinet over ceasefire with Egypt….1982: Yasser Arafat withdraws from Beirut… 2005:  Israel’s Withdrawal from Gaza  – Israel Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon’s address to the nation. On the eve of the disengagement, Benjamin Netanyahu resigned as Finance Minister…2006: The Lebanon War Ends…2014:  Israel’s seven-week long “Operation Protective Edge” concludes.

The US-Israel Relationship
1959: AIPAC announces its name change from the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZCPA) to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)… …1966: Israeli President Zalman Shazar at the White House where President Johnson hosted a State dinner…1985: Republican Senator, Jesse Helms “transformative” trip to Israel courtesy of Republican Senator Chic Hecht and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which saw Helms transform into a “Friend of Israel.”…2015: Organizations engaged in a fight over the US-Iran “JCPOA” agreement

Holocaust and Antecedents
1934: Adolf Hitler becomes Fuhrer ….1936: The “Hitler Olympics” open in Berlin (which the German film maker, Leni Riefenstahl turned into propaganda films)…1944: Anne Frank family were found and arrested by Nazis. Anne Frank’s final diary entry…1967: American Nazi Leader, George Lincoln Rockwell is assassinated by a fellow American Nazi….1987: Adolf Hitler’s one-time Nazi deputy,  Rudolph Hess commits Suicide in Spandau Prison

The US and the Middle East.
1981: The Gulf of Sidra– US shoots down two Libyan fighter planes….1983: Two US Marines were killed in Lebanon…..1988: The 8-year long Iran-Iraq War Ends…1990: Iraq Invades Kuwait…(leading the United States to implement first “Desert Shield” and then in January 1991 “Desert Storm” -which of course saw Iraq fire Scud missiles at Israel….1998: Al-Qaeda Bombing of US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania…1998:  Operation Infinite Reach. US fires cruise missiles at Afghanistan and Sudan.

The US in the World
1814: British invade Washington DC and burn the White House/Capitol (something I never learned about  in my English Public School Education!)  1914: World War I  Britain declares war on Germany (although the United States of course didn’t enter till April 1917)…and British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey famed declaration:  “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time”…A decade after World War, in 1928: The United States was one of the countries signing Kellog Briand Pact ostensibly “Outlawing War.” ….1939 – Albert Einstein’s famed letter to President Roosevelt re the possibility of an atomic bomb…1945: The United States dropped Atomic bombs first on Hiroshima  and three days later on Nagasaki leading to Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II….1945: Truman signs the UN Charter

Domestic US Events 

of Special Import
1963: The “March on Washington’/Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream“…

1964: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution…1964: ”Mississippi Burning” Bodies found of 3 civil rights activists (Michael Schwerner (24), Andrew Goodman (20), James Channey…1965: Voting Rights act signed into law…1966: The first mass shooting in America.  Ex Marine Charles Whitman at the University of Texas…1973:  Henry Kissinger named first Jewish Secretary of State …
1974: President Nixon – “The Man who saved Israel” resigns with Gerald Ford becoming President…2000: Democratic Presidential nominee, Al Gore selected  Joe Lieberman to be his running mate. (The first Jew on a Major Party ticket.)

Addendum
Finally, as a point of “personal privilege:” In August 1974, I arrived on Kibbutz Kfar Blum in the Upper Galilee intending to spend a few weeks there as a volunteer. I ended up spending almost two years on Kfar Blum — leaving only when the kibbutz called “Time Out!” During that period; I further-strengthened my Zionist sympathies; met my future wife and “acquired” my first cats: All became life-long loves! (See my Times of Israel blog piece from this week “Remaining a Zionist: Continuing to be a Supporter of Israel.”)

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