By Ron Jager
This article is based in its entirety on a booklet by Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi, “The Six-Day War Scroll: The Story of Yom Yerushalayim and the Six Days of Deliverance.”
The six days from June 5 until June 10, 1967, are without parallel in the story of human warfare. These six days are also without parallel as far as modern-day miracles are concerned. Prior to 1967, who had ever heard of a full-scale war measured in days? One which began at 7:45 Monday morning and was over dramatically on Saturday of the same week.
This was a war in which one tiny country–Israel–faced five hostile Arab countries–Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, assisted by Iraq and Lebanon–with a combined military might of twice as many soldiers, three times as many tanks, and four times as many fighter aircraft. Egyptian and Syrian military forces were trained by leading Soviet military advisers and armed with the most sophisticated weaponry in the Soviet arsenal.
This was a war for which some experts assessed the expected Israeli death toll to be as high as 100,000–even in the event of victory–yet somehow it ended with less than 800 Israelis killed in action.
This week we celebrate the victory of the Six Day War, in which Israel miraculously defeated the combined armies of all the Arab nations that surrounded her. It was in this war that Israel liberated and united the city of Jerusalem and returned to the heartland of her ancient homeland–Judea and Samaria–all prophesied in the Holy Bible.
Ezer Weizman, who had built the Israeli Air Force and was head of operations during the war, was asked to explain the astounding success of the air force on the first day of the war. All he could think of was a verse from the Bible, in which Pharaoh’s greatest sorcerers and advisers submitted to a metaphysical explanation of the plagues: “It is the Finger of G‑d.” Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin summed up the war with a message in a telegram sent to the postwar celebrations in Tel-Aviv, with the following quote from the Hallel prayer: “This is the day that Hashem made; we shall exult and rejoice on it.”
A new reality had been created. Something of biblical proportions, redemptive realities, and Messianic implications. Something in the human order had irrevocably changed. The core of this shift was not only the miraculous nature of the war but the fact that the Jewish people had returned for the first time in 2,000 years, not only to their holiest site, but to a site held dear by over three billion people, to all three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The implication is clear: The human saga began here and humanity’s spiritual destiny is inextricably linked to Jerusalem. The sovereign return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem was therefore a spiritual and political seismic shift of epic proportions.
Salvation
From The Sky: Operation Moked
At 7:15 Monday morning (June 5, 1967) almost all the planes (about 200) in the Israeli Air Force set off to attack the Egyptian Air Force–its planes and airfields. Only 12 fighter jets stayed and patrolled the open skies of all of Israel to protect the center of the country. “Operation Moked,” which launched the war, carried strategic and existential risks. Egypt had a well-developed anti-aircraft arsenal, boasting dozens of missiles and hundreds of cannons, generously supplied by the Soviet Union and her satellite states. In complete contrast, most of the Israeli planes were old French models, hardly fitting for the operational needs at hand. Had the Israeli attacking forces been detected on their way, before the attack, they could have easily been knocked out of the air and Israel would have remained defenseless.
It was precisely then that the great miracle occurred. All of the aircraft reached the Egyptian airfields in Sinai, along the Suez Canal and the Nile River–without even one being detected. The entire line of Egyptian anti-aircraft batteries all along the perimeters of Egypt didn’t function. Divine Providence linked arms with the brave Israeli pilots. They flew undetected, at an altitude of only 80 feet above the sea, with precision and operation discipline. At exactly 7:45, the Israeli planes bombed the runways on the Egyptian airfields, effectively putting the Egyptian Air Force out of action.
Within one hour, more than 200 Egyptian planes had been destroyed and all of Egypt’s military runways were bombed, turning the remaining fighter aircraft into sitting ducks to be destroyed by a second sweep of the Israeli bombers. General Motti Hod, the head of the IAF at the time, was quoted as stating, “Even in my wildest dreams I could not have imagined such an achievement,” adding, “Who can express the power of G‑d, tell all His praise?” (Psalms 106:2).
Exactly three hours after the start of Operation Moked, at 10:45, the war had been won. Approximately 300 Egyptian planes had been destroyed and all airfields disabled.
The miracles were not over yet. Egypt’s allies–Jordan, Syria and Iraq–believed the Egyptians’ false announcements of great victories against Israel and rushed into the fray, eager to be part of the “great victory.” Arab planes attacked Israeli towns and army bases, but before they had a chance to cause any serious damage, Israel’s combat pilots and anti-aircraft batteries shot them down. Following this attack, Israel decided to expand Operation Moked and destroy Syrian and Jordanian aerial power. So at 12:45, the third wave took form, and by 3:45, more than 100 Jordanian and Syrian planes had been destroyed and all airfields paralyzed. Within 24 hours–all within the first day of the Six Day War–three major Arab nations threatening Israel had no air power and the Israeli Air Force was the sole ruler of Middle Eastern skies, a reality that has persisted until today.
Within six days, the Israel Defense Forces were stationed along new borders that had expanded the country to three times its prewar size. Despite the weeks and months of hostile actions unilaterally taken by Israel’s Arab neighbors prior to the Six Day War that were without a doubt declarations of war, no one in Israel (or anywhere else) expected such an outcome. On the contrary, Israel had prepared for a long and painful war with thousands dead. What transpired was the exact opposite, and the world was in awe.
In those six days we saw the bravery of the Jewish people march hand in hand with Divine Providence. G‑d’s outstretched Hand gave us our land back, as he commanded us, “I have given the land before you, come and inherit the land that G‑d swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and their future generations.” (Deuteronomy 1:8) v
Ron Jager is a 25-year veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, where he served as a field mental-health officer and as commander of the central psychiatric military clinic for reserve soldiers at Tel-Hashomer. Since retiring from active duty in 2005, he has been providing consultancy services to NGOs, implementing psychological trauma treatment programs in Israel. Ron currently serves as a strategic adviser to the chief foreign envoy of Judea and Samaria. To contact him, e-mail medconf@netvision.net.il or visit www.ronjager.com.
