THE JEWISH HISTORIAN Sir Martin Gilbert

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1 Looking back at the Six-Day War Tony Benson The fortieth anniversary of the Six-Day War has created a lot of interest in the Brotherhood. This article looks back at the war and shows how the hand of God was at work in bringing about events which had great consequences for the fulfilment of Bible prophecy. THE JEWISH HISTORIAN Sir Martin Gilbert said in a recent interview in the International Jerusalem Post that, when he studies the archives of recent events when they become open to the public, he often finds that the reality was very different to the perception at the time. This is certainly so when we look at the Six-Day War with hindsight. Our perspective on these matters is that of the hand of God at work. At the time we saw it at work giving Israel a miraculous victory against overwhelming odds. Looking back we can still see that the hand of God must have been at work because of the fulfilments of prophecies arising from Israel s victory, but we can now see that it worked in ways too subtle to be appreciated at the time. The significance of the war First we consider briefly the significance of the war. Although God is in control of all things, clearly there are times when God s hand is particularly at work to fulfil His purpose, especially in relation to His people Israel; and it is regarding such times that we look at how events worked out to fulfil God s purpose. The Six-Day War was a significant event in the following ways: 1 1 The bringing of East Jerusalem under Israeli control marked an end to the treading down of Jerusalem by Gentile powers (Lk. 21:24), and provided an apt termination to the 2,300-year time period of Daniel 8, which had been anticipated for 250 years to terminate in It gave Israel control over the holy places of Christianity and Islam situated in Jerusalem. Israel is now determined to hold onto Jerusalem, Muslims want it back and the major churches of Christendom would like it to be under international control. Jerusalem has become a burdensome stone for all people, as predicted in Zechariah 12:3. 3 It gave Israel control over the hill country of Judea and Samaria, which, as the mountains of Israel of Ezekiel 38:8, needs to be part of Israel when Gog invades. Looking back, it can be seen that the war also had more general consequences for Israel, the Middle East and the whole world in relation to the fulfilment of Bible prophecy: 1 It made Israel confident that it could defeat any combination of Arab nations that would come against it, a reliance on its own strength rather than trusting in God. This is part of the reason why God is yet to humble them by more powerful invaders so that they will at last be forced to turn to Him in their extremity. 2 It created the Palestinian problem the desire of the Palestinians to get back the West Bank territories (Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip with all the trouble this has meant for Israel. (In fact there was, of course, no independent Palestine prior to the Six-Day War; the West Bank had been seized by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip by Egypt, in the 1948 War of Independence, prior to which these areas had been ruled by Britain, and before that the Ottoman Empire.) 3 The settlement of West Bank territories by Jews has created internal conflict within Israel. Some, mainly religious, Jews wish to retain the whole area; others would be prepared to give it all back in return for peace. There is now a disunited nation, not a nation united in its worship of God a situation which had existed from independence but was accentuated by the conquests of In ancient times the nation was seldom united, and this will continue in modern times till Christ comes. 4 Before June 1967 Israel was regarded sympathetically by most of the world as the underdog. Its victory showed that this was not 1. These were referred to in Brother Nigel Bernard s article, Israel forty years on (Jun. 2007, p. 182). 2. Dissertations on the Prophecies, Thomas Newton, twentyfirst edition, p This book was first published in The Testimony, July

2 so, and it has become widely criticised by a world that is largely ignorant of the facts of recent history and of the intransigence of the Arabs. It thus began a process that will lead to all nations coming against Jerusalem to battle (Zech. 14:2). 5 Because the USA supported Israel in the Six- Day War, the USA lost influence in the Middle East. In 1956 the USA intervened when Britain and France colluded with Israel to invade Egypt (the Suez crisis), and forced them to withdraw. From 1967 onwards it consistently allied itself with Israel. In contrast, the Six-Day War caused France to change from being a supporter of Israel to being perhaps her most severe critic in Western Europe. 6 Israel s occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank territories, and the support of the USA, has been a major factor in the growth of extreme Islamic movements, with all that this has meant for the world by way of terrorism. Was it a miraculous victory? Was Israel s quick and comprehensive victory in the Six-Day War a miracle? The word miracle has become a debased word in modern society, and it is easy for contemporary usage to affect our use of the term. It is right that we should recognise the hand of God in everything, but we should reserve the word miracle for its prime meaning of an event that is contrary to the established laws of nature and attributed to a supernatural force. 3 When an angel destroyed 185,000 Assyrians overnight it was a miracle; when the tables were turned on Haman s evil designs so that the Jews could destroy their enemies it was not a miracle. 4 Did the Six-Day War involve any open manifestations of God s power? I know of no evidence that it did. However, in view of the significance of the war, including its timing to fulfil Daniel 8:14, God s hand must have been at work. How He acts to fulfil His purpose without open intervention can be illustrated from the time of the return from exile in Babylon. Ezra 1:1-4 refers to Cyrus the Persian emperor decreeing that the Jews could return to Jerusalem. Esther records how, somewhat later, through a remarkable combination of circumstances, the Jews of Persia were placed in a situation where they could avoid destruction by their enemies and turn the tables on them. No miracles are recorded in either case. However, Daniel 10 shows us the angels busily at work at the time when Cyrus made his decree, but in 226 ways unseen to men, and only known to Daniel because it was revealed to him; and this is surely in Scripture to show us how God is working out His purpose all the time. Looking at the Six-Day War in retrospect, the Divine hand can be seen at work in the circumstances that brought about the war, and also in how the Israeli forces were able to secure a swift and decisive victory. How the war arose The Six-Day War was triggered by two actions by Gamal Abdul Nasser, the Egyptian president. He expelled a United Nations peacekeeping force stationed on the Egyptian-Israeli border in the Gaza Strip and at Sharm el-sheikh at the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula. He then blocked the Straits of Tiran, at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba, to all shipping, preventing access to the Israeli port of Eilat at the head of the gulf. Blockading access to shipping in this way is widely regarded as an act of war. Egypt then amassed forces in the Sinai Peninsula while Egyptian radio poured out a stream of bellicose threats against Israel, and other Arab nations offered their support. Israel launched a pre-emptive strike, apparently believing that an Arab invasion was imminent. In fact, it is now said, Nasser had no intention originally of actually going to war, and there is a revisionist view today that says that Israel was well aware of this and deliberately went to war for its own ends. Whatever the case, the war came with all the significance outlined above because events simply got out of control, humanly speaking, though of course fully under the control of the angels. The way the war came about illustrates the truth of several Scriptures, such as: For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness (1 Cor. 3:19, citing Job 5:13); the LORD... That turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish (Isa. 44:24,25); The king s heart is in the hand of LORD, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will (Prov. 21:1); 3. Collins English Dictionary. 4. Brother Robert Roberts distinguished between the open intervention of Divine power and God working out His purpose behind the scenes in his two books The Visible Hand of God and The Ways of Providence. The Testimony, July 2007

3 Picture: istockphoto.com/gert Kelu Sharm el-sheikh at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba. The Six-Day War was precipitated by Egypt demanding the withdrawal of a UN peacekeeping force from here to enable it to block sea access to the Israeli port of Eilat. the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will (Dan. 4:17). We will look at the various nations involved in the war and see how remarkably things worked out to bring the triumph of Israel and all the consequences outlined above. This will involve looking at developments prior to the immediate buildup to the war. Syria Although the war came about because of the belligerence of Egypt, as outlined above, in the longer term it was the actions of Syria that caused the buildup of tensions in the area. There had been constant provocation of Israel by Syria over a long period, with incursions by Syrian-backed guerrillas growing. Israel retaliated strongly, leaving the Syrians feeling humiliated and the government unpopular. A war was seen by the government as being a means of recovering popularity, and in typical Arab fashion it made bellicose threats against Israel which it was incapable of carrying out, relying on its alliance with Egypt and the background support of Russia to carry it through. Russia Russia saw the opportunity in the growing crisis to stir up trouble for Israel and increase its influence with the Arabs. It told President Nasser that Israel was amassing troops on the border with Syria. There was no truth in this, and Russia is believed to have invented the story to get Egypt to move troops to Sinai to deter Israel from retaliating too strongly against Syrian incursions. Russia did not apparently want war, knowing Egypt s weakness, but encouraged Egypt and Syria to think they could rely on its support if it came to war, though not seriously intending to do so. It badly miscalculated, and events got out of its control. Egypt In the spring of 1967 the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdul Nasser, was in difficulties. His forces were bogged down in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to replace the monarchy in Yemen with a republican régime. He had economic problems due to being unable to pay money which the country had borrowed. He allowed the Voice of the Arabs radio station to broadcast inflammatory words about Israel. His intelligence The Testimony, July

4 service told him what he wanted to hear about Israel, rather than the truth. Other Arab nations accused him of being a coward, afraid to go to war. The result was the preparations for war outlined above. The distinguished Jewish American commentator Walter Laqueur makes some telling comments: Events soon acquired a momentum of their own; once Nasser had taken the first step there was a very strong temptation to advance farther towards the brink. And then, at a certain point, retreat became impossible ; Nasser... stumbled into war without a plan, hoping somehow that Israel would crumble. 5 More recently the view has been expressed that Nasser would have withdrawn his forces rather than commit them to war against Israel. Whatever the case, it is now recognised that Egypt was in no position to wage a successful war against Israel, due to widespread incompetence and mismanagement in the military, despite the fact that it considerably outnumbered the Israeli army. His best troops were in Yemen. He appointed a commander-in-chief who was not up to the job and who committed suicide after the humiliating defeat; the troops were ill-trained and unprepared; the commanders on the ground were in dispute with each other and involved in meetings instead of preparing the forces in the field. Half the planes were not ready for combat, and most of the pilots not properly trained. Intelligence warnings that Israel was preparing a pre-emptive strike were ignored. What was on paper an impressive force was incapable of performing effectively. Not for the first time, Ezekiel 29:15 was fulfilled: [Egypt] shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. Jordan King Hussein of Jordan had no desire to be involved in a war, and the Israelis quietly warned him to stay out of it. Relations with Egypt were bad, for President Nasser was against monarchies. However, in a dramatic move he flew to Cairo on 30 May and made a mutual defence pact with Egypt. This made an Israeli pre-emptive strike inevitable, for if Egypt invaded first, Jordan, occupying what became known as the West Bank territories of Judea and Samaria, was only twelve miles from the Mediterranean at the nearest point and could have cut Israel in two while Israeli 228 forces were dealing with an Egyptian invasion in the south. Why did King Hussein do this? For one thing he feared that if war did break out and he remained neutral, Israel might use it as a pretext to take Jerusalem anyway. For another, since other Arab nations were making threats against Israel he felt he could not do any other than join in, otherwise he would be in danger of being overthrown by his own people. It was all very well for nations further off to threaten Israel, however; but Jordan was Israel s neighbour, and King Hussein s action turned out to be a colossal blunder which resulted in Jordan being the real loser in the war. Thus does God act through the folly of men. Other parties When Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran in what was effectively the first act of war, there was much talk of the USA, perhaps aided by Britain, sending a flotilla of ships through the Straits of Tiran to break the blockade; but it came to nothing. This could well have prevented the situation from escalating into war. Why did it not happen? One answer is that the USA was heavily engaged in the Vietnam War, the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent South Vietnam from becoming Communist. Another answer is that the USA was secretly in collusion with Israel to give Israel an excuse to take Jerusalem and the West Bank. Whatever the case, there had been a significant change in American leadership in the years before the war. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, bringing his vice-president, Lyndon B. Johnson, to power unexpectedly. Johnson was president in 1967, having won an election in between. Kennedy had favoured Egypt, but Johnson was a supporter of Israel. Significantly, he came from a Christadelphian background, though never one himself, surely providence at work. 6 Another significant step on the road to war was the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces, as mentioned above. Why did the secretary-general, U Thant, act immediately in response to Egypt s demands instead of bringing the matter before the 5. The Road to War: The Origin and Aftermath of the Arab- Israeli Conflict , Pelican, 1969, pp. 97, Lyndon Johnson s Christadelphian background was brought out in Lyndon Johnson and his support of the Jews, Testimony, Jan. 1992, p. 29. The article was written by Brother George Booker, himself a relative. The Testimony, July 2007

5 Picture: The St Stephens or Lion Gate on the east side of the Old City of Jerusalem. At 9.50 am on Wednesday 7 June 1976 Israeli forces entered by this gate and captured the Old City. Security Council? We do not know, but if he had done the latter, war may have been prevented. Israel s triumph And what of Israel? Her victory seemed at the time to be an amazing triumph against all the odds. In fact it was not so. British and American intelligence advice was that in the event of a war Israel could be expected to win in seven to ten days, based on their estimate of the two sides strengths. Israel s military commanders were confident of victory and were keen to go to war to get rid of the niggling cross-border incursions of her Arab neighbours. Numerically Egypt had by far the strongest forces, but its weaknesses, as pointed out above, prevented it from being an effective fighting force. In contrast, Israel had developed one of the most effective fighting forces for its size that the world has ever seen. Its planes were flown by highly trained pilots who had practised over and over again the manoeuvres that would be necessary should war come. The Sinai War of 1956 had given the generals a good knowledge of the Sinai Peninsula, and its plans for dealing with a war situation were finely honed. Israel also had a well-organised system of calling up its reserve forces in the event of war, which, in view of the fact that it had compulsory military service, meant that a large proportion of the able-bodied men of the country were available to fight. The country united as one man, to use a Scriptural phrase (Judg. 20:1), with women, children and the elderly doing their best to fill in for their departed menfolk. The nation knew that they would be fighting for their survival; if they lost, at best they would lose independence, at worst there would be a new holocaust. The war was effectively won early on Monday morning 5 June when wave after wave of Israeli planes, flying low to avoid radar, destroyed the Egyptian air force. Despite the tense situation, the Egyptians had left their planes parked on the runways of their airfields instead of concealing them in shelters. Their commanders followed a daily routine of breakfasting at their homes, then driving to the bases all at the same time; and the Israelis, aware of this from their intelligence, The Testimony, July

6 Picture: Tony Benson timed their attack for the time when the commanders were in their cars and unable to issue orders. Devoid of air protection, confused and disorganised, the Egyptian forces proved no real opposition to the Israeli ground forces, which by Wednesday had reached the Suez Canal. Despite the destruction of his air force, President Nasser claimed success for his forces, and deceived the world for a while until the truth gradually emerged. This had two beneficial effects for Israel and the fulfilment of the prophecy that Jerusalem would be taken. Firstly, although Israel had informed King Hussein of Jordan when war broke out that there would be no attack on Jordan, the king, believing that the Egyptians were winning, attacked Israel, leading Israel to respond and take the Old City of Jerusalem on Wednesday 7 June. Secondly, Russia blocked efforts by the United Nations Security Council to call for a ceasefire, in the belief that Egypt was winning the war. Only when the falsity of Nasser s claims emerged did Russia support a ceasefire, and it was Saturday by the time a resolution was passed and pressure brought upon Israel to cease fighting, by which time it was triumphant on every front. The final phase of the war was against Syria in the north, resulting in the taking of the Golan 230 View from the Golan Heights looking northwest over Lake Galilee. Prior to the Six-Day War, Syrian troops on the Heights were able to shell Israeli agricultural settlements on the shore below. Heights. Here too the folly of Israel s enemies can be seen. The Syrian forces were disorganised due to internal dissension and were slow to join in the war, giving the Israeli forces the opportunity to deal with Egypt and Jordan while operating in defensive mode in the north. By Thursday, Egypt and Jordan were defeated and Israel turned its attention to Syria. The Syrian forces failed to make proper use of their strong defensive positions overlooking the Jordan valley, and were soon defeated. The Israeli forces were greatly assisted in this because their spy in Damascus, Eli Cohen, had given them detailed knowledge of the Syrian defences on the Golan Heights. 7 Here again providence was surely at work. Conclusion The above account shows that Israel did not need miracles to triumph in the Six-Day War. We see instead angels working behind the scenes, as they did in Daniel s day, to bring about God s purpose. They brought about a war which no one really intended, and ensured that through the pride and folly of its enemies Israel was in 7. See, for example, The Mossad, Dennis Eisenberg, Uri Dan & Eli Landau, Paddington Press, London, 1978, pp The Testimony, July 2007

7 a position to achieve an overwhelming victory. Those dramatic six days of conflict produced effects which reverberate throughout the Middle East today and were part of the outworking of God s purpose to humble His people Israel and bring the nations to a recognition of the one true God Who has a purpose with this earth. Sources The Six-Day War, Randolph Churchill and Winston Churchill Junior, Heinemann, The Road to War, Walter Laqueur, Pelican, Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East, Jeremy Bowen, Pocket Books, Various articles published in the International Jerusalem Post in recent months. Two-part article Whatever happened to Tyre? (1) Mark Taunton This two-part article considers a prediction by Ezekiel against the city of Tyre, counters sceptical objections to the prophecy s truth, and presents new evidence for its complete fulfilment. THREE CHAPTERS of Ezekiel contain predictions about Tyre (26, 27) and her prince (28). We focus on his first prophecy (26:1-14), about the physical city her walls, towers, garrisons, etc. her great wealth, and what would become of both. God through Ezekiel sets Himself against Tyre, having determined her utter destruction. In 26:2 Tyre is condemned by Yahweh for what she said against Jerusalem. Tyre was perhaps gloating over damage to Judah s trade from the activities of the regional superpowers Egypt, Assyria, and later Babylon as their forces moved through the Levant in waves of conquest. The word for Jerusalem being laid waste is used about Assyrian kings drying up the water supplies, and hence the power, of cities they attacked (Isa 37:18,25). Tyre herself was mighty and rich from her vast trading network. As a strong city (though she was attacked many times), perhaps she felt safe, and expected to benefit from Jerusalem s woe. But Ezekiel shows this hope to be utterly vain. The prophecy The prophecy starts with a summary. Yahweh tells Ezekiel how He will bring up many nations, like waves from the sea, upon Tyre, to destroy her walls and towers, and kill her daughters. God would scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of rock where nets could be spread. Tyre was to become a spoil to the nations. As a result, God says, they shall know that I am the LORD [Yahweh] (26:6). Next comes detail of a two-stage destruction: 1 Nebuchadrezzar would first besiege and then enter Tyre, breaking down her walls and killing her people (vv. 7-11). 2 After this the nations would spoil and destroy the city; they would lay her stones, timbers and dust in the midst of the water (v. 12). Beyond that, Tyre was to be built no more; the city would never be found again (vv. 14,21). The fulfilment Some years after God s words to Ezekiel, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon attacked Tyre, just as was predicted in stage 1. Josephus reports from earlier writers that the siege lasted thirteen years; 1 Ezekiel was told that it was long and hard, but unrewarding (29:18). Eventually, Nebuchadrezzar did break, enter and slay (26:9-11), but some escaped by ship, taking the city s wealth with them out of his reach. After an interval of about 240 years, stage 2 was fulfilled by Alexander the Great and his allies. As part of his campaign against Persia 2 (Tyre supported Persia), he made his reputation for 1. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 10, chapter Predicted in Daniel 8:1-7,20,21. The Testimony, July