Today, eleven years after 1956, I say such things because I am confident. I know what Egypt and Syria has….Iraq has sent its troops to Syria…Algeria will send troops; Kuwait will send armored and infantry units. This is Arab power. This is the true resurrection of the Arab nation…”
- Abdul Nnasser president of Egypt

How many times can you be reborn? If you are Jewish or Israeli, the answer is plenty. Is that normal? What is normal for biblical people still walking? Isn’t that the biggest irritant of all?

After the War of Independence was thankfully won, the Arab countries and the Israelis went about life in the opposite directions. The Israelis built their country up and provided a safe haven for its people, the Arabs, unfortunately went shopping for destruction.

Israel built schools, universities and hospitals enjoyed by Jews and Arab citizens alike. They dried the swamps, planted forests and agriculture, and diverted waterways to nourish the ever growing number of people. They moved immigrants from tents to wooden huts to houses, whether in Kibbutzim or in the cities. Under new foundations ancient ones were discovered - a welcome nod from our ancestors. The Old City was forbidden to them by the Jordanians but new Jerusalem became their capitol, the site of their Knesset where they exercise at the top of their lungs their democratic rights the way Democratic societies do. The Arab Israelis also participate.

They developed tourism and the performing arts, raved about their literary giants and cheered their sportsmen and sportswomen who represented Israel worldwide.

Egypt, in 1956, tried to strangulate Israel by closing international waterways like the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran. When Arab military units amassed in the Sinai Peninsula, Israel parachuted its IDF soldiers 270 Kilometers into the Sinai, capturing it and the Gaza strip in seven days. Israelis were wounded and died in the “Sinai Campaign” to restore safety, but they would return it all under Russian threat and USA political pressure. The Arab countries learned that outside intervention could be exploited to promote a cause they legally had no right to.

Israel offered to pay reparations to the Arab refugees even before any peace agreements were signed. The Arabs refused, and in doing so, proving that they cared nothing about the refugees’ plight.

Syria, sitting right above Kibbutzim at the Sea of Galilee, lobbed canons on households and children daily. Sderot of today was metropolitan Tiberias then.

In a show of supreme restraint Israel held back from taking action, even as (once again) Egypt tightened the noose around the Straits of Tiran, signed a mutual defense pact with Jordan and Iraq, spreading anti-Israel rhetoric calling for the annihilation of the Jewish State. Seeing the Arab mobilization on all fronts, and fearing the consequences of Arabic first strike for its civilians, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on June 5, 1967 and captured the Sinai and the Gaza strip once more. Jordan, which disregarded Israel’s request to stay out of the war and attacked Israel, lost the West Bank and Old Jerusalem. Thereafter, Israel removed the threat to its citizens by capturing the Golan Heights.

This became known as the Six Day War.