NPR and the 6 Day War

It is difficult to listen to National Public Radio and not get angry. The pro-Palestinian news network, more of a news magazine, except for occasional broadcasting of the BBC which is also generally slanted against Israel, ran a series this week on the Six Day War.

NPR acknowledges that three Arab states, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon (with help from Iraq) were bent on destroying the state of Israel in 1967. Massive build-ups of ground troops and air forces loomed dangerously near.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser declared his intention to wage a war of destruction against Israel (see, this is nothing new).

Moshe Dyan made the decision for a pre-emptive air strike that disabled all three enemy air forces before a single plane left the ground, virtually determining victory for Israel.

That night, a defiant Nasser called for jihad. “Oh Arabs, this is the day for Holy War, this is the day for vengeance,” said Nassar. The story continues to say that Israeli armor smashed through Nasser’s defense in the Sinai and by nightfall of the second day, Egyptian forces were in full retreat and, with them, Nasser’s wider Pan-Arab ambitions crumbled.

It was a Pan-Arab initiative to eliminate the Jewish state.

The Israeli government begged Jordan to stay out of it and told Israeli forces to hold back fire. Meanwhile, King Hussein turned his army over to the Egyptian generals who gave the order to open fire on Israeli-held West Jerusalem. Jordanian artillery units shelled West Jerusalem, destroying 900 buildings, killing several Israelis. Jordanian jets attacked coastal cities, including Tel Aviv, more than a symbolic nod to their Arab friends. Israeli forces finally attacked back, took control of the West Bank and all of Jerusalem.

When the war was over, Moshe Dayan handed the keys to the mosque in Jerusalem, the one built over the holiest Jewish site, where Abraham offered Isaac to G-d, where Jacob wrestled with an angel, to the Arab waquif. He could have blown the whole thing up.

The NPR story doesn’t sound slanted, particularly, until reporters interview advocates for Peace Now, Israelis who believe that giving back everything is the only solution to peace.

After 40 years, including two Palestinian uprisings and waves of deadly suicide bombings, Israel’s messy and tragic entanglement with the West Bank continues.

“It’s tragic more than anything else,” said Israeli peace activist Dror Etkes. “It’s a story of waste of energy, of waste of life, of waste of so much potential on both sides — Palestinian and Israel. It’s a story that cannot end well. Occupation cannot last.”

I’m not a Middle East expert. But this language, it’s tragic, it cannot end well, occupations can’t last is apologist. I can’t see why anyone would think that giving back territory would STOP the pan-arabists, still bent upon destroying the Jewish nation, from pursuing that goal, destroying the state of Israel, eliminating Jews from the country (driving them into the see, or perhaps nuking them), effectively ending Jewish life in territory that was won, as we here in America say, fair and square.

Again, it may sound trite to say that the American government never gave back “occupied” American soil to Native Americans who lost their ancestors protecting their lands, vast lands, much, much, much more territory than the Sinai, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights put together. Unless you call reservations a fair exchange.

zachdus