Israel: A History

14 | The Age of Euphoria, 1967-1973

307 14 THE AGE OF EUPHORIA, 1967–1973 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * After the Six-Day War the face of Israel changed. The deep, pervasive anxiety of the three-week waiting period gave way to euphoria: ‘‘We were like unto them that dream’’ (Psalms 126:1). Suddenly Israel was a world celebrity. No longer a sleepy country in a remote corner of the Middle East, it was now the focus of events of global significance. Journalists and tv crews flocked to Israel from all over the world. They were followed by thousands of volunteers, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who were excited by the military feats of this small country against all its aggressors. The volunteers found places in kibbutzim, helping with seasonal work, replacing youngsters serving in the army or mobilized for reserve service. They brought to Israel the flavors and trends of the larger world. The partial isolation Israel had experienced in its first nineteen years—both because outsiders lacked interest in it and because its shortage of foreign currency restricted foreign travel for its citizens—was well and truly over. Israel was now a regional power governing a million Palestinians and territory four times larger than it had before the war. This situation created a range of di≈culties that remained on the public agenda for the next decade and beyond. The first was security. The victory had not brought the longed-for peace but had worsened relations between Israel and its neighbors. The relative quiet of the prewar decade did not return. Only a few months after the war ended, Palestinian terrorist attacks commenced in Israel and against Israeli targets abroad, reaching their peak with the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In March 1969 the ‘‘War of Attrition’’ along the Suez Canal began; it continued until August 1970. Rule over the new territories became a leading topic in Israeli political discourse . What would be done with the occupied territories? Were they a bargaining chip to induce the Arabs to make peace with Israel, or were they a vital strategic addition to the security of the state? Jewish settlement in the territories fit the Zionist impulse and myth, according to which the Jewish plow determined the borders. Should the Green Line borders be extended through Jewish settlement in the occupied territories, or should Jews settle only in sparsely populated Arab areas, according to security needs? And finally there was the cultural-moral debate about ruling another people: was it justified and, if at all, under what conditions? Messianic overtones, religious and secular alike, soon imbued these debates. Jewish communities throughout the world, particularly in America, shared the km JORDAN LEBANON SYRIA Ashqelon Netanya Nablus Tiberias Nahariya Tyre Afula Jenin Tulkarm Jericho Haifa Aqaba Ashdod Tel Aviv-Yafo Safed Sea of Galilee Dead Sea SAUDI ARABIA ISRAEL Mediterranean Sea Gulf of Eilat Gulf of Suez Red Sea 0 100 Suez Beersheba Jerusalem Hebron Eilat Sharm el-Sheikh St. Katherine Tiran Neviot Di Zahav Qala’t a-Nahel El Kuseima Gaza Bir Gafgafa Ismailiya Port Said Rafah El Arish AtTur Ofira SUEZ CANAL EGYPT Jewish settlement beyond the“Green Line” Other settlement Central settlement Armistice line Cease-fire line, 1967 Border (“Green Line”), 1949 S i n a i map π. the post–six-day war borders, and settlements in the occupied territories, ∞Ω∏π–∞Ωππ. (see plate π.) the age of euphoria, 1967–1973 309 elation and the joy of deliverance in the wake of the victory. The sense of a common destiny between Israel and the Jewish people had never been stronger. During the waiting period even Hannah Arendt, not known for her empathy for Israel and the Israelis, expressed anxiety over their fate. The Jews in the Diaspora felt like proud partners in the idf’s victory, and demonstrated this in displays of identification with the state and visits to Israel, as well as a surge in donations. Therewasalsoawaveof aliyaof tensof thousandsof JewsfromWesterncountries. Although the ussr had severed its relations with Israel after the war, this did not deter Soviet Jews from demonstrating support for their brethren in Israel. A swell of enthusiasm swept through these ‘‘Jews of silence.’’ After the Six-Day War, Jews in the ussr embarked on a public struggle for the right to immigrate to Israel. Until then all activity on behalf of Soviet Jewry had been underground for fear of harming the Zionist activists in Russia. But now these...