Page 59 - Hamizrachi #30 USA 2021 Yom Yerushalayim - Shavuot

her seaport choked, but he was unmis- steaming in that direction), and the fact even with this gifted asset, Israel could
takably clear that if Israel fired the first that the Arabs and the world did not know still not fight off the world alone. Enter the
shot, it would forfeit France’s friendship the full extent of the Arab defeat (because white knight of rescue (his head adorned
and assistance for good. Britain’s Harold Cairo Radio issued announcements about with an abundance of cotton locks like
Wilson was not nearly as strident, but he Egyptian victories and even informed a tobacco shag about to be rolled), the
also had no solution to contain Nasser’s Jordan that 75% of Israel’s air force had United States’ long-forgotten ambassador
war aspirations. President Johnson in been eliminated), the IDF fought on. Israel to the UN, Arthur Goldberg.
America proposed the formation of an was so desperate to avoid the imposition In what would appear as a fluke of
“international flotilla” of warships to sail of a ceasefire that Jerusalem issued no history, Goldberg resigned from his
through the Straits of Tiran in the hope battle communiques of the truth. position as a justice on the Supreme
it would terminate Nasser’s blockade. Court to accept Johnson’s nomination
But such a flotilla would take time to owever, when Moscow finally to be his country’s UN ambassador (LBJ
assemble, and in the interim Israel was learned the extent of the Egyp- believed Goldberg was the most compe-
expected to… wait. tian losses, Soviet Premier Alexei tent member of Kennedy’s cabinet). How
Meanwhile in Israel, the pressure for Kosygin sent a strongly-worded Israel would profit from this nomination,
immediate defense in the form of offense message to Washington that it and the unmistakable Divine intervention
was rising to a fury. could no longer remain indiffer- in this most unusual of career shifts, was
Israel’s waiting gave the Arabs the sense Hent to “Israel’s criminal aggres- not discernable when it occurred in 1965.
that the Jews were scared to fight. In Nass- sion” and that if Israeli troops did not But in 1967, when Israel’s future was
er’s pep speeches about the destruction withdraw, the Soviet armed forces would so precarious, and the risk of being
of Israel, he appeared to be drunk with an use appropriate means to end the “Zionist coerced to accept a ceasefire so immi-
imagined victory as he united the Arab adventure.” nent – which would have cost Israel
world in a paroxysm of triumph and hate. From this point on, the most important its victory precisely as had happened
Nasser sounded Hitler-esque and the battlefront for Israel was in the United 11 years earlier in the Sinai Campaign
responsive roars and cries of the Cairo Nations. Israel dispatched its heaviest – there was no one who proved to be
mobs were too reminiscent of the Nurem- hitter, Foreign Minister Abba Eban. He a better and more effective ally than
berg rallies. Eshkol’s mumblings and inept arrived with no time to spare. A ceasefire Arthur Goldberg.
fumbling evoked memories of the help- resolution had already been drawn up that Goldberg knew how to handle the wily
lessness of European Jewry against the would have paralyzed Israel from achiev- Russian ambassador Nikolai Fedorenko,
Nazi menace. The contrast of ultra-char- ing its military goals and robbing what had who, despite his constant anti-American
ismatic Nasser and ultra-phlegmatic already been obtained. Eban, having shut- harangues, was fond of his American
Eshkol were making Israelis cringe. tled non-stop across Europe, rose to the counterpart and admired his creativity.
The period of Hamtana finally came UN podium and delivered a tour de force. He referred to Goldberg as “A slick Jew
to an end when America ever-so-sub- With drama perfected through his Oxo- who could fool the devil himself.” Gold-
tly hinted that they felt it was not their nian presentation, Eban delivered a pano- berg saw to it that the situation did not
position to restrain others. Israel had ply of metaphors that dazzled the assem- deteriorate into a situation that the Rus-
the green light and it acted immediately, bled. Referring to the blockade he said, sians would actually enter the fray, and
effectively, and decidedly. In the air and “Israel is breathing with a single lung,” skillfully delayed matters at the UN to
very swiftly afterward on the land, Israel and labeled the UNEF, “an umbrella taken allow Israel the time it needed to achieve
defeated the Egyptian threat and then away as soon as it begins to rain.” its full victory.
focused upon destroying the Jordanian “Look around this table and imagine,”
and Syrian air forces. Eban reprimanded, “a foreign power forci- Rabbi Hanoch Teller’s new podcast “Teller
The clock was ticking. bly closing New York or Montreal, Boston from Jerusalem” chronicles the stories of the
Israel had not yet liberated Jerusalem or Marseilles, Toulon or Copenhagen, Rio early struggles of the modern State of Israel.
nor cleared the Golan Heights and the or Tokyo or Bombay Harbor. How would Available wherever you listen to podcasts,
or scan:
UN was pressuring for the adoption of a your government react? What would
ceasefire. Nothing could have been less in you do? How long would you wait?” He
Israel’s interest. stressed that Israel’s only aspiration was
America was willing to let Israel win the self-defense and peace and concluded,
war, but it was not interested in a clash “Let us discern across the darkness the
with the USSR, which demanded imme- vision of a brighter and gentler dawn.” Rabbi Hanoch Teller, internationally-
diate condemnation of Israel and with- Abba Eban was brilliant and hailed acclaimed storyteller extraordinaire, is an
drawal to the previous lines. worldwide as a genius of oratory. The Chi- award-winning author and producer.
Gambling on the fact that Russian cago Tribune summarized, “One of the
forces were not yet in the region (albeit great diplomatic speeches of all time.” But A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
mizrachi.org/speakers

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