At the end of last week, I was part of a televised panel called, “How many days has the Six-Day War lasted?” One of the first speakers opined that Israel’s Six-Day War miraculous triumph was a Pyrrhic victory. I answered as follows:
“Perhaps Israel’s victory in the War of Independence was pyrrhic, as well? Perhaps the declaration of the State of Israel was a crazy gamble that turned out to be a mistake? After all, we are still fighting wars until this very day. Why should we only count the days since the Six-Day War? Why not count since the War of Independence? And why should we only go back to the War of Independence? Perhaps it was utter foolishness to build the State of Israel?
“Obviously, all the above are vacuous ideas of people who have no idea what they are doing here. One thing, however, is true. The Six-Day War has not finished. It cannot finish if we do not want to win, even though the victory was served t o us on a silver platter – thanks to the heroism of the IDF soldiers and the blessing of Heaven.
The Six-Day War was a miraculous war. If you decide that you do not want to win and you do not want to apply sovereignty to the redeemed territories and if you declare from the start that you can’t wait to return all the territory that you won in the war, clearly the war will never end.”
The interviewer asked me if I mean to say that the way to end the Six-Day War is to annex all the territory that we won then. “Absolutely,” I answered. “For years we have been brainwashed that this is an impossible solution. But it is possible. There really is no demographic problem and there is no problem with international relations. The entire problem is in our heads.
“The problem is with our consciousness that tries to escape our identity and thus attempts to flee the Land of Israel. The problem is with our consciousness that can’t wait to be rid of that Cave of Machpelah and that Temple Mount and that entire ‘Vatican,’ in the words of Moshe Dayan, who gave the Temple Mount to the Muslim wakf.
“The problem is not the Arabs. The problem is the Jews – it is between us. We are afraid of those ‘cursed territories’ because those territories carry with them the kernel of our identity, and it is that very identity that many wish to escape.”