A series of general armistice agreements with Israel were entered into after her war of independence. These agreements were concluded under the UN auspices and were signed by Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The first agreement guaranteed the right of each party to security and freedom from fear of attack by the armed forces of the other. This agreement claimed that threats to peace were to be eliminated. Besides these armistice agreements, the UN appointed a commission represented by the United States, France, and Turkey which first attempted to bring the Arab states and Israel together to find a common ground for a final peace settlement. The Arab states refused to sit with Israel’s representatives. Meetings were thus held separately and eventually separate protocols were signed by the affected parties. Even though these agreements and protocols were signed back in 1949, eighteen years later by 1967, no peace treaty had yet been drawn up. Israel repeatedly drew attention to the fact that these agreements were not permanent and volunteered time and again to enter into negotiations for a permanent peace.

These are some of the unilateral peace offers to the Arab states that Israel made. In 1951 Israel proposed a nonaggression pact. Israel offered to negotiate compensation to Arabs who abandoned their land and dwelling places in Israel. In 1953, Israel released accounts held by Arab refugees in Israeli banks. In 1954, Israel offered Jordan free port facilities at Haifa as part of a peace settlement. Also in 1954 in an Arabic broadcast over Israel’s official radio station, Israel expressed willingness to serve as a land bridge between her neighboring Arab states, offering passage across her territory.

Israel even went so far as to offer the Arabs complete disarmament in the Middle East with mutual inspection or in the alternative Israel would offer political, economic, and cultural relations along with a non-aggression pact. Israel has sought only to have the chance to live in peace with her Arab neighbors. This effort continues to this day; but like the others, is ignored or scorned. Instead of peace a cacophony of hate pours from the Arab press and the Arab peoples. Their two main themes are genocide and “politicide. ”No other people in the world has been obliged to contend, day in and day out, with so real a threat to its existence as the Israelis are forced (by international pressure) to do.

In 1967 Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran by military force, knowing this was an act of war against Israel. Egyptian president G. A. Nasser boasted, “We knew the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba meant war with Israel…the objective will be Israel’s destruction.” Nasser stated publically that the ensuing war would not be over the Straits of Tiran but over Israel’s “existence.” This was to be a war of extermination, a situation Israel and the Jewish people face continually. This was not rhetoric. Arab armies were massing along Israel’s border poised to strike. Egyptian battle plans included the massacre of the Tel Aviv civilian population. The Egyptian army was equipped with poison gas according to Israeli intelligence. Further, Egypt flew surveillance missions over Israel. The question was who would attack the other’s air fields first. Israel answered the question. On June 5, 1967 the Israeli air force attacked Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi military airfields. Israel did not attack Jordan, hoping it would stay out of the war. Israel sent several messages to King Hussein in Jordan promising not to attack Jordan unless it was attacked first. Israel made it clear that it had no designs on the West Bank or even on the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem with its Western Wall, unless it was to be attacked. It was the Arab legion that initiated the hostilities between Jordan and Israel.

Hence, Jordan attacked. It began shelling Jewish civilian population. Six thousand shells were fired into Jewish residential areas, wounding 1000 civilians. 900 buildings were damaged. Jordanian planes joined those of Egypt and Syria, as well as Iraqi MIGs in bombing civilian population centers.  Damascus radio proudly announced the bombing of civilian cities. It was a repeat of 1948 in which the Arab armies deliberately and unlawfully targeted Israel civilian population centers, while the Israel army attacked legitimate military targets. Only after Jordan’s air force began bombing residential neighborhoods in Israel did Israel finally attack Jordanian military airfields. The Israelis accepted a cease fire proposed by the UN but the Jordanians kept fighting. Only then did Israel capture the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem.

When you look at the above events, the history, and the circumstances surrounding Israel today, has anything changed in the last 43 years? With one exception, instead of Iraq supplying arms and pilots, Iran is doing it now. The entire Arab world is poised against her and it is more than rhetoric again. The threat of a nuclear attack from Iran or Syria is real. Israel and the Jewish people are faced once again with the diabolical threat of annihilation. Who will attack first this time? In all honesty, I pray it is Israel without regard to American political opinion and for the preservation and protection of the Jewish people.