For whom is it something to celebrate? For those who support the Jewish state. For those who want to destroy the Jewish state, it is something to mourn.
Different groups have different interests. What is good for the Jews is often bad for non-Jews such as Arabs and Muslims.
Michael Oren writes in the New York Times: “This year, Israelis are also celebrating the centenary of the Balfour Declaration because it formalized the international community’s recognition of a Jewish nation and our 3,000-year attachment to our homeland. But the Palestinians are mourning it — their leaders have even called on Britain to apologize. Today, as in 1917, they view Jews not as a people with rights to a national homeland but as a religious group and, throughout much of Islamic history, an inferior one at that.”
Every religious group regards other religions as inferior.
Oren: “Despite persistent Arab rejection of Jewish identity, the Zionist leadership recognized that the Palestinian Arabs were a people with sovereign rights.”
Land is a scarce resource. There are competing groups with competing claims for the land of Israel. Any Arab or Muslim who accepts Jewish claims to the land of Israel is a cuck. A proud Arab or Muslim would rather die than accept a booming Jewish state in their midst. If peace prevailed, Israel would even more dramatically excel its Arab neighbors who have an average IQ of around 85 (while Israel’s is near 100). The shame would be unbearable for the Arabs (or for any other people in their position). They’d rather die than cease trying to destroy those who excel them.
My guess is that before the Six-Day War, a lot of American Jews didn’t emotionally invest that heavily in Israel, figuring it could be wiped out. Once it had proven immensely victorious, they became huge fans.
Similarly, I started reading the sports pages in 1965 when I was six. The upcoming UCLA – USC football game matching eventual Heisman Trophy winners Gary Beban and Mike Garrett was a big deal at the time. I can recall listening in with perfect neutrality, not having made up my mind which of these two odd acronyms to root for. When I tuned in on the my transistor radio in the second half, USC was up 16-6. But Beban threw two long bombs for touchdowns and UCLA won. This was very exciting and I became a UCLA fan (which paid off in basketball but not in football).
The Six-Day War gave the more conservative American Jews something to be excited about. Richard Nixon and Daniel Patrick Moynihan came up with a plan to make clear to pro-Israel American Jews that Israel’s success would be linked to America’ success in the Cold War.
Comments at Steve Sailer:
* I grew up with security guards outside synagogue every Saturday. On festivals there were police too. I never really thought about it, but for my bar mitzvah we invited a lot of non-Jewish family friends and they told us how weird it was to have security guards outside a house of worship. I guess they don’t think that now.
After the Sabra and Shatila massacre, security was bumped up in British synagogues. My mother remarked to someone that the community was feeling at risk. She responded (or so my mother tells me), that ‘of course you have to expect that, unfortunately’. My mother replied that since the massacre was carried out by a Christian militia with no direct Israeli participation then it would make as much sense for some angry chap to attack a church. Her friend found the very thought incomprehensible. I guess she doesn’t now.
It’s almost like spending decades rewarding angry Middle Easterners for terrorism incentivises them to do it more, but liberals and dolt rightists know that can’t possibly be true.
* Mentioning the USS Liberty is useful because anyone who does outs himself as an anti-Semite. There is nothing to be gained by rehashing this incident otherwise. Casualties from “friendly fire” are unfortunately very common in the fog of war. Just the other day the London cops shot a bystander in the head in the course of killing the terrorists. They should not have needed 50 shots to kill 3 terrorists but once the adrenaline starts pumping people don’t think clearly. It’s very easy to be an armchair general.
