This 2023 book is a great read.
* Johnson agreed to sell additional F – 4 Phantom fighter jets, demanding only that Israel present a peace plan in return. Eshkol even persuaded Johnson to speed up production so that the IAF could take delivery in 1969 instead of 1970.
With these actions, Lyndon Johnson did more to guarantee the security and survival of the Jewish state than any American president before or since. Israel would receive far less generous treatment from Richard Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger.* On June 29, 1967, the barriers dividing Jerusalem were removed, allowing Arabs and Jews to commingle for the first time in nineteen years. In the morning, only a few brave souls ventured into opposing territory. By afternoon, the ice was broken and crowds flowed in both directions. Israelis were surprised to learn that under Jordanian rule, schoolchildren received free public education through high school. Israeli schoolchildren received free public education only through the tenth grade. They were also pleased to find how cheap things were outside of high – tariff Israel. “The bargains flew off the shelves,” was how one journalist described it. 13
That surprise paled in comparison to the shock that awaited the Arabs. For years they had been assaulted with propaganda assuring them that Israel was a failed state on the brink of collapse. What they found instead was a consumer society of overflowing shops and cafés. For some, it was their first glimpse of a modern city. An Israeli policeman remembered seeing Arabs crowded around a traffic light, cheering each time it automatically changed from red to green. 14
Elsewhere, the occupation worked well because it was guided by Moshe Dayan, who followed the principle “the lighter the grip, the firmer the hold.” Less than two weeks after the war ended, he ordered the army to exit Arab cities and position itself in military bases outside. German television crews were stunned to see Arabs listening to Egyptian and Jordanian radio stations. In World War II, listening to enemy radio was a crime punishable by death. 15
As for the holy sites, Dayan the atheist had it down to a science: separate the two faiths and pray to God they coexist. In Hebron, the Ibrahimi Mosque built atop the Cave of the Patriarchs ( Me’arat HaMakhpela ) was divided in two. In Jerusalem, Muslims prayed in the Temple Mount above, while Jews prayed at the Western Wall below. King Solomon could not have crafted a more elegant compromise.
The splendid little war that Israel fought in 1967 stood alone upon the bomb – cratered battlefields of the twentieth century as perhaps the only conflict that turned a profit. The direct cost of the war was only about $1 billion and was largely paid for with foreign donations.
