I meant to post this yesterday but eventually forgot.
Tomorrow (Friday) is the 53rd Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), commemorating the freeing of Jerusalem from Jordanian control during the Six Day War and the general victory in the war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria, in 1967.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the 26th of Iyar, was the day the war broke out with the ingenious Operation Focus.
During the Operation, Israel sent nearly all of its fighter jets down to Egyptian air fields and bombed them with, among other things, a new Israeli invention called "Anti-runway penetration bombs". During the first wave, IAF jets managed to wipe out around 200 Egyptian crafts, about half of the EAF and lost only 8 planes, the Egyptians being caught completely by surprise. During the second wave, the rest of the EAF was put out of commission. A few hours later, wave 3 set out to do the same to the Jordanian air-force. The next day, wave 4 attacked the Iraqi air-force. Thus, right from the start of the war, Israel had the upper hand in terms of air power.
Meanwhile, ground forces stormed Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Sinai and the Golan. The battles were brutal, but the results were stupendously in favor of Israel.
One of the most famous battles was the one at Ammunition Hill in the outskirts of Jerusalem, between Jordanian soldiers and Israeli paratroopers, in the morning of the second day. Many fell during that early-morning battle, but in the end, the Jordanians were beaten.
The battle was made famous in particular because of a song that was written about it. Here's the song with a translation of the words:
At first, the Israeli unity-government didn't want to capture the Old City of Jerusalem, preferring to stick to the old status-quo with the Jordanians. However, eventually, they realized that this was a golden opportunity, and so sent paratrooper, infantry and tank forces to storm the city.
In the video, Colonel Moteh Gur, then commander of the paratrooper's reservist Battalion 55 and later Chief of Staff of the IDF, announces into the communications network (0:42): "The Temple Mount is in our hands, over, the Temple Mount is in our hands!"
Rephael Amir, a field reporter, says on-air, live (0:55-1:11): "I am descending at this moment, at this moment I am going down the stairs towards the Western Wall. I am not a religious person, and never was I one, but, this is the Western Wall, and I am touching the stones of the Western Wall!"
In the background, paratroopers and other soldiers can be heard singing "Shehechayanu v'kiyemanu" (who has granted us life and enabled us to reach this occasion) and then repeating the actual blessing.
At (1:18-1:24), IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who had rushed there as soon as possible, says the "Menachem Tzion u'voneh Yerushalayim" blessing (who has comforted Zion and builds Jerusalem).
Next, the soldiers begin singing the then-new song, "Yerushalayim shel zahav" (Jerusalem of gold) by Naomi Shemer, first introduced only weeks prior to the war.
The battles continued after that.
One anecdote: Rabbi Goren heard that the rest of the Jewish holy sites were going to be freed, so he rushed from Jerusalem to join the troops advancing on the city of Hebron. Rabbi Goren had lived as a child in Hebron until all the Jews of Hebron were brutally kicked out during the 1929 Palestine Riots. Little did Rabbi Goren and his driver knew, that they had passed the soldiers and had arrived in Hebron early. The streets were quiet. Rabbi Goren, as a native of the city, knew how to direct his driver all the way down to the Machpela Cave. Upon arrival, they discovered that all of the city's leadership had locked themselves in the Cave. Rabbi Goren was undeterred. He had a tank brought down before the Cave and warned the leadership that if they didn't surrender, he'd blow up the entrance to the Cave with tank fire.
Naturally, the leadership surrendered. At the time, it was custom that during official surrenders, the highest-ranking figures from both sides would sign the surrender document. Rabbi Goren, however, recognized the Hebron mayor - it was none other than the leader of Hebron Riots of 1929, a man who had brutally murdered many local Jews. Rabbi Goren wouldn't let such a man have a honorable surrender, so he brought the lowest-ranking soldier in the vicinity, a guy who had been drafted just a short while prior, to accept the surrender document.
A general ceasefire was announced on June 11th.
Then-IDF Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin said after the war:
Tomorrow (Friday) is the 53rd Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), commemorating the freeing of Jerusalem from Jordanian control during the Six Day War and the general victory in the war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria, in 1967.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the 26th of Iyar, was the day the war broke out with the ingenious Operation Focus.
During the Operation, Israel sent nearly all of its fighter jets down to Egyptian air fields and bombed them with, among other things, a new Israeli invention called "Anti-runway penetration bombs". During the first wave, IAF jets managed to wipe out around 200 Egyptian crafts, about half of the EAF and lost only 8 planes, the Egyptians being caught completely by surprise. During the second wave, the rest of the EAF was put out of commission. A few hours later, wave 3 set out to do the same to the Jordanian air-force. The next day, wave 4 attacked the Iraqi air-force. Thus, right from the start of the war, Israel had the upper hand in terms of air power.
Meanwhile, ground forces stormed Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Sinai and the Golan. The battles were brutal, but the results were stupendously in favor of Israel.
One of the most famous battles was the one at Ammunition Hill in the outskirts of Jerusalem, between Jordanian soldiers and Israeli paratroopers, in the morning of the second day. Many fell during that early-morning battle, but in the end, the Jordanians were beaten.
The battle was made famous in particular because of a song that was written about it. Here's the song with a translation of the words:
At first, the Israeli unity-government didn't want to capture the Old City of Jerusalem, preferring to stick to the old status-quo with the Jordanians. However, eventually, they realized that this was a golden opportunity, and so sent paratrooper, infantry and tank forces to storm the city.
Rephael Amir, a field reporter, says on-air, live (0:55-1:11): "I am descending at this moment, at this moment I am going down the stairs towards the Western Wall. I am not a religious person, and never was I one, but, this is the Western Wall, and I am touching the stones of the Western Wall!"
In the background, paratroopers and other soldiers can be heard singing "Shehechayanu v'kiyemanu" (who has granted us life and enabled us to reach this occasion) and then repeating the actual blessing.
At (1:18-1:24), IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who had rushed there as soon as possible, says the "Menachem Tzion u'voneh Yerushalayim" blessing (who has comforted Zion and builds Jerusalem).
Next, the soldiers begin singing the then-new song, "Yerushalayim shel zahav" (Jerusalem of gold) by Naomi Shemer, first introduced only weeks prior to the war.
The battles continued after that.
One anecdote: Rabbi Goren heard that the rest of the Jewish holy sites were going to be freed, so he rushed from Jerusalem to join the troops advancing on the city of Hebron. Rabbi Goren had lived as a child in Hebron until all the Jews of Hebron were brutally kicked out during the 1929 Palestine Riots. Little did Rabbi Goren and his driver knew, that they had passed the soldiers and had arrived in Hebron early. The streets were quiet. Rabbi Goren, as a native of the city, knew how to direct his driver all the way down to the Machpela Cave. Upon arrival, they discovered that all of the city's leadership had locked themselves in the Cave. Rabbi Goren was undeterred. He had a tank brought down before the Cave and warned the leadership that if they didn't surrender, he'd blow up the entrance to the Cave with tank fire.
Naturally, the leadership surrendered. At the time, it was custom that during official surrenders, the highest-ranking figures from both sides would sign the surrender document. Rabbi Goren, however, recognized the Hebron mayor - it was none other than the leader of Hebron Riots of 1929, a man who had brutally murdered many local Jews. Rabbi Goren wouldn't let such a man have a honorable surrender, so he brought the lowest-ranking soldier in the vicinity, a guy who had been drafted just a short while prior, to accept the surrender document.
A general ceasefire was announced on June 11th.
Then-IDF Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin said after the war:
"Our airmen, who struck the enemies' planes so accurately that no one in the world understands how it was done and people seek technological explanations or secret weapons; our armoured troops who beat the enemy even when their equipment was inferior to his; our soldiers in all other branches … who overcame our enemies everywhere, despite the latter's superior numbers and fortifications—all these revealed not only coolness and courage in the battle but … an understanding that only their personal stand against the greatest dangers would achieve victory for their country and for their families, and that if victory was not theirs the alternative was annihilation."