Reflections on the Middle East

Introduction

In spite of what’s implied by my title, I’m not going to offer “Reflections on the Entire Middle East.” But I do want to share some material I encountered while searching the internet for info on the Six Day War. That’s how I started out, trying to glean some insight into possibly the strangest war ever fought on this planet.

But while searching for bits about the Six Day War, I broadened my scope to the Yom Kippur War (an equally strange affair), which occurred only six years later. And that led, naturally enough, to posts on miracles connected to both wars. It’s so true: One thing does lead to another.

Of course, as I scanned the internet for “information” (yeah, right, that’s got to be put in quotation marks for sure), I was struck by a variety of thoughts. I will share some of those with you.

Go ahead, call me skeptical!

I’m very much a dues-paying member of this school: “Things are not as they seem.” So naturally I would be attracted to a subject like the Six Day War. In spite of oft-repeated claims to the contrary, I firmly believe the United States decisively aided Israel during that conflict. And I don’t mean by just providing weapons or reconnaissance. And I don’t mean that US assistance was merely incidental to Israel’s success.

What do I mean? Or, more precisely, what can I prove? I mean, the US government had access to help of a supernatural nature. And, no, I can’t prove that, except to lay out a circumstantial case, which I’ll open with this quote:

QUOTE:

Indeed, a West Point general once remarked that though the US Military Academy studies wars fought throughout the world, they do not study the Six Day War - because what concerns West Point is strategy and tactics, not miracles. [source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7133 ]

:UNQUOTE.

Let’s assume what this general is claiming is true – that “what concerns West Point is strategy and tactics, not miracles.” And that this is the reason the Six Day War isn’t studied at West Point. Even if that’s true, you’d better believe the Pentagon/CIA pays a great deal of attention to such miracles. And, moreover, they help generate such miracles. It is well-known that the Russians (also) have for decades (and the Nazis as well) paid a great deal of attention to paranormal forces. And to the search for extraterrestrial beings as allies in their endeavors.

As for miracles

As a Buddhist, I believe in extraordinary events, but I do not believe in miracles. That is, I don’t believe in magic. Things happen for reasons, though to the unsophisticated viewer such things might appear to happen magically. That’s just another way of saying, “I see but I don’t understand why.” Fair enough…but too many people aren’t honest enough to say “I don’t know,” preferring instead to attribute miracles to their gods.

When I started practicing Buddhism as part of an established group (before I became a lone practitioner), I was taught to respect the miracles of other religions. We weren’t supposed to be dismissive (as in “why are you so special as to be entitled to a miracle?”); and we weren’t supposed to say “You’re exaggerating; it didn’t happen.” Perhaps “it” didn’t happen for the reasons cited, but we can be reasonably sure that “something happened” that was out of the ordinary.

Sometimes, though, it is useful to governments and other powerful entities for people to be convinced that inexplicable events do occur. Even if the powerful know just how explicable these events really are. I will return to the subject of miracles (providing some examples) in a bit, but first some questions.

Some questions and speculations

ONE: On May 22, 1967 (less than two weeks before Israel attacked), Egypt declared the Straits of Tiran closed to Israeli shipping. Since this was openly viewed by Israel as an act of war, and since prolonged closure would devastate its economy, why didn’t the United States unilaterally send ships to break that blockade?

TWO:  It could be argued that the United States was, in effect, encouraging Egypt to attack Israel by insisting on remaining “neutral” in this affair. If the United States knew in advance that a multi-state attack against Israel was doomed to a disastrous conclusion, it might have wanted to bring about this conclusion in an effort to knock Egypt’s President Nasser down from his pedestal. He was the dominant voice of Arab self-consciousness, and was allied with the USSR.

THREE:  This link, containing the following quote, inspires a very key question:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol49no1/html_files/arab_israeli_war_1.html

[This link is to an article by David S. Robarge:  “CIA Analysis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Getting It Right.”]

 QUOTE:

The CIA was right about the timing, duration, and outcome of the war…

The second paper Helms had brought—the “who will win” memo—was the crucial one. It stated that Israel could “defend successfully against simultaneous Arab attacks on all fronts . . . or hold on any three fronts while mounting successfully a major offensive on the fourth.” [Okay, here’s the “key question” I referred to above: “But how could this have been assured without knowing in advance that Israel would have total air superiority?”]

That paper—issued the following afternoon with the title “Military Capabilities of Israel and the Arab States”—is the illustrious “special estimate” in which the CIA (in collaboration with the Defense Intelligence Agency) purportedly called the war right, from its outcome down to the day it would end.

:QUOTE.

FOUR:  It should have been obvious to the Arab powers that Israel had to attack. Since the Straits of Tiran were closed, thereby denying vital imports to Israel, and (due to the demands of military mobilization of reserves) large numbers of Israelis were absent from their workplaces (thereby further weakening its economy), it had to be obvious that Israel had no choice but to attack. Time wasn’t on their side. That being the case, why did the Egyptian air force keep most of their jets on the ground? It would have made more sense for (say) half to have been airborne at any time.

FIVE:  Why didn’t the miracles (some of which are cited in the next section) that seemed to aid only the Israelis during the Six Day War discourage Egypt from trying yet another war a mere six years later (the Yom Kippur War or, if you prefer, the Ramadan War)?

SIX:  I read accounts of the US having provided LSD-25 gas to the Israelis, which was used to spray Egyptian soldiers in order to disorient and incapacitate them just before Israel bombed Egypt’s Sinai-based airfields. This, of course, is a ridiculous assertion, since there haven’t been any claims of psychedelic trips from the victimized soldiers.

SEVEN:  Did the US intentionally place the USS Liberty in harm’s way? By “allowing” the Israeli’s to attack this ship, the US could have defused rumors of any larger collusion between the US and Israel in this war.

EIGHT:  For decades, I’ve read speculations about how the Jews were going to come around to the world view held by certain US fundamentalist Christian sects and accept Jesus as the Messiah. I wouldn’t be so sure, since the abundance of miracles showered on the Israelis during the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars should serve to convince them of the righteousness of their own views.

NINE:  According to the Wikipedia article on Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli army’s chief of staff in 1967:  “In the days leading up to the war, it was reported that Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to function.  After [a] short hiatus, he resumed full command over the IDF [in time to leading it to a smashing victory].”  I find it unconvincing that one can overcome a nervous breakdown within a few days. However, I find it very convincing to feign such a condition and publicize that fact in order to embolden one’s enemies into continuing their brinksmanship.

TEN:  In the instances of miracles, there were stories of mass “hallucinations” featuring angels bearing flaming swords. Did the US government possess the technology at the time to generate such visions? Or is this where extra-terrestrial allies were summoned by the US – in exchange for what, God only knows? But I do know this much: Pipers like to be paid.

ELEVEN:  I haven’t managed to find any accounts of miracles (or the intervention of Allah) helping the Arab cause during these wars. In fact, the bumbling performance of the Arab militaries appears, for all intents and purposes, to be self-inflicted – perhaps intentionally so. If so, I’m at a total loss for a rationale.

TWELVE:  I would love to read accounts of how the Egyptian veterans who survived these wars felt about what transpired, but I can’t find any.

THIRTEEN:  I still can’t understand why Egypt’s official name is “The Arab Republic of Egypt.” Egyptians are not Arabs!

FOURTEEN:  Maybe Egypt’s incredible loss in the Six Day War was Divine retribution for the Nasser government’s vicious attacks against the Muslim Brotherhood.

Miracles

I’m going to quote some material, while inserting some questions/observations of my own (some in brackets):

QUOTE:

A story is told of a small Jewish community, Pekiin under siege by Arabs who were determined to wipe them out. However, they encountered huge strange beings with flaming swords, and they ran away in great fear, as the astonished village rabbi watched them. [I wouldn’t be too quick to claim that these were Angels of the Lord.]

During the 1967 six day war, Gershon Saloman lay badly wounded and saw Syrian soldiers moving into their area shooting wounded Israeli soldiers. They were about to shoot him, when all of a sudden they fled the area leaving their weapons behind. [Why would they leave their weapons behind?] The Syrian soldiers later reported to UN officers that they saw "thousands of angels" surrounding the wounded soldier and that was why they ran away. [But why did those “angels” come to the aid of this one particular soldier?]

There is no end to the stories that have been documented from the battles: of the Egyptian tank commander in the Sinai Desert who surrendered to a vastly inferior Israeli force on the second day of the war, because a desert mirage [or a generated illusion?] made him see hundreds of Israeli tanks where there were no more than a dozen; of the Jordanian forces who welcomed the Israeli tanks under the command of Colonel Uri Ram into Shechem on the third day of the war, because faulty communications misled the Arabs into thinking that these were Iraqi tanks come to reinforce them. [Wouldn’t the markings on the tanks dispel that illusion?]

:UNQUOTE:  [source:http://elijahmantle.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/miracles-during-the-6-day-war-in-1967.html ]

QUOTE:

…twenty-one-year-old Lieutenant Greengold was home on leave when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise attack on two fronts. … he hitchhiked to Nafekh…in the Golan Heights, where he initially helped with the wounded, as no tanks were available. When two damaged Centurion tanks were repaired, Greengold was put in charge of them and sent with hastily-assembled scratch crews down the Tapline Road.

…[AND]….

For the next 20 hours, he fought, sometimes alone, sometimes in conjunction with other tanks, displaying an uncanny knack for showing up again and again at the critical moment to tip the scales of a skirmish. He had to change vehicles "half a dozen times” [Where did these replacement vehicles come from? How did he acquire new crewmen, assuming some of his had been killed along the way?] as his tanks were knocked out…

Afterward, he claimed 20 enemy tanks destroyed; other estimates place his tally at 40 or more.

:UNQUOTE.

I really don’t know what to think of this episode. There are people among us who have a sense of mission and (knowingly, I believe) are protected as they fulfill that mission. As to whether they serve as proof of the righteousness of their side in an armed conflict, that’s impossible to say. It may well be that proving righteousness isn’t relevant but that allowing the survival of a threatened group is – at least for the moment. But, as the old saying goes, “The past doesn’t guarantee the future.”

And it’s the future that matters – our future as a human race rather than the future of particular states which tend to divide us. As for the Egyptian national anthem (“My country, my country, my country”), in the final analysis, countries don’t matter; how individuals treat other individuals does – and countries don’t do a very good job of encouraging that. As for Israel’s national anthem (“The Hope”), “The Hope” should be for a flowering of world peace and not for the illusion of security earned at the expense of hardship incurred by one’s brothers (or, in this case, one’s half-brothers).

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Steven Searle for US President in 2012
Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party

“It’s always good to maintain an abundance of skepticism, for there are powerful forces out there laboring mightily to destroy our free will, which is more dependent than it should be on good information.”


Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com