Why We Should Celebrate The 50th Anniversary Of The Six Day War
Jane Eisner’s article,”Inner Conflict: The Six Day War’s 50th Anniversary Merit Celebration Or Despair?”, is excellent. I learned the war broke out on Monday, June 5, 1967, when I was sipping an early morning vanilla malted in a newsstand/soda shop across from Columbia University. I tore through the New York Times reading the account (since debunked) that the Egyptian air force had damaged the airport at Lodd.
Within six months, Israel went from being a champion of the left to a bad guy.
The title of the piece in the Forward disturbed me — especially since I judged the article from the title. However, upon reading, I realized that Eisner’s views and mine are similar. In June of 1967, Israel’s enemies wanted to kill our people. All of us. Drive us to the sea. Had they been successful, they would have. That they were not successful is cause for celebration.
However, as Talleyrand said to Napoleon, “You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them.”
Joel Solkoff is an adjunct research assistant at Penn State and a disability rights advocate.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
