The Seventh Day & Counting
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SPRING 1967/2017 • NUMBER 7 A JOURNAL OF CHRISTIANITY & AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY “WE HAVE UNITED JERUSALEM, THE DIVIDED CAPITAL OF ISRAEL. WE HAVE RETURNED TO THE HOLIEST OF OUR HOLY PLACES, NEVER TO PART FROM IT AGAIN. To our Arab neighbors, we extend, also at this hour—and with added emphasis at this hour—our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples’ holy places, nor to interfere with believers of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO HOURS & FIFTY YEARS: A CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL OREN to live here together with others, in unity.” THE SEVENTH DAY & COUNTING: THE ELUSIVE PEACE OF THE SIX-DAY WAR Moshe Dayan, Israeli Defense Minister JOSHUA MURAVCHIK statement at the Kotel, June 7, 1967 SPRING 2017 • A POPE & A PRESIDENT: JOHN PAUL II, RONALD REAGAN, & THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM PAUL KENGOR LSO OBERT AUFMAN BACKS HOMISTIC OFFENSE HRISTOPHER OLAKOWSKI REMEMBERS NUMBER 7 A : R K T • C K BATAAN • C.S. LEWIS CELEBRATES THE 1ST SERVANT • ALAN DOWD INTERROGATES AMERICAN INTERVENTION • MARK TOOLEY ON AMERICAN INTERESTS • GENERAL MACARTHUR CONSTRUCTS A MAN • MARK COPPENGER OFFERS AIDE TO THOSE SNOWED-IN • GEORGE ELIOT LAUDS A SPOT OF NATIVE LAND & ROBERT NICHOLSON PUTS SIX DAYS IN PROPER CONTEXT PROVIDENCE SPRING 2017 | NUMBER 7 FEATURES ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO 4 HOURS & FIFTY YEARS: A CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL OREN JOSHUA MURAVCHIK THE SEVENTH DAY & COUNTING: THE ELUSIVE PEACE OF THE SIX-DAY WAR 18 %%%"$%$%&!"%&'!&%)&$%##"&!&$% !!!"(&(##$"&"*#$!!& "+ !%#"!%"$+& "%$"&!&'%' "& "'!&"! PAUL KENGOR $ $ &$$ "$ " IDLWKĆUVWKDQGDQGFRPHIDFHWRIDFHZLWKWKHPRGHUQGD\PLUDFOHWKDWLV,VUDHO8SRQWKHLUUHWXUQSDUWLFLSDQWVZLOO ! #$ " A POPE & A PRESIDENT: ! JOHN PAUL II, RONALD REAGAN, & THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM 28 !&$%&!&$#&" %$&$"'+"'$%"" "$" $ " & &" ! $ ""$# % # Army Chief Chaplain Rabbi Shlomo Goren, sur- " ! ! $ $ rounded by Israeli Defense Force soldiers of the Paratroop Brigade, blows the shofar in front of the .RWHOKD0DĻDUDYLRU:HVWHUQ:DOOGXULQJWKH6L[ 'D\:DU-XQH%XLOWE\+HURGWKH*UHDWWKH &!%#$& Kotel is a segment of a much longer, ancient, lime- stone retaining wall that encased the hill known as #%%%%$"$ WKH 7HPSOH 0RXQW 8QGHU WKH %ULWLVK 0DQGDWH RI Palestine, the blowing of the shofar at the Kotel was FULPLQDOL]HG DQG IURP ZKHQ WKH 2OG &LW\ RI -HUXVDOHP ZDV FRQWUROOHG E\ -RUGDQ -HZV ZHUH GHQLHG DFFHVV WR WKH :DOO HQWLUHO\ 7RGD\ LQ accordance to agreements with Muslim authorities, WKH .RWHO LV WKH KROLHVW SODFH RQ HDUWK ZKHUH -HZV DUHDOORZHGWRSUD\3KRWR&UHGLW'DYLG5XELQJHU *RYHUQPHQW3UHVV2̇FH PUBLISHERS MARK TOOLEY ROBERT NICHOLSON EDITOR MARK TOOLEY MANAGING EDITOR MARC LIVECCHE DEPUTY EDITOR ESSAYS MARK MELTON MARK COPPENGER SENIOR EDITORS KEITH PAVLISCHEK SNOWDENISM: JOSEPH LOCONTE A MORAL ASSESSMENT 37 ASSOCIATE EDITOR SUSANNAH BLACK CHRISTOPHER L. KOLAKOWSKI CONTRIBUTING EDITORS FLICKERING FORLORN HOPE: MARK AMSTUTZ THE BATTLE OF BATAAN 44 FRED BARNES NIGEL BIGGAR MARK TOOLEY J. DARYL CHARLES PAUL COYER AMERICAN INTERESTS MICHAEL CROMARTIE & HUMAN RIGHTS 50 DEAN CURRY ALAN DOWD THOMAS FARR ALAN DOWD MARY HABECK IN THE INTEREST OF HUMANITY 54 REBECCAH HEINRICHS WILL INBODEN JAMES TURNER JOHNSON ROBERT G. KAUFMAN HERB LONDON TIMOTHY MALLARD IN DEFENSE OF AQUINAS: PAUL MARSHALL PREEMPTION, PREVENTION, FAITH MCDONNELL & DECISIVENESS AS JUST WAR STAPLES 64 WALTER RUSSELL MEAD PAUL MILLER JOSHUA MITCHELL LUKE MOON REVIEWS ERIC PATTERSON JONATHAN LEEMAN MACKUBIN THOMAS OWENS AN EXCEPTIONAL CRISIS GREG THORNBURY John Wilsey’s American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea 71 INTERNS MATTHEW ALLEN GEORGE BARROS JOSHUA CAYETANO BOOKSHELF SAVANNAH HUSMANN JESSICA MEYERS THE QUARTERMASTER’S BOOKSHELF: LOGAN WHITE Recommendations for further reading & a survey of newly available books 75 LAYOUT & DESIGN JOSEPH AVAKIAN PRINTED BY AD ORIENTEM LINEMARK ROBERT NICHOLSON BASIC SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE JUSTICE IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT 80 $28 FOR A YEAR, FOUR ISSUES. STUDENT RATES AVAILABLE. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: [email protected] SPONSORED BY WEBSITE: PROVIDENCEMAG.COM ISSN 24713511 FEATURE 3DUDWURRSHUV=LRQ.DUDVHQWL+DLP2VKULDQG,W]LN<LIDWVWDQGLQDZHDWWKHQHZO\FDSWXUHG.RWHORU:HVWHUQ:DOORQ -XQH7KLVLPDJHZRXOGEHFRPHLFRQLFIRU-HZVDURXQGWKHZRUOG3KRWRE\'DYLG5XELQJHU6RXUFH,VUDHO'HIHQVH )RUFHV$UFKLYHV THE SEVENTH DAY & COUNTING: THE ELUSIVE PEACE OF THE SIX-DAY WAR JOSHUA MURAVCHIK n May 13, 1967, Anwar Sadat, the then-Speaker of Egypt’s ONational Assembly, returned from a visit to Moscow to pass along to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser a bit of intelligence that the Kremlin had revealed to him. Israel, it said, was mobilizing forces on its northern border to attack Syria. This “intelligence” was completely false, and to this day we have only contending theories about the Kremlin’s motives in concocting it. But it set off a chain of events unforeseen by any of the actors, including especially the Soviet government, which came away one of the episode’s big losers. Within a day, Arab officials were publicly seized the entire peninsula but evacuated it repeating the accusation, although Israel’s in exchange for the placement of the UN force leaders strenuously denied it. Israel even and the lifting of Egypt’s 1951 ban on Israeli invited Soviet representatives to join them shipping through the Straits of Tiran. (The for a flight to the border to see for themselves Straits, a narrow waterway through which that no Israeli forces were massed, but the Israel could reach the Indian Ocean, were offer was spurned. Within two days, however, legally international waters, but they were tanks could be heard rumbling through Cairo, bordered on one side by Egypt and readily and Egyptian forces began to flood into the controlled from there.) Sinai desert. Cairo Radio broadcasted: UN Secretary General U Thant promptly The existence of Israel has continued complied with Nasser’s demand, having little too long. We welcome the Israeli ag- other choice since most of the forces came gression. We welcome the battle we from India and Yugoslavia, two close allies have long awaited. The peak hour has of Egypt. A few days later, Nasser announced come. The battle has come in which we that Egypt was renewing its blockade of Israeli shall destroy Israel. shipping through the Straits of Tiran, which under international law constituted an act Then, Nasser demanded the withdrawal of of war. the UN Emergency Force. These soldiers had taken up positions on the Egyptian side These belligerent acts were reinforced by of the border with Israel as part of an agree- a drumbeat of incendiary broadcasts and ment settling the 1956 Sinai War. Israel had proclamations. Nasser boasted that “[t]he armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon would not have America’s support if it initi- are poised on the borders of Israel…while ated hostilities. But Israel’s military planners standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, calculated that whichever side struck first Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab was likely to win. nation.” And he warned that if war came, “Our basic objective will be to destroy Israel.” The country still hoped to avoid war, but the Would it come? Egypt’s main official news- Arab mobilization on its borders and the paper, Al Ahram, said it was “inevitable.” blockade of the straits constituted a casus Likewise, other Arab officials made similar belli, not only in a strict legal sense but for boasts; for example, Iraq’s President Abdul practical reasons, too. Like so many other Salam Arif said, “Our goal is clear—to wipe countries, Israel depended on imported oil, Israel off the map.” Ahmed Shuqairy, the lead- and that oil necessarily came mostly from er of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the east, meaning through the straits. And, echoed this phrase, adding piquantly, “no too, Israel could not withstand a prolonged Jew will be left alive.” mobilization of forces since, unlike the Arab armies, Israel’s consisted mostly of mobilized Israel, meanwhile, sent appeals for peace in civilians. If they were mobilized for long, the public statements and through diplomatic economy would grind to a halt. channels. A major radio address by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, perhaps the least char- President Johnson appealed to Israel to bide ismatic of that country’s leaders, sounded so its time while he organized a flotilla of ships conciliatory and was delivered so haltingly as from the U.S. and several allied countries to to project fear. Itzhak Rabin, then the young sail through the straits and break the block- and dynamic chief of staff of Israel’s armed ade. But after days passed, it became apparent forces and later a celebrated prime minister, that Washington had no luck in assembling disappeared from sight for a few days. It any participants. Meanwhile, another omi- was said he had overdosed on coffee and nous event occurred. cigarettes. It is now generally acknowledged that he had a nervous breakdown, although Jordan had long been the most moderate of he recovered in a few days. the Arab states. King Hussein’s grandfather and predecessor, Abdullah, had been the sole Israel was indeed afraid. It had prevailed in its Arab leader prepared to accept a compromise war of independence of 1948, but one percent with the Zionists. For this he had been mur- of its people had perished. It had triumphed dered before the eyes of the then-teenaged again in the 1956 Sinai campaign, but with Hussein. The boy, who soon acceded to the the tactical advantage of taking the initiative throne, continued his grandfather’s moder- and with Britain and France having its back. ation but was cautious about offending more Now, the Arabs had the initiative, and no one militant Arabs and inviting his grandfather’s had Israel’s back. fate. Now, in the heat of the moment, Hussein flew to Cairo, patching over longstanding In those first decades of Israel’s life, Israel’s antagonism with Nasser, and announced main patron and arms supplier was France, that he was placing Jordan’s military under while the United States, unlike today, at- Egyptian command.