OPINIONS
Wed 07 Jun 2023 10:05 am - Jerusalem Time
This is how Israel was defeated in the year 67 Nabil Amr
Wait, wait... This title is not mine... It is for the Israeli writer Akiva Eldar, and he put it for an article in which he talked about the war that took place half a century ago, in which Israel is still celebrating its victory.
“Monday... June 5, 67, Naksa Day. The Palestinian people will grieve over 56 years of humiliation under the Israeli occupation, and the Israeli people will record another year of falling into the abyss of apartheid, tyranny and isolation.
"Such a victory... and we will be finished" (end quote).
That day I was there, I was 20 years old, and I was spending my summer vacation after an exhausting year of studying at the Faculty of Law at the University of Damascus. I was not observing the course of the war. My connection and that of my family with it were the Arab broadcasts, which before that Monday planted in us the certainty that the word war with Israel means a sure victory, so the night before the announcement of its outbreak was one of the nights of life. Where the delicious waiting for a certain victory, the radio broadcasts preached about it, which made the war a security.
In that distant summer, the poems produced words, melodies, and songs, until “Oh Welcome to the Battles” became the first popular song that laid the path of buried wishes and desires with silk.
It Wasn't What It Was After It Stopped: The Six-Day War. On a scale other than the digital census of time, it was the Three Days' War. The first was the day when we stayed up with every minute broadcasted by the radios from Amman, Cairo and Damascus. The radios were not widespread in the village except for some of them, and we followed the news, fearing that some development would prevent its establishment. Those of us who managed to sleep that night, Victory visited him with a rosy dream that deepened inside him with certainty that his tidings would appear after hours.
The radio stations did not disappoint their esteemed listeners. On the afternoon of that joyful Monday, the magic phrase that the radio stations used to herald the coup was heard: “Now the following has come to us.”
There was a stillness that I imagined wrapped the globe with what was on it. A mad clamor erupted. He did not give the announcer time to complete his statement. Here is the hidden wish being fulfilled, and the news of shooting down 8 enemy planes as the first meal came in the second place.
56 years have passed, and that scene is still imprinted in my memory. Not a single moment has been lost from it. I was standing in front of the barbershop of its owner, Naim, following up with dozens of citizens the news of the war on the huge radio that he “turned on to the other” so that his contribution to the war would spread joy in the people. The same as everyone who hears. The customer was left sitting on the revolving seat, as the duty of dancing has come, and is there a better occasion for joy than for the refugee barber to see his village, Al-Dawaima, liberated! The crazy dance performed by the barber made everyone who was waiting for his turn to shave postpone the “ring” until after the victory, so a Dabke ring was organized that did not witness all the weddings of the village similar to its breadth, since its founding by the Canaanites.
However, the wedding that took place from the courtyard of the salon seemed modest when compared to the wedding that was launched by the patrons of the café, who used to fill its spacious hall and patio. When the people danced to her music, the war that broke out only 5 minutes ago produced an early victory that became in the pocket.
The dancers calmed down, lost their fatigue, and moved on to practicing a less noisy hobby, which is counting the number of planes that the radio stations competed to shoot down.
And I watched young men of my age record “with pen and paper” the numbers, and announce the result of their total to the audience. In total, the Arabs were shot down from planes on 3 fronts.
Although the numbers that were announced until that afternoon exceeded the hundreds, the enthusiasm that appeared after the first meal began to cool down, so that doubt began to creep into the souls. I even heard someone say: “What did you know that it was a lie? They said who made it big.” The owner of the skeptical comment, which was immediately classified as a “fifth column,” was expelled from the square of joy.
I forgot to mention that an understanding crystallized between the radio carriers - and the "transistor" was in its early beginnings - which stipulated that no one would open Israel Radio, not even London.
Israel will be discouraged and claim victory. As for London, it was said that it is poisoning the fat, and the fat here is the true news of the Arabs, and the poison is the false news of Israel!
Two days have passed. The first is the day of waiting for the next victory, and the second is the day of the victory that has been achieved. Where the enemy planes fell like flies, as a result of an effective insecticide. As for the third day, and perhaps despite the “clouding of days”, it was the last, and the following occurred on it:
The muezzin ascended the smooth stone, which the Minister of Awqaf had placed as the foundation stone of the mosque, which had not yet been built. On the day of victory, he ascended it, asking the honorable audience to go to the school playground to receive weapons, to fulfill the duty of defending the town if the enemy infiltrated it. In that declaration he was strong in tone, breathless, but today, his voice seemed to be difficult to come out of his throat, and it shone with tears. He left his smooth pulpit, not finding in himself the sufficient ability to announce what the Israeli officer asked him to do: “Just as you called the audience to hand over the weapon, call him to hand it over.”
Returning to what this article began with, from a literal borrowing of what Mr. Akiva Eldar wrote; Where the title: “This is how Israel was defeated in the year 67,” to add an Arabic sentence to the Hebrew article: Thus, we did not win. In agreement with the "Middle East"
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This is how Israel was defeated in the year 67 Nabil Amr