A few years ago I was working on a miniseries with the late Dawn Steele on the History of the Mideast during the previous hundred years. In the process of research, we came across an account of the now famous meeting-in-the-bunker that convened in Tel Aviv on the eve of the 1967 war.

All major political leaders were present, save for an ailing Ben-Gurion who was linked by telephone. The event was occasioned by the return of Abba Eban who was to report on what support Israel might expect if she launched a pre-emptive war of survival. After all, the situation was bleak and becoming dimmer very rapidly: Suez was closed, so were the Straits in the south and Israel was, as Eban had so eloquently said at the U.N., “a nation breathing with one lung.” U Thant had, at Egypt’s request, unilaterally withdrawn UNEF, the thin blue trigger line of International troops meant to prevent hostiltities.

According to this version, Eban’s news was most discouraging. No nation in the world, it seemed, would support Israel unless she waited until attacked first by the might of all 22 Arab states. The U.S., tied down in Vietnam, made promises of military resupply, but that was all. Ben-Gurion, we were told, was adamant: Israel must wait, use diplomacy, trumpet the cause to the world — but never, ever, act without International consensus. Never without friends. Ezer Weitzman, on the other hand, was certain his IAF could strike a meaningful blow if allowed to go first. PM Levi Eshkol was frozen, caught between options.

The mood increased in tension, the tone of debate became angrier, more shrill.. The side that held with Ben Gurion — the no-war-without-allies seemed to be gaining traction. Menachem Begin, by this account, listened quietly for two and a half hours, arms folded, watching every move. Finally, he put his hand up — an almost comic move in the circumstance. Slowly, the table’s attention slid toward him and there was silence. “Excuse me,” he asked, “but are there any Jews in this room?” There several beats of surprised, even confused, silence. The discomfort level was rising. Finally, he added, “Because if so, they should realize that if we wait for allies, we would best spend our time digging a mass grave for that will be the only serious task left.”

He was, of course, correct, and he carried the day. There are times when a people, a nation, a State, must realize that if it is to survive in any form recognizable to those who truly value its virtues, it must, if so called, stand alone. Churchill understood this. During the critical “Five Days in London” (see the excellent book of that title by John Lukacs) when the Halifax faction considered striking a deal with the victorious Hitler, Halifax is said to have told Churchill that the only way to escape devastation was to find a way to survive with the Germans — or the England of the country farm, the corner pub, etc., would be lost. Churchill is said to have growled, “If that is all you you save, then you have failed. That is not the England of the Magna Carta.”

The story may be apocryphal, but the observable currents of history would bear out its thrust. Churchill stood firm (though not technically alone: Canada would raise the largest army in the world — per capita — to fight Hitler and the Aussies and Kiwis were also in from the very start) rallied the British nation, stirred free people everywhere, and ensured he did not lose the war, waiting until the day he would have the allies he needed to finally triumph.

Had he not stood alone, we would all have lost. His spirit was ennobled by the willingness of the British people to face their harsh reality. Below are two political cartoons by David Low, the leading cartoonist of his day, that summed up the feeling and expressed the grim determination of that genenation of Britons to do as Begin would later exhort his Israeli countrymen. It is the spirit we need in America.

Those who hate us now will not be converted by a change in our UN voting patterns. Those who press for “dialogue” with the likes of Nasrallah or his dreadful sponsors (presumably in the belief he would then be pacified and send his bloodthirsty warriors off to jobs a valet parkers at the Beirut Hilton) are deceiving themselves. We must be true to who and what we are. Even if that isolates us. It is not the easy portion. But, as Begin might have said, “Are there any free people in this room?”

*******************************************

This first cartoon appeared after the completion of the Dunkirk evacuation, May-June 1940. The second after the “Blood, Sweat, Toil & Tear” speech to the House of Commons.

Have PoliticalMavens.com delivered to your inbox in a daily digest by clicking here