On Returning to 1967
What is it about 1967 that has captured the President's fancy? I remember it as a lively year. A lad of only 5 years of age, I remember a group of mop-headed musicians on the Ed Sullivan show wanted desperately to hold somebody's hand. I remember having the hots for Barbara Eden, though I couldn't quite understand why. I remember everyone at my little daycare center wanting to be Batman and tying little blankets around their necks and holding their index fingers to the sides of their heads as they ran around singing, “Nananananana Bat Maaaan.” And I remember Sam. We were friends, but one day he made a career change and began stealing my stack of wood blocks. After fair warning, and in considerable anger, I took the only block he had not yet stolen and whacked him on the head with it. He bled badly, screamed loudly and required stitches. Meanwhile, I was hauled to the Principal's Office again where I had reserved seating. I learned something about controlling my temper that day. Sam learned something about property rights and territorial sovereignty.
That same year, as Charles Krauthammer has documented, Israel learned a great deal about what happens when territorial sovereignty is ignored and a nation is surrounded. On May 16th, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser directed the removal of the United Nations' buffer force from the Sinai Penninsula, which force had provided a cushion of protection for Israel. The United Nations complied, after which Nasser staged a naval blockade of Israel's Port of Eilat. What would normally be considered an act of war did not go unnoticed by US President Lyndon Johnson, who made a valiant though unsuccessful effort to assemble a coalition of countries to break the blockade.
As Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and others began deploying troops and preparing for the coming fight, Ahmed Shuqayri of the PLO said, “We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants, and as for the survivors — if there are any — the boats are ready to deport them.” This is the situation Israel faced before the Six Day War, and this is the precise time frame to which President Obama expects them to return. Such fatuous nonsense deserves close examination. It's easy to understand why a return to such a perilous situation would be attractive to Israel's enemies, but what attraction does it hold for a US President? Is there something particularly alluring about that year?
In 1967, the federal deficit was $8.6 billion, while the total federal debt was $340.4 billion. Not a bad time, really. In fact, total federal spending that year in education, welfare, transportation, health care, and pensions combined was $44.8 billion, while defense spending came to $83.7 billion, or 8.8 percent of GDP. Despite these comparatively meager amounts in domestic spending, the headlines of the day don't reflect mass starvation, or masses of people dying in the street for lack of medical care. How can that be? If President Obama can presume to lecture Benjamin Netanyahu on a return to 1967 borders, perhaps the Israeli Prime Minister can suggest a similar arrangement for American economic parameters. Presumptuous? Yes, but given Barack Obama's predisposition towards audacity, it's a point worth making. Then again, as Andrew McCarthy observed on NRO today, “Would that the president of the United States were as worried about Arizona’s border as he is about “Palestine’s.”
That's the key, isn't it? We have a President who neither respects nor enforces the territorial sovereignty of his own country, let alone that of our closest friend and ally in the region. In 1967, Israel was forced to act in it's own defense as the rest of the world, struck dumb and paralyzed, did nothing. Like my buddy Sam, a lesson in territorial sovereignty may be in the offing for the mischief makers on Israel's border. But Israel should be neither expected nor required to preemptively give it's enemies the upper hand.
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Jun '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
It's astounding that Obama can be so ignorant & inept, yet so arrogant. At least we can take some small comfort in the fact that Netanyahu is running the show & 2012 is around the corner. But that still allows the Islamists to take advantage of the disasterous statements of Obama in the meantime. I'm hoping for more forceful statements of support for Israel from our senators and representatives.
Jun '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
As one blogger pointed out, the same kind of people that have power in the West Bank and Gaza today, took over Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity in 2002, and promptly turned every corner of it into a stinking garbage dump or latrine. That's the kind of respect they have for other religions. They'd never do that to a mosque.
Aug '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
I remember a time of relative innocence, when kindergarteners like me could get the bus home from school unaccompanied. I also have the faintest recollection of a War that was over very quickly and everyone thought the plucky Israelis were great, not like the Arabs who were backed by the evil Soviets. I may be transplanting memories of 1973 to 1967 but I have better-defined memories of the later War so I think not. I also remember when a summer at a Kibbutz was the height of sophistication although I was too young to try the experience. And reading the books of Chaim Potok which I devoured, especially, as I recall, "In the Beginning." What I don't remember is anything like the relentless damning of Israel and of "Zionists", of the "rogue state", of "Israeli Apartheid," of "the lobby" or crude equivalences between Israelis and Nazis, Gaza and Warsaw. Times change, and not always for the better.They will keep changing.
Dec '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
Israel has our backing and nobody, publically, has Obama's backing. He's a bit iffy.
In 1967 I was a two years older than Dave and under my little desktop, attached to the chair, in school. You remember those? I saw it as inadequate protection and scurried back in the classroom to an old desk parked against the wall, as we were actually being bombed. I was in Vientianne. Unfortunately, what I suspect was a mom with a litter somehwere nearby, bit me under that desk, before she scurried off, I had to get 14 painfull shots in the belly as the dog was never found, because as a child I chose the more solid desk to hide beneath as bombs dropped around my school.
At the age I and other people were ducking bombs in Laos, including many Americans living in Vientianne, Obama was in a private school in Indonesia that was not, as far as I know, bombed.
Dec '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
For the record, I am an no way a birther, but I want to document some queries. Three years later (1970), in Honolulu, I had a paper route in Niu Valley. I have seen the Honolulu Advertiser (that I delivered), announcements of the happy moment in 1961, but they are problematic. That address on that highway was in my paper route and there is a large foothill that extends almost down to the Pacific, at that end of Niu Valley. There are no homes or apartment buildings on that stretch of Kalanianioli Highway
Sure, those are probably misprints or typos, that I believe, but that guy (this begins the period after Indonesia) was not a person that grew up in my neighborhood, that anybody I knew, knew. I rode my bike to practically every house in Niu Valley and had to ring the doorbell to collect for the month. Everybody knew everybody.
I'm prepared to believe he lived in my neighborhood, but he was not of my neighborhood. As he went to Pounaho, he did not ride his bike to Aina Haina Elementary, with the rest of us, or Niu Valley Junior High.
I'm saying he's isolated.
Edited on May 21, 2011 at 6:02pmRe: On Returning to 1967
CJRun, I get the impression that he's isolated on several levels. His ideology is one of perpetual grievance and redress, victim-hood and redistribution. There may be a causal link there. What do you think?
Oct '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
In 1967 I was a senior in High School, which means grey in large part now. Seen leaders come and go, some learned better than others to serve and make rational choices.
Seems that Obama clearly will not make any stand and when his mouth opens the outpourings are what have been written for him. Those that provide the material for his speeches appear woefully uninformed of history or facts. And Obama does not care one whit..
As the truths are revealed in historical writings and take decades to unfold, I will not be around to read them...Just fact.
So when the history is finally written, would someone kindly place a nice hardbound copy at my gravestone as a gesture of what I missed. Sad that....
Oct '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
Have to add a sidebar to your whacking some crud that stole your wooden blocks and got a deserved smack or two. If you perhaps had older kin they might have told you how things worked at the time. Kudos to you by the way.
Having three younger brothers that attended the same High School as I, as the story goes were called into the Vice Principals office and asked if they were related to me.
An odd way to lead by example, they all did well. Save stood their ground when the occasion arose... Thoughts ?
Re: On Returning to 1967
wilber forge: Have to add a sidebar to your whacking some crud that stole your wooden blocks and got a deserved smack or two. If you perhaps had older kin they might have told you how things worked at the time. Kudos to you by the way.
Having three younger brothers that attended the same High School as I, as the story goes were called into the Vice Principals office and asked if they were related to me.
An odd way to lead by example, they all did well. Save stood their ground when the occasion arose... Thoughts ? · May 21
Sam wasn't a crud, actually. We were friends and defended each other, when we weren't tearing each other's eyeballs out that is.
I think my sister was greeted with some trepidation in high school when some of the faculty realized we were related. But her good nature and superb conduct overcame my reputation quickly enough.
Oct '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
Apologize for the crud reference. As one recalls, folk usually became the best of freinds usually after some fisticuffs and ballyhoo. Good for your younger sister there.
This has to be a tounge in cheek addition as perhaps your sister was privelaged to enjoy some unspoken gaurdainship due to reputation. Just how things work one recalls.
As things advance and there are more challenges and tech to deal with, family is still just that, and family blood is still a blood bond... Just being me there.
May '11
Re: On Returning to 1967
Great post Dave, keep them coming!
Oct '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
The Beatles sang I Want To Hold Your Hand in 1964 and in their two taped appearances in 1967 played Hello, Goodbye, Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. So remembering something from when you were two years old is pretty darn impressive though doubtful.
Re: On Returning to 1967
As a little fellow, I didn't know what year the song was originally sung, but I know the radio stations kept playing it for a few years after its original release. I even heard an old Bee Gees song the other day, but that doesn't mean they just released it this year, does it?
Oct '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
"A lad of only 5 years of age, I remember a group of mop-headed musicians on the Ed Sullivan show wanted desperately to hold somebody's hand."
Re: On Returning to 1967
These are things I remember seeing as a child. I didn't keep a note pad, but these are the memories I have. And 1967 sticks out in my memory as a relevant year because that was the year I opened up poor Sam's head. If you see any other nits, by all means, pick away. We all must get our satisfaction somehow I suppose. Good grief.
Aug '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
Great post, Dave.
May '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
Anyone else (old enough to) remember that mere days after the 1967 war, there were mass market paperbacks rushed into the stores with wire service copy and photos? "Strike Zion" was one. I think this instant paperback bestseller phenomenon was strictly of that time--the Moon landing two years later also got an instant book.
I know we were discussing the Balfour Declaration, the 1956 ceasefire lines, and the Abba Eban memoirs...
...but let's get back to Barbara Eden!...
Jul '10
Re: On Returning to 1967
Yep. I Wanna Hold Your Hand was the Beatles' 1963 breakthrough. Mop-tops, Nehru collars and Beatle boots. By 1967, they were into a whole different image.
But, we all mis-remember sometimes. Like Al Gore remembering his grandma singing Look for the Union Label or Hillary Clinton being named for Sir Edmund Hillary - six years before the first ascent of Everest.
Re: On Returning to 1967
Kenneth
Yep. I Wanna Hold Your Hand was the Beatles' 1963 breakthrough. Mop-tops, Nehru collars and Beatle boots. By 1967, they were into a whole different image.
But, we all mis-remember sometimes. Like Al Gore remembering his grandma singing Look for the Union Label or Hillary Clinton bei
Kenneth, my internet cut out last night, so my original comment didn't post. I was just going to point out that Sam invented the internet dontcha know.
Edited on May 23, 2011 at 5:48am