"I did not get any instructions to conquer the Sinai," apologized Six Day War Southern Commander Shaika Gavish in an interview with Israel's Makor Rishon newspaper. "My objectives were very clear: To destroy the Egyptian army, to open the straits and to prevent hostilities from the Gaza Strip. Period. And that is what we did." 

"I stood here next to Brigade Commander Mota Gur," related Rabbi Yisrael Ariel who was a soldier in the battle for Jerusalem, "when IDF Chief Rabbi Goren arrived. He seemed to be looking for something.'How can I help you?' Mota Gur asked Rabbi Goren. 'I am looking for a place on the Mount of Olives to bury the IDF casualties,' the Rabbi answered. 'Why look on the Mount of Olives?' the paratrooper Brigade Commander and liberator of Jerusalem asked in surprise. 'After all, in a few months, it will all go back to the Jordanians.'" 

The paratroopers fought like lions, but the mindset of the leadership and the High Command was exactly the same then as it is today. Exactly as Shaikah Gavish described it. We did not come as liberators; we did not come as children returning to their ancient homeland; we certainly did not come to connect to Israel's holiness or to our Jewish identity. We came to solve a technical problem and to leave. 

Israel's Six Day War political leadership was by and large made up of the pioneers of the Second aliyah. Their sons, who controlled the military leadership, were brought up on rebellion against the "Jewish exile mentality." They derisively called the ambivalent Eshkol government "the Jews." That expression is the quintessence of the auto-Anti-Semitism on which the second generation of "proud Israelis" on the kibbutzim and the beaches of Tel Aviv was raised. While the Nation of Israel joyously reunited with Israel's newly liberated Biblical landscapes, its leadership began to look for ways to rid itself of those identity-laden territories.  

The tension between the nation that desires to connect to its homeland and the eternal leadership that simply wants to solve a problem and disconnect has been part of our lives since the day after the Six Day War. It is the conflict of the seventh Day of the Six Day War. And it is still not resolved.  

When it became clear that giving "this whole Vatican" – in the words of Moshe Dayan – to the Jordanians was not an option, the Six Day War military leadership, which had already assumed the political leadership of the State of Israel, was forced to look for another outlet. It came up with the detestable option of recognizing the Palestine (all of it) Liberation (from the Jews) Organization. The handshake between the Chief of Staff of the Six Day War (Rabin) with the arch terrorist and the advent of the Oslo era were meant to once and for all provide the disconnecters with victory over the connecters, the Israelis over the Jews – even at the price of withdrawal from Zionism's basic principles. Arafat did his job by agreeing to accept most of the "cursed territories" (as Leftist politician Yossi Sarid called them).  

But terror escalated, the settlements continued to develop despite the terrible price that Oslo extracted from them, and the disconnecters were left with just one more option – unilateral withdrawal. The destruction of the Jewish settlements in Gush Katif and Northern Shomron was the ultimate expression of the internal conflict that has been raging in Israel since Jerusalem was "liberated." After the Expulsion, it seemed that the outcome of the conflict had been determined. It looked like the Jews had been defeated and that Israel would now "converge" into the state of Tel Aviv.  

But actually, we are witnessing the opposite process. The enlightened Israeli tyranny that destroyed its internal enemy has been left without any goal around which it can unite the nation and its army. One year after the Expulsion, Israel suffered a humiliating defeat in Lebanon. Since then, all the arms of the enlightened tyranny fight each other, hastening their quick descent into oblivion. The Jews, though, are waking up. The energies that we saw at the return to Homesh are no less potent than the energies of Sebastia one generation ago. They leave no doubt as to the outcome of the conflict that started on the seventh day of the Six Day War.