The Six Day War: Targeting the Dome

The year 1967 changed everything in the Middle East. In just six days, Israel (responding to Arab threats to invade and destroy it) engaged in a blitzkrieg against its adversaries that left the Jewish state in control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the entire West Bank of the Jordan River, including East Jerusalem. Israeli paratroopers stood at the newly conquered Western Wall (the last vestige of the ancient Temple Mount) and wept openly. There was much going on behind the scenes in those tumultuous days, and it took decades before it came to light that the chief rabbi of the Israeli Defense Force actually advocated blowing up the Dome of the Rock.

The shocking revelation came from war hero Uzi Narkiss, the man who lead the charge on the Old City of Jerusalem. Narkiss revealed that Rabbi Shlomo Goren had approached him in the hours following the capture of the Temple Mount (the Haram al-Sharif, or “Noble Sanctuary”), urging him to place one hundred kilograms of high explosive inside the Dome of the Rock, also known as the Mosque of Omar. Narkiss reported the conversation as he remembered it:

“I said to him, ‘Rabbi, enough.’

“He said, ‘Uzi, you will go down in history if you do this.’

“I answered, ‘My name will already be written in the history books ofJerusalem.’

“But Goren persisted. ‘You don't grasp what tremendous significance this would have. This is an opportunity that can be taken advantage of now, at this moment. Tomorrow it will be too late.’

“I said ‘Rabbi, if you don't stop, I'll take you to jail.’

“Thus the discussion, which only lasted a few minutes, came to an end. Rabbi Goren turned and walked away in silence.” 

In fairness it should be stressed that the details of Narkiss’ conversation with the rabbi are disputed. Nonetheless, the story seems to hold water, given the transcript of a speech Goren gave to a military convention, also in 1967. Said Goren:

“I told this to the defense minister (Moshe Dayan) and he said, ‘I understand what you are saying, but do you really think we should have blown up the mosque?’ and I said, ‘Certainly we should have blown it up.’ 

“It is a tragedy for generations that we did not do so.... I myself would have gone up there and wiped it off the ground completely so that there was no trace that there was ever a Mosque of Omar there.”

The sentiments expressed by Rabbi Goren were echoed multiple times in the years that followed, coupled with serious plans to put them into effect. More to come...