Commentary
Writing in December 1967, French public intellectual and sociologist Raymond Aron argued that the West was entering the “age of suspicion.” He was referring to a new strain of anti-Semitism ushered in by none other than Gen. Charles de Gaulle, hero of the Free French Forces during World War II and then president of France.
Some context is helpful. June 1967 marked the Six Day War, the third major conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours—primarily Egypt and Syria, united under the short-lived United Arab Republic, with Jordan and Iraq also involved. As in the 1948 War of Independence and the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel achieved a decisive military victory. This time, however, Israel emerged as an occupying power—an “embarrassment of riches,” as one Israeli official put it—controlling the Golan Heights, West Bank, Gaza, and the Sinai….