(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . That Photo... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-07 In 1967 I was in the Air Force, on a B52 crew. In April, our bomb wing was deployed from Westover AFB in Massachusetts to Anderson AFB in Guam. Then the news broke that Israel was at war. I didn't know about the Six Day War until the third or fourth day. (No internet. No CNN.) Then newspapers covering the war began to arrive on base. And on the front page of one was the photo. For Jews reading this, yes, that photo. For Jews around the world, that image has become one of the most powerful visual images ever. When I saw those three soldiersm I was so overcome that I, a combat crew member in the United States Air Force, began to cry. I'm glad I was alone at the time, because there was no way I could explain to a non-Jew what this meant. I couldn’t then. And I don’t think I could today. A half century later, I still cannot look at it without experiencing a feeling that requires the voice of a poet to describe. And I’m no poet. Three young Israeli paratroopers standing at the Kotel in awe and amazement. “Are we really here?” After so many centuries…. Are we really HERE?” In 2007, Zion Karasenti, Yitzak Yifat and Haim Oshri returned to that very spot with David Rubinger, the Viennese-born photographer who shot the original. Rubinger had served with the British Army in the Second World War, emigrating to Palestine in 1939. By 1967 he was working for Life magazine, covering Israel's invasion of the Sinai. When he realized Israel planned to attack Jerusalem he rushed back, arriving at the Western Wall in time to take the first photos of Israeli soldiers at Judaism's holiest site. The Paratroopers: ZION KARASENTI, director and choreographer living in Afula: At Ammunition Hill, all we could see was a hill surrounded by trenches and barbed wire. When we started to move, they threw everything they had at us. We got through one fence and found more wire. I threw myself on it and acted as a bridge for everyone else. I felt no pain. We got into the trenches, which were shallow and narrow. When someone was injured we passed them down the line over our bodies. The Jordanians couldn't get away, but they kept on fighting to the last man. I was the first paratrooper to get to the Wailing Wall. I didn't know where I was, but I saw a female Israeli soldier, so I asked 'Where am I?' and she said: 'The Wailing Wall.' She gave me a postcard and told me to write to my parents before she disappeared. It might have been a dream, but then many years later I met the woman. She had been in the postal corps. As more soldiers arrived, a photographer told us to stand like this and look in this direction. I just did it - I didn't even think about it. When I think of all the soldiers that died to take Jerusalem, I wonder if they would have thought it was worth it. I think they would. YITZAK YIFAT, Ob-Gyn surgeon: I developed toothache when we arrived in Jerusalem and went into battle with my mouth still numb from the local anaesthetic. It was face-to-face fighting. I fought like a tiger. My friend was shot in the backside and he was about to be shot again by a Jordanian. I shot him. Another Jordanian saw I was out of bullets and he charged at me with a bayonet. I don't know how I did it, but I took his gun and shot him with it. It was brutal, and a sad victory. I lost many friends. After the fighting we built a memorial to our friends - and one to the Jordanians, in honour of their bravery. HAIM OSHRI, emigrated from Yemen to Israel in 1949: The battle for Ammunition Hill was the worst moment of the war. There wasn't a plan - we were just told to attack. The Jordanians were brave soldiers. Now it makes me angry to think of all the unnecessary casualties. If we had taken more time to plan, there would have been far fewer casualties. As an Orthodox Jew it was special for me to be involved in the fight for Jerusalem. It doesn't matter if you're from Poland or Yemen, Jerusalem is our common bond. Every day we pray three times to Jerusalem, and I could never have imagined the magic of seeing the Kotel [Western Wall] for the first time." Yoram Kaniuk wrote of the original photo, “Shots were still being fired. Soldiers cried and so did Rubinger. He claims he was lying on the ground, photographing upwards, because he was scared. I refuse to believe that. Fear has not stopped him from running under fire on other occasions. He is not ashamed of the fear, but of the fact that at that historical moment he sought and found the correct angle. He had to lie down to photograph what seemed right. “This photograph connects the old and the new, hope with stones that have been bled. Changing the angle might have separated the soldiers from the Wall. There is smiling and weeping, a helmet held in awe. This is the story of the war, what it did and will still do, where it came from and where it will still go. It is a moment plucked from the flight of time, but also powerful and accurate documentation of an event full of surprises - because it is a frozen moment.” When I think of that “a picture is worth a thousand words” cliché in the context of this photo, I’m convinced that there are not enough words to depict what Jews felt when they saw this image. Is there a poet in the house…? 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