DAYS
I RETURNED TO the ruins of the ancient palace. The Oracle was sitting on one of its pillarless pedestals. There was another one nearby on which I would sit.”
“What was the meaning of the three mountains,” I asked, “and the three who ascended them to sound the ram’s horn?”
“One,” he replied, “you’ve already seen, the Statue of Freedom. As for the second of the three, the man with the eye patch in the army fatigues—have you ever seen him before?”
“He looked familiar.”
“That was Moshe Dayan, Israel’s defense minister during the Six-Day War and the war’s most recognizable figure.”
“And the first figure, the man with boots, trousers, and the officer’s cap?”
“You haven’t seen him before, but you know him. That was General Edmund Allenby. So what do you think it meant?”
“The three Jubilees,” I replied. “The Statue of Freedom represented the Jubilee of 2017. The man with the eye patch, Moshe Dayan, stood for the Jubilee of 1967; and General Allenby, the Jubilee of 1917.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “but there’s more to it than that. The Senate resolution of 2017 wasn’t the central event of that Jubilean year but the opening event. It would set the course that would lead to the central Jubilean event. And what about the previous Jubilee? What was the central event of the Jubilee of 1967?”
“The regaining of Jerusalem.”
“Yes. And what was the opening event war that set everything in motion?”
“What was it?”
“The war’s opening, the start of the Six-Day War, Israel’s surprise attack on the airfields of its enemies. That opening strike was the critical act that began the war and determined its outcome. Within a matter of hours Israel had neutralized the air power of those who had sworn to destroy it and for the rest of the war maintained control of the skies. It was that opening event that would lead to the return of Jerusalem, the central event of that Jubilee. On what day did that event take place?”
“It was in June,” I replied.
“It was June 5,” said the Oracle. “The opening day of that Jubilee was June 5. And what was the opening event of the Jubilee of 2017?”
“The Senate resolution.”
“And on what day did it take place?”
“I don’t know.”
“On June 5, the same day.”
“So each Jubilee was set in motion on the same day.”
“The two Jubilees began fifty years apart to the exact same day.”
“What about the first mountain I saw, the first of the three Jubilees?”
“The Jubilee of 1917. What was the Jubilean event of that year?”
“The Balfour Declaration . . . and Allenby’s liberation of Jerusalem .”
“The Balfour Declaration was approved at the end of October 1917, the same time that the war to liberate Jerusalem began. And Allenby’s army would enter Jerusalem in the early days of December.”
“But with the other Jubilees, the opening event happened in June.”
“In the early part of 1917 the British commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force was Lieutenant General Archibald Murray. Murray was given orders to launch an offensive in Palestine in the hope of driving out the Ottoman Empire. In March of that year he confronted Ottoman forces in the First Battle of Gaza. But he was defeated. In April he confronted them a second time in the Second Battle of Gaza but was again defeated.
“In London the new British prime minister, David Lloyd George, decided that Murray had to be replaced by a new commander, one with more vision and drive. The man chosen was General Edmund Allenby.
“Allenby immediately set out to revive the morale of Murray’s exhausted and demoralized troops. His efforts proved successful. At the end of October Allenby engaged the Ottoman army at the Third Battle of Gaza and won. It was the beginning of the land’s liberation and the end of Ottoman rule.
“Without Allenby’s campaign the land would not have been liberated, nor would have Jerusalem. And the promise of a national home for the Jewish people in the Balfour Declaration would have been of no effect. It was Allenby’s appointment as commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force that changed the course of the war and opened the way for everything else that took place.”
“So when was the critical moment?”
“In his memoirs of the war Lloyd George revealed the details behind the appointment:
The War Cabinet came to the conclusion that it was desirable to introduce more resolute leadership into the command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force . . . On 5th June, 1917, the War Cabinet decided . . . that General Allenby should be appointed