Not many people today remember the exhilaration so many Americans felt after Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War in June 1967. The liberal folks around me at work and law school then had been frustrated and puzzled at the lack of progress being made in Vietnam by the 448,000 U.S. troops stationed there, and the sudden and astonishing success of the Israel Defense Forces, symbolized by the eye-patched Gen. Moshe Dayan, was a refreshing contrast. No talk then of Israelis as colonialist settler oppressors.

You will not encounter much in the way of exhilaration in similar milieus today at Israel’s multifront and even more astonishing victory, capped off by the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, in what is now called the 12-day war of June 2025. In contrast to the success in 1967, when there was minimal American involvement, this success owed much to American collaboration, appropriately kept secret before the fact.