In the March 9, 1956, publication of the Jewish Exponent, a front-page headline reading, “Danger of Middle East War Grows as Arabs and Israel Brace for Final Showdown,” feels oddly familiar to the weekend before last.
A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was announced by President Donald Trump in October. Although fragile, media news outlets say that ceasefire still holds. Despite the tenuous state of the Middle East, over the weekend of Feb. 28 and March 1, the United States and Israel began conducting strikes on Iranian targets.
The first sentence of the 1956 article continues, “An Explosive Middle East situation grew progressively worse this week, as the threat of war between Israel and her Arab neighbors moved closer to reality.”
While there is no officially declared war between Israel and Iran — even before the Gaza-Israel war — and the 1956 issue does not specifically mention either, that sentence is still reminiscent of some being written today.
“Prime danger spot was the Syrian border, where both sides accused the other of massing troops and making hostile gestures,” the article wrote.
Times have changed, but the accusations are similar to those between Israel, the U.S. and Iran today. Rather than “massing troops,” President Trump justified the action, stating to the press that Iran had nuclear weapons and it was necessary to eliminate an “imminent” threat, according to USA Today.
The 1956 article concluded, “The purpose of the top-level conference in Cairo between such Arab leaders as Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, King Saud of Saudi Arabia, and President Shukri al-Kuwatly of Syria, was a closely-guarded secret, but informed sources felt that they were discussing economic and military aid to the sister state of Jordan.”