 You're welcome back to the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. It's now time for Today in History. Now, we know that on April 26, 1994, South Africans, numbering about 22 million, had come out in the first ever multiracial parliamentary elections to vote in Nelson Mandela as president and, of course, the ANC to lead the country. But we know that many years before then, Nelson Mandela served as a political prisoner in the country for 27 years on Robin Island Prison. And while in prison, he took great risk to send word out to the ANC and people in South Africa encouraging them to continue fighting against appetite. He was allowed just one message or one letter once every six months in prison. And on This Day in History, June 10, 1980, he took great risk to send out this message. And the ANC made a public on This Day in History. And the message reads, unite, mobilize, fight on. Between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle, struggle, we shall crush appetite. So he sent out this message along with many others. He had been writing and smuggling out to let South Africans, the blacks in South Africa, to know that Nelson Mandela still supports you, keep fighting against appetite, we shall overcome. And just 10 years after that in 1990, or a bigger part in 1989, F.W. DeKleig became South Africa president. And he said about the smuggling of appetite, lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, ordered the release of Nelson Mandela as a political prisoner. And this just set the ball rolling for the freedom of South Africa and the end of appetite. So that's what happened today in history. The ANC released Nelson Mandela's statement, urging South Africans to keep fighting for their freedom. If you had one letter every six months, what would you write? That's a good question. I would really have to think about that. What would I write once every six months? Wow. And to whom? Because I'm not a political leader, so I'm not writing to a country. You probably write to your family, but what would you write? What would you request? If you had one letter and one request every six months, what would you request four months? I would have to think about that and get back to it. Why don't you put that on your Instagram, like you always do, and ask your fans? Very gross or corner. You don't sell a bald corn in this prison. Oh my gosh. Anyway, let's move to, away from South Africa now, to 1967, to what, of course, was once again the Israel-Arab war, or Arab-Israeli war. Of course, this has been going on for a very, very long time. It started as early as 1948. But all of this started because of something called the Straits of Tehran. And that was a shipping route through which business and Israeli ships used to pass through to, of course, do business in Arab nations and the likes. There was controversy because Egypt had banned the Israeli ships from passing through the Straits of Tehran. And so in 1948, there was, of course, issues with regards to that ban. And in 1956, of course, those issues continued. Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to try to reopen the Straits of Tehran. But that failed. And after that failed, they waited. And of course, tensions started to rise again in 1967. On the 5th of June in 1967, Israel once again made an attempt at attacking, of course, trying to overturn that ban on their ships. They attacked Egypt terribly, destroyed nearly the entire Egyptian Air Force. And of course, Syria and Jordan did get involved in this war, led to the death of about 20,000 soldiers on the Arab side and about 1,000 on the Israeli side. This also led to the migration and, of course, residents of Egypt and Gaza and some of all those places running away from home. The conversations we've had lately about the Israel-Palestine war, these are some of the things that also led to the eviction of Arabs from those places because of the victory of Israel in that time. And of course, it also gave the Egyptian Air Force and Egyptian security forces bragging rights with regards to victory in this six-day war. It started on the 5th, ended on the 10th. The ceasefire was agreed on the 10th of June in 1967. And all of this started with surprise airstrikes at the Egyptian Air Force and Egyptian Army, completely destroyed, large percentage of all they had. I think about 900 planes were destroyed in those six days. About 20,000 lives were lost, some were declared missing and were never found. Israel only lost about 1,000 of their armed forces and citizens. And so it could be said that they won this six-day war. But it has, of course, been one of the many, many, many, many times that there has been the Arab-Israeli crisis that, of course, still continues to this day. I remember studying about this six-day war in school. And it really is a very remarkable event that shaped the cause of the Arab-Israeli war. It was a third of the major conflict between Israel and the Arab nations. And it's just something to just think about, just how disastrous the casualties and the losses were on the side of the Arab nations. I'm talking about Egypt, Jordan, Syria. 11,000 casualties on the side of Egypt, many more with Syria, with Jordan. In six days. In just six days. President of Egypt at that time, he resigned. But he yielded to pressure demonstrations and he had to stay back in office. They all yielded to a United Nations ceasefire. The conflict was over. And led to so many refugees. They said about a million refugees from the Palestinian side that were now under Israeli territory. And now we're seeing a resurgence of the conflict occurred just a few weeks back. But one question we keep asking, would the Israeli-Arab war ever end? Who can ever answer that? Yeah, I don't know. I don't think it will. If both sides don't get to be honest about the roles that they have continued to play to instigate and to create tension in this crisis, Israel needs to be honest with itself and accept that it has also been an instigator that has also committed serious and very, very serious crimes against humanity with concern in Palestine, regardless of whatever defense it has of we're defending our people from terrorists and all of that. And at the same time, Palestine and the Arab nations need to also own up to their own failures to stop the emergence of Hamas and other terrorist organizations that have taken advantage of this war to strike at Israel. There's arguments that Hamas only was started to defend the Palestinian people since the Palestinian security forces had failed, the Arab security forces had failed. So Hamas started as a way of defending, maybe like ESM, as a way of defending the Palestinian people. But both sides need to be honest and also be honest about the land that they're fighting over. Who truly owns it? Should it be a UN declaration? Should it be that the British gave you land? Or should it be that we or these people have been here right from day one? Can it be based on a U.S. recognition of a certain territory? Absolutely, or should it be about the people who originally were there and that's their home? That's where they've always been. You can't come and push yourself because somebody dashed your land. Did the person tell you that tell us that our land was being given away? So those are where there will always be issues. And also the sides being taken here and there, there's always gonna be the, well, maybe not always, but there has continued to be the West taking sides with Israel. Also buying and supplying of weapons to Israel that they have used to continue to finance their war against Palestine. So it's a mess. It really is a mess. When you look at wars that have fought throughout history, don't you think it's just, when you read about wars, how vain it all ends up being because the land will remain forever and human life has an expiry date. So people fight wars over land. They died, the land remains, their sons continue. So what really is the essence of wars in our society? Can I really rationalize that? Because when you read history books, they tell you about how this is all for greed, all to amass territory, amass weapons, amastis and that, all these things that would out leave you. It is still a fight for survival. Yes, it might be seen as greed, but it's still a fight for survival and people need land to survive. They need shelter, they need a home to survive. They need a place to call home. And so that's what it is. Yes, they're the ones who fight because of their personal gains and wealth. They're the ones who, of course, invaded our territories because they're trying to steal gold and still oil. There's those ones, but at the same time, there's always gonna be those ones who would fight to protect their land and protect themselves. You would always have a place that you call home. You can continue to be a wanderer, roam across the earth. You have to have a place that you call home. And if that's what Palestine has, the Palestinians have seen as their reason for continuing to fight because of years and years and years of being oppressed and being bombarded by Israel without any other, without countries in the world seeing their own side to the story, then the world would continue. Regardless of what the reason is, the people would always have to fight to survive. Yes, you know, you eventually die on Mother Earth would always be here, regardless of how long it takes at these wars, how many human beings die, the earth would still remain. But in the cause of trying to also survive, not necessarily to outlive the earth, you have to fight if you feel like you're being threatened. That's what it's life, basically. All right, if you say so. Well, that's what happened today in history. You're talking about the 60th war of 1967 and I went back to the year 1980 in South Africa to reveal a message that Nelson Mandela smuggled out of Robert Island prison with great risk. And stay with us, we'll be right back.