When the Israeli Defense Forces took Jerusalem, the following exchange took place between Uzi Narkis, the commanding officer, and Rabbi Goren, a general and the military's chief rabbi:
GOREN: General! General! Now is the time! Do it!
NARKIS: Do what, Rabbi!
GOREN: One hundred explosives. In the Mosque of Omar. That's all we need. That's enough. The whole thing will come down, and once and for all we'll be done with it.
NARKIS: Rabbi, stop.
GOREN: Listen to me, Uzi! If you do this, you will go down in the history of your people!
NARKIS: I've already put my name in Jerusalem's history.
GOREN: Uzi, you don't grasp the meaning of this. This is an opportunity that can be exploited. Now we can do it. Tomorrow it will be impossible.
NARKIS: Rabbi, if you don't stop now, I'm taking you to jail.
[Told by Narkis on his deathbed to a reporter and recorded in a variety of sources. Rich Cohen, Israel is Real, 266.]
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