Real story of the Six-Day War...
By JAMAL KANJ
, Posted on » Thursday, June 07, 2012
LAST Tuesday was the 45th anniversary of the outbreak of a war between Egypt and Israel that would reshape the Middle East.
At 7.30am, on June 5, 1967, 200 Israeli fighter jets took off in a
massive surprise attack, neutralising Egypt's air force before advancing
ground troops to occupy Sinai, Golan Heights and the West Bank.
Drumming up the pilots, Israeli Air Force Commander Mott Hod
proclaimed: "The spirit of Israel's heroes accompany us to battle...
From Joshua Bin-Nun, King David and Maccabees... scatter him [the enemy]
throughout the desert..."
It was the official Israeli declaration of war, but I will debunk its
version of events - which have long shaped Western understanding of the
Six-Day War.
Towards mid-May, seeking to pressure Israel, Egyptian President Gamal
Abdel Nasser took the uncalculated measure of ordering a UN
peacekeeping force out of Sinai and closed the Strait of Tiran to
Israeli shipping.
Immediately following the closure of the disputed waterway, Israeli
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and army generals held meetings in the pit
deep underneath Israeli military headquarters to discuss a response to
the threat from Nasser.
A book by current Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren
revealed Israeli army generals seized on Nasser's blunder to execute a
plan they had prepared since the US forced Israel and its British and
French allies to abandon Sinai in 1956.
At the meetings, Israeli army generals pressured and cajoled Eshkol
to destroy Egypt's army. On May 23, Deputy Chief of General Staff Ezer
Weizman spoke of the need to "strike now and swiftly". Israel's military
commander at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, added: "First we'll strike Egypt,
and then we'll fight Syria and Jordan as well."
Several days later, the Soviets informed Eshkol that Nasser had
unequivocally relayed through a USSR ambassador on May 27 that "Egypt
does not want war and is not heading in that direction."
To assuage Israel, US President Lyndon Johnson urged Eshkol not to
succumb to his warmongering generals, assuring him that the US would
sponsor international efforts to open the strait while promising
economic and military aid if it was given an opportunity to resolve the
Egyptian blockade peacefully.
When briefed on the US offer, Israeli army generals lectured Eshkol
on the prospect of expanding Israeli borders. General Ariel Sharon, who
would himself go on to be prime minster, emphasised: "The question isn't
the (strait of Tiran) passage."
In reviewing newly released records and public statements, Israeli
leaders have unequivocally acknowledged the June war was neither
pre-emptive nor defensive. In an interview in 1968, Rabin was quoted as
saying: "I don't believe that Nasser wanted war... He knew it and we
knew it."
In 1982, then Prime Minister Menachem Begin said: "(The) Egyptian
army concentration in the Sinai approaches did not prove that Nasser was
really about to attack us... We decided to attack him."
Despite this, most in the West continue to adopt Israel's false
narratives for the Palestine-Israel conflict since 1948, with
pro-Israel, Jewish media conglomerates suppressing candid discussion on
Palestine - in effect allowing Israel to maintain the longest, cruellest
occupation in modern history.
Mr Kanj writes frequently on Arab world issues and is the author of
Children of Catastrophe, Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to
America. He can be reached at [email protected].