Daily Alert Archives

Who Started the Six-Day War?

(Las Vegas Review-Journal) Vin Suprynowicz - Did little Israel decide to attack all its surrounding Arab enemies simultaneously in June 1967 just because the Israelis thought it would be a fun way to spend the summer? During the first four months of 1967, 37 armed attacks were launched into Israel by the Palestinian Liberation Organization - always targeting civilians. The Syrian army at this point was using the Golan Heights, which tower 3,000 feet above the Sea of Galilee, to shell Israeli farms and villages. Children living in the Huleh Valley had to sleep in bomb shelters. On May 15, Egyptian troops began moving into the Sinai and massing near the Israeli border. Egyptian dictator Gamal Abdul Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force stationed in the Sinai since 1956 as a buffer to withdraw on May 16. The "Voice of the Arabs" radio station proclaimed on May 18: "As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel....The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence." On May 22-23, Egyptian President Nasser declared the Straits of Tehran closed to Israeli shipping, cutting off Israel's flow of oil from its main supplier, Iran. "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel," Nasser said on May 27. By this time, 465,000 troops, 2,800 tanks and 800 aircraft ringed Israel. On May 31, at Jordan's invitation, the Iraqi army began deploying troops and armored units in Jordan.
2011-01-07 08:09:59
Full Article