Remember when the Middle East's only innocent bystander 'miraculously' acquired East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Egypt's Sinai and Syria's Golan Heights in just 6 days back in June 1967?
Remember how, in the words of Alan Dershowitz, "the only question was whether the Arab armies would be able to strike the first military blow"? (The Case for Israel, p 92)
Remember UK novelist Howard Jacobson telling us on Q&A in May 2011, "You often hear people talking about the occupation.... I don't know anyone who wants the occupation. I don't know any Israeli who wants the occupation. But people speak about it as if it just kind of happened. One day there was an occupation. Out of a clear, blue sky Jews dropped... Israeli people dropped down and said, 'We'll have that piece of land'. It's not what happened."? (See my 24/5/11 post Gunfight at the Q&A Corral.)
So much for the flimflam. Here's the reality:
"The [Israeli] military archives have released generals' testimonies that put the reader on the ground during Israel's capture of Jerusalem's Old City in the 1967 Six-Day War... Further testimony released Sunday was by Maj. Gen. Uzi Narkiss, who headed Central Command during the war. He told how the IDF had plans for conquering the West Bank in three days. He remembered that before the war he had told reserve officers in the 4th Brigade: 'I don't know if something will happen, but if it does, within 72 hours we'll drive out all the Arabs from the West Bank.' On June 5, Narkiss received orders to prepare for war... Narkiss phoned [Israeli West] Jerusalem Mayor teddy Kolleck. 'It's war, everything's in order... You'll be mayor of a united Jerusalem. We're enjoying great success; the armored forces are already inside.' Narkiss' testimony details his efforts to get the army into Jerusalem's Old City... As Narkiss put it, 'Since I'm a Jerusalemite and know this thing and know the concept of lamenting a missed opportunity for generations, I said that now was the time to take Jerusalem.' He was referring to the failure to keep the Old City in 1948." (Israeli generals in 1967 war: concerned over Jerusalem looting, hoping to drive Arabs out of West Bank, Gil Cohen, Haaretz, 5/6/16)
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I don't have the quote handy, but an Israeli general is on record as having said that they knew Nassar had no intention of attacking, though he had massed troops in Sinai, when Israel launched its so-called pre-emptive strike on the Egyptian Air Force planes on the ground in 1967. But, of course, Zionists are never the aggressors - always the victims.
Peled: "He further noted that in May '67 there was no danger of annihilation to Israel: 'The Egyptians concentrated 80,000 soldiers, while we mobilized against them hundreds of thousands of men'." Haaretz, 19/3/72
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