From: Ismail Zayid
To: Guardian Weekly
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2004 6:57 PM
Subject: Israel is the aggressor. The facts are there.

April 29, 2004
 
The Editor,
Guardian Weekly.
 
Dear Editor:
 
In his letter, April 29, David Quentzel makes an extraordinary argument, implying that the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the West Bank and Gaza, by Israel, is the outcome of an aggression by the Palestinians. This is a complete falsehood. Neither the Palestinians nor any Arab country, including Nasser's Egypt, planned or effected an aggression against Israel in 1967. The June 1867 war was planned and effected by Israel. Israel's leaders, at the time, confirm this in their own words:
 
Yitzhak Rabin, chief of staff of the Israeli army at the time, stated :" I do not think Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to the Sinai would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive war. He knew it and we knew it." {Le Monde, Feb.28,1968}.
 
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol stated :" The Egyptian layout in the Sinai and the general military build up there testified to a military defensive Egyptian set-up, south of Israel" [ Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, Oct. 18,1967].
 
Modechai Bentov, an Israeli cabinet minister at the time, stated: " All this story about the danger of extermination [of Israel in June 1967] has been a complete invention and has been blown up a poseriori to justify the annexation of Arab territory" [ Al Hamishmar, 14 April 1972,  and quoted in Le Monde,  3 June 1972].
 
Menachem Begin, a cabinet minister in June 1967, stated, while prime minister, addressing Israel's National Defence College, on Aug.8,1982, : " In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai did not prove Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with our selves. We decided to attack him" [The N.Y.Times, Aug.21,1982].
 
It is time that people pay attention to historic facts.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Ismail Zayid, MD