Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2001 10:54 PM
Subject: Who planned and started the
1967 war?
4
26 Aug. 2001
The Editor,
WRMEA
Dear editor:
In reference to Mr. Albert Doyle's letter [WRMEA,Aug./Sep.
issue], countering the claims by Israel's apologists and Zionist propaganda
that President Nasser was planning to invade Israel in June 1967, and Israel
was threatened with extermination, the best testimony is Israel's
leaders' own words:
Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of
Staff of Israel's 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 ,at the time, 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 to Israel" { Yediot Ahronot, Oct. 18, 1967}.
General Ezer Weizmann, Commander
of Israeli Air Force at the time, stated: " There was never any danger of
extermination" { Maariv , April 4, 1972}.
Mordechai Bentov, cabinet
M\minister during the June war stated: " And this story about the
danger of extermination has been a complete invention and has been blown up a
posteriori to justify the annexation of new Arab territories" { Al
Hamishmar, April 14, 1972 [ quoted in Le Monde, June 3, 1972] }.
General Matitiahu Peled, stated:
" The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967
and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only a bluff, which
has been developed after the war" { Haaretz, March 19, 1972}.
Menachem Begin, while
Israel's Prime Minister in 1982, addressing Israel's Defence College on Aug.
8, 1982, stated : " In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian
army concentrations in the Sinai did not prove that Nasser was really about to
attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him" { The
New York Times, Aug. 21, 1982}.
Alas, there is a need for some honesty, and
Israel's apologists need to remember that.
Yours sincerely,
Ismail Zayid, MD.