Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2002 9:48 AM
Subject: " What about historic facts?"
March 23, 2002
The Editor,
The Globe & Mail
Dear Editor:
Marcus Gee's article:{" End the occupation? Not so easy."
March 23} is laden with falsehoods. However, let me answer one only. He
states:
{" Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza during the Six-Day
war while it was under attack by its Arab neighbours." This is totally false.
Contrary to the tales that Nasser, Egypt's president, was planning to
attack IsraeI, it was Israel which deliberately attacked Egypt in June 1967, and
Israel's leaders, at the time, confirm that:
Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Chief of Staff at the
time, stated: " I do not think Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent to
the Sinai in May would not have been sufficient to launch an offensive against
Israel. He knew it and we knew it." {Le Monde,
Feb. 29, 1968.}
Menachem Begin, cabinet minister at the
time, stated in a speech before the Israeli National Defence College in 1982,
as Israel's Prime Minister : " In June 1967 we ,again, had a choice.
The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that
Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We
decided to attack him{Nasser}"
{The New York Times, Aug. 21,
1982}. The story that Israel was threatened with extermination in 1967 was
repudiated by Mr. Mordechai Bentov, member of cabinet at the
time, who stated : " All 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.}
I think it behooves Mr. Gee, and other Israel's apologists, to
stick to historic facts.
Yours sincerely,
Ismail Zayid, M.D.