Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 11:06 PM

Subject: False charges.

Dec. 23, 2006

The Editor,

Outlook.

Dear Editor:

Paul Heinbecker, in his article,{" Tilting Towards Israel" Sept/Oct. issue"} states : " Since 1967, when Israel legally pre-empted an attack on itself by neighbouring Arab countries, and ultimately occupied the West Bamk and Gaza..." This statement is totally false. The war of June, 5, 1967 was planned and effected by Israel, regardless of the claims that later were made charging President Nasser of Egypt of planning to attack Israel. That Israel planned and effected this war is confirmed, by none other than Israel's own leaders at the time, in the statements they all made:

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 posteriori 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].

As to " Syrian provocative attacks", that are sometimes made,, let us let Moshe Dayan, Israel's Minister of Defence at the time, tell us the facts as reported by Serge Schmemann [ The N.Y. Times. May 11, 1997 ]. : " He [Moshe Dayan] said he regretted not having stuck to his initial opposition to storming the Golan Heights. There really was no pressing reason to do so, because many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland...... I know how at least 80% of the clashes were started. We would send a tractor to plow some area, in the demilitarized area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. and then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that is how it was".

I think the facts speak for themselves.

Yours sincerely,

Ismail Zayid, MD