“If a single act of folly was more responsible for this explosion than any other it was the arbitrary and dangerous announced decision that the Straits of Tiran would be closed. The right of innocent, maritime passage must be preserved for all nations.” – US President Lyndon Johnson – June 19th 1967
“The biggest outcome of the Six-Day War was that the State of Israel wasn’t destroyed. For the Arabs, the biggest outcome was the discrediting of the Arab nationalist idiom, the movement which had dominated the previous half century….” – [more…] Michael Oren
The USSR wanted to create another trouble spot for the United States in addition to that already existing in Vietnam. – [more…] Ahron Bregman
“… It is undeniable that Soviet warnings about imaginary Israeli “troop concentrations” on the Syrian border prodded Nasser to action. And it is quite impossible that Moscow could have believed what it was saying. ” [more…] – Abba Eban
“There was an atmosphere of fear and anxiety in the public, and what bothered me and bothers me ever since was how a nation with such military might can suddenly lose its confidence about its ability to fight back and win, when war becomes inevitable.” more…] – Ariel Sharon (then an army general)
“Very soon”, I told my grandchildren, “the soldiers will come home; there will be peace; we will be able to travel to Jordan and to Egypt and all will be well.” I honestly believed it, but it wasn’t to be.” – [more…] Golda Meir
…this [Soviet] warning was deliberate disinformation, part of a plan approved at the highest level of Soviet leadership to elicit Egyptian action that would provoke an Israeli strike. – abstract from – [more…] Isabella Ginor
“For the Arab world the question is … how we can best make peace with Israel in such a way that many Arabs believe that they can still destroy Israel…” – [more…] Michael Oren
June 5, 2007 will mark forty years since the Six-Day War. As we approach that anniversary, we can expect Israel’s critics, enemies and alleged friends, to intensify their demands for Israel to relinquish and evacuate the “occupied territories”. – [more…] – Rachel Neuwirth
“The greatest success of the Diaspora in the post-Holocaust era: the saving of Soviet Jewry. That would not have happened without the Six Day War…[more…] – Yossi Klein-Halevi
