30. FRUS, XVIII, 29-30 (Nasser quote on Dimona), pp. 73-74, 158, 690. Yariv, Ha’arakha Zehira, pp. 159-61. Cohen, Israel and the Bomb, pp. 259-76. Several respectable authors have posited that Nasser sought to precipitate a conventional showdown with Israel before it could develop non-conventional weapons. My own research, based on dozens of Arabic sources, has shown no evidence whatsoever to support the theory. See Shlomo Aronson with Oded Brosh, The Politics and Strategy of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East: Opacity, Theory, and Reality, 1960-1991: An Israeli Perspective (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), pp. 109-18. Hersh, The Samson Option, p. 138.
31. ISA, 4085/2, Foreign Ministry files, Emergency Force: Elitzur to Rangoon, May 26, 1967. IDF, 710/70, Gen. Yariv’s Briefing to the General Staff, May 19, 1967. Mayzel, Ha-Ma’arakha al ha-Golan, pp. 34-36. LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 17: Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State, May 19, 1967. Yariv, Ha’arakha Zehira, pp. 37-40, 162-63. Rabin, Memoirs, p. 71. Oral history interview with Col. Shlomo Merom, Dec. 7, 1999. PRO FCO 17/498: Israel-Political Affairs: Tel Aviv to Foreign Office, Conversation with Gen. Yariv, June 1, 1967.
32. ISA, 7920/4, Levi Eshkol Papers, Prime Minister’s Reports and Surveys: Eshkol’s Reports to the Ministerial Defense Committee, May 18, 1967; 4087/6, Foreign Ministry files, Emergency Appeal: Eshkol to Harman, May 17, 1967. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 153 (Eshkol quote). Rabin, Memoirs, pp. 70-71. Kimche and Bawly, The Sandstorm, p. 136.
33. ISA, 4078/4 Foreign Ministry files, Contacts with the United States on the Entry of Egyptian Forces to the Sinai: Harman Conversation with Rostow, May 17, 1967. Johnson letter to Eshkol in LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, p. 13. On Israel’s fears of UN pressure on UNEF, see ISA, Foreign Ministry files, 4085/2: Emergency Force: Rafael to Tekoah, May 21, 1967; 4086/5, Foreign Ministry files, Security Council Meetings: Rafael to Eban, May 19, 1967. See also Eban, Personal Witness, pp. 36-42. Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971), p. 290. William B. Quandt, Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict since 1967 (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1993), p. 28.
34. ISA, 4078/4 Foreign Ministry files, Contacts with the United States on the Entry of Egyptian Forces to Sinai: Eshkol to Johnson, May 18, 1967; 6444/6 North America, Telegrams, Ministry to Embassies, May 21, 1967; 7919/1, Levi Eshkol files, Diplomatic Telegrams: U.S.A.: Harman to Eban, May 20, 1967 (Harman quote). LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Crisis, box 17: W. Rostow, For the Record, May 16, 1967; Memorandum for the Record (Saunders), May 19, 1967; box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 20-21 (Rusk quote); NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 17: Summary of Arab-Israel Developments, Night of May 19-20, 1967; Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State, May 21, 1967 (Eban quote). It is not known whether the U.S. granted Israel’s request for intelligence regarding the disposition of Jordanian troops. Ambassador Burns strongly recommended against fulfilling it. See USNA, POL ARAB-ISR, box 9: Amman to the Secretary of State, May 25, 1967.
35. ISA, 4084/2, Foreign Ministry files, Relations with France: Eshkol to De Gaulle, May 19, 1967; 4091/23, Exchange of Messages Before the War: Eban to Couve de Murville, May 19, 1967: Eban to Brown, May 19, 1967; 4080/5, Contacts with Great Britain: London to Foreign Ministry, May 18, 1967; 7920/2, Levi Eshkol Papers, Diplomatic Telegrams, USSR: Conversation with the Soviet Ambassador, May 19, 1967. PREM 13 1617, The Middle East Crisis: Record of Conversation between the Foreign Secretary and the Israeli Ambassador, May 19, 1967. Chuvakhin quote from LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 20-21, and from ISA, 4078/4 Foreign Ministry files, Contacts with the United States on the Entry of Egyptian Forces to the Sinai: Eban to Harman, May 19, 1967. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 154. Dagan, Moscow and Jerusalem, pp. 211-12.
36. Mansoor, Arab World, entries for May 18, 19, 20, 21, 1967. Other references to al-Assad quotes appear in al-Thawra, May 20, 1967, and George Khouri, ed., Al-Watha’iq al-Filastiniyya al-‘Arabiyya li-‘Am 1967 (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Dirasa al-Filastiniyya, 1969), pp. 177-79. Makhous quotes in al-Ba’th, May 18, 1967, and Draper, Israel & World Politics, p. 60. Deportation of Saudi diplomats in USNA Central Foreign Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 12 SY, box 2511: Jidda to the Department of State, May 10, 1967. Hussein quote from My “War” with Israel, p. 34. Jordanian quote from Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War, pp. 88-89, and BBC, Daily Report, Middle East, Africa, and Western Europe, No. A1. Al-Zaman quote in LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 17: Beirut to the Secretary of State, May 19, 1967. See also Husayn Mustafa, Harb Haziran 1967: Awwal Dirasa ‘Askariyya min Wujhat al-Nazar al-‘Arabiyya 2: al-Jabha al-Sharqiyya (Beirut: Al-Mu’assasa al-‘Arabiyya lil-Dirasa wal-Nashr, 1973), pp. 276-79.
37. Rabin quotes from IDF, 710/70 General Staff Discussion: May 19, 1967; Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 155. Slater, Rabin of Israel, p. 127. Mayzel, Ha-Ma’arakha al ha-Golan, pp. 39-40. Oral history interview with Mordechai Gazit, Feb. 4, 1999. See also Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, p. 72.
38. BGA, Diary, Entry for May 22, 1967. LBJ, National Security files, NSC Histories, Middle East Crisis, box 17: Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State, May 21, 1967 (Eban quote). Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, pp. 73-75. Kurzman, Soldier of Peace, pp. 208-9. Slater, Rabin of Israel, pp. 126-27. Oral history interview with Miriam Eshkol, Aug. 30, 1999. Eban, Personal Witness, pp. 364-65.
39. Dayan, My Life, pp. 317-18. Mayzel, Ha-Ma’arakha al ha-Golan, pp. 42-43. Dayan quotes from Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, p. 66. Shimon Peres, Battling for Peace: Memoirs (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995) p. 89. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 152. Kurzman, Soldier of Peace, pp. 208-9
40. ISA, 4088/11 the Entry into Sinai of Egyptian Troops and the Closure of the Tiran Straits, Report of Research Branch, May 22, 1967; 7920/4, Levi Eshkol Papers, Prime Minister’s Reports and Surveys: Censorship of Information Regarding Ships Passing Through the Straits of Tiran, May 21, 1967. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 27-28. ISA, 6444/5 North America, telegrams: Foreign Ministry to Embassies May 31, 1967. Rabin, Memoirs, p. 72. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 155, 161-62 (Eshkol Cabinet quotes). Amit quote from Asia, Tismonet Dayan, p. 127. Eshkol Knesset quote from Henry M. Christman, ed., The State Papers of Levi Eshkol (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969), p. 88. Israel message to Nasser in Parker, The Six Day War, p. 281. See also Prittie, Eshkol, p. 88.
41. PRO FCO 17/498: Israel-Political Affairs, the Middle East Crisis, October 23, 1967.
42. PRO, FO 17/489, Israel-Political Affairs: Foreign Office to Amman, June 2, 1967. ISA, Foreign Ministry files, 3998/5: Gen. Rabin Conversation with the Shah, April 16, 1967. Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 333. P. J. Vatikiotis, The History of Egypt: From Muhammad Ali to Sadat (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), p. 313. Randolph S. Churchill and Winston S. Churchill, The Six Day War (London: Heinemann Books, 1967), pp. 42-43. Rosemary Higgins, United Nations Peace-Keeping, 1946-67 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 241-415.
43. Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, pp. 80-82. Murtagi, Al-Fariq Murtagi Yarwi al-Haqa’iq, p. 67. El-Sadat, In Search of Identity, p. 172. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 514-19. Dhabbah, Wa-Madha Ba’du?, pp. 18-24. Abdel Magid Farid, Nasser: The Final Years (Reading, U.K.: Ithaca Press, 1994), p. 73. Al-Baghdadi, Mudhakkirat, pp. 266-67. Ramadan, Tahtim al-Aliha, pp. 55-56. See also L. Carl Brown, “Nasser and the June 1967 War: Plan or Improvisation?” in S. Seikaly, R. Baalbaki and P. Dodd, eds., Quest for Understanding: Arabic and Islamic Studies in Memory of Malcolm Kerr (Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1991),
p. 127. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, p. 72.
44. The Bir Gafgafa speech appears in many sources. See, for example, Stephens, Nasser, p. 473; U Thant, View from the UN, p. 232; and Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 518. Cairo Radio quote from Tim Hewat, ed., War File: The voices of the Israelis, Arabs, British and Americans, in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 (London: Panter Books, 1967), p. 31. Al-Sabbagh, Mudhakkirat Qadat al-‘Askariyya al-Misriyya 1, p. 24; 5, p. 16. Muhammad ‘Abd al-Hafiz’s testimony appears in Darraz, Dubbat Yunyu Yatakallamun, pp. 135-46. ‘Amer’s order in Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 518.
45. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 43-44. Hussein quotes from PRO, PREM 13 1617, The Middle East Crisis: Amman to Foreign Office, May 23, 1967, and Kamm, Hussein Poteah be-Milhama, p. 203. Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War, pp. 104-5.
46. Records of U Thant’s discussions in Cairo appear in UN, DAG 1/5.2.2.1.2.-1: Memoranda by Maj. Gen. Rikhye, May 24, 1967, and in PRO, FCO 17/498: Israel-Political Affairs: Record of Meeting, Harold Wilson and U Thant, Washington to Foreign Office, June 3, 1967. Secondary sources on the talks appear in Imam, ‘Abd al-Nasir—Kayfa Hakama Misr, pp. 365. Rikhye, Sinai Blunder, pp. 66-77. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 231-33. U Thant, View from the UN, pp. 235-38. See also Riad, The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East, p. 20. Dhabbah, Wa-Madha Ba’du?, pp. 39-44. Eban, Personal Witness, p. 365. Chants of demonstrators at Cairo airport in Mansoor, Arab World, entries for May 23 and May 24, 1967. Rikhye quote from oral history interview with Indar Jit Rikhye, Feb. 22, 2000.
47. Rabin, Memoirs, p. 83. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 164-65.
48. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 164-65. Rabin, Memoirs, pp. 77-78.
49. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 26-34; box 17: May 23, 1967; Memorandum for the President, May 23, 1967 (Rostow quote): Department of State to Tel Aviv, May 23, 1967. ISA, 5937/30: Secret Memoranda Prior to the Six-Day War: Johnson Message to Eshkol, May 22, 1967; 4086/5, Foreign Ministry files, Security Council Meetings, Rafael to Tekoah, May 23, 1967; 7919/1, Levi Eshkol files, Diplomatic Telegrams: U.S.A.: Evron to Bitan, May 21, 1967. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 165. Eugene V. Rostow, Peace in the Balance: The Future of American Foreign Policy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972), pp. 259-60.
50. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 159, 166-69. Eban, Personal Witness, pp. 363-70. Eshkol statement to Knesset in Prittie, Eshkol, p. 93. Dayan, My Life, pp. 319-20 (Dayan quote). Rabin, Memoirs, pp. 78-79. Moshe Raviv, Israel at Fifty: Five Decades of the Struggle for Peace (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998), pp. 92-93. ISA, 7919/1, Levi Eshkol files, Diplomatic Telegrams: U.S.A.: Harman to Eban, May 22, 1967 (U.S. request for 48-hour delay). Oral history interview with Zorach Warfhaftig, Feb. 23, 1999. See also Brecher, Decisions in Crisis, p. 120. Baron, Hotam Ishi, pp. 20-21.
51. Rabin quotes from Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, p. 172, and Rabin, Memories, p. 84. Religious clerics’ statement in Mansoor, Arab World, entry for May 26, 1967. Lyrics in Rut Leviav “Milhemet Sheshet ha-Yamim: Ha-Festival,”Bamahane 37 (June 1977).
52. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 171-72. Rabin, Memoirs, pp. 78-79. Rabin quotes from Ronel Fisher, “Hayta Li Takala, Ze ha-Sipur,”Ma’ariv, June 6, 1967.
53. Weizman, On Eagles’ Wings, pp. 211-12. Slater, Rabin of Israel, pp. 132-33. Rabin, Memoirs, pp. 80-83. Haber, Ha-Yom Tifrotz Milhama, pp. 174-75. Kurzman, Soldier of Peace, pp. 208-9. Baron, Hotam Ishi, pp. 22-23. Shlomo Gazit, Pta’im be-Malkodet: 30 Shnot Mediniyut Yisrael be-Shtahim (Tel Aviv: Zemora-Bitan, 1999), p. 28. USNA, POL ARAB-IS, box 1788: Tel Aviv to Department of State, May 25, 1967.
54. USNA, Lot files, USUN, box 6: CINSTRIKE to AIG, May 25, 1967. Rabin, Memoirs, pp. 84-85. Mayzel, Ha-Ma’arakha al ha-Golan, pp. 41-44, 170-73. Parker, The Six Day War, p. 147. Weizman, On Eagles’ Wings, pp. 215-16. For an excellent overview of Israeli decision-making in this period, see Ami Gluska, Imut bein ha-Mateh ha-Klali u-bein Memshelet Eshkol bi-Tkufat ha-Hamtana”—Mai-Yuni, 1967 (Jerusalem: The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 2001).
55. Mazhar, I’tirafat Qadat Harb Yunyu, p. 228. Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, pp. 106-109. ‘Amer quote from Murtagi, Al-Fariq Murtagi Yarwi al-Haqa’iq, p. 69. Mahmud Al-Jiyyar, “Rajulun Qatala al-Mushir ‘Amer,”Ruz al-Yusuf 2482 (January 5, 1976), p. 8. Al-Sabbagh, Mudhakkirat Qadat al-‘Askaraiyya al-Misriyya 13, p. 38. Michael Bar-Zohar, Embassies in Crisis, pp. 14-15. Description of posters in Egypt from Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 76-78; see also Israel Must Be Annihilated (Tel Aviv: Zahal Information Office, July 1967). Cairo Radio quote from BBC, Daily Report, The Middle East and Africa, ME/2474/A/1.
56. For examples of the two schools of interpretation, see Heikal, Al-Infjar, pp. 573-74, and ‘Abd al-Hamid, Al-Mushir wa-Ana, pp. 211-22. See also Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, pp. 71, 76-80, 105-9. Murtagi, Al-Fariq Murtagi Yarwi al-Haqa’iq, p. 67. Fawzi quote from Mazhar, I‘tirafat Qadat Harb Yunyu, pp. 49-50, 129-30.
57. Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, pp. 85-86. Murtagi, Al-Fariq Murtagi Yarwi al-Haqa’iq, pp. 71-73. Ramadan, Tahitm al-Aliha, pp. 79-80. O’Balance, The Third Arab-Israeli War, p. 100. Abu Fadl quote from Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 94-95. Fawzi and ‘Amer quotes from Mazhar, I’tirafat Qadat Harb Yunju, pp. 61-62.
58. Mazhar, I’tirafat Qadat Harb Yunju, p. 227. Murtagi quote from Al-Fariq Murtagi Yarwi al-Haqa’iq, pp. 69-70. Sidqi Mahmud quote from Mazhar, I’tirafat Qadat Harb Yunju, p. 111.
59. Mustafa, Harb Haziran 1967, pp. 181-82. Al-Shuqayri, Mudhakkirat 2, p. 103. El-Sadat, In Search of Identity, p. 174. Quotes from Mansoor, Arab World, entry for May 24-26, 1967, and Stephens, Nasser, p. 479. See also Draper, Israel & World Politics, pp. 64-65, 112.
60. LBJ, Office files of George Christian, box 4: Nolte to Rusk, May 24, 1967. Riad, The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East, pp. 19-20. Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 572-73. Johnson statement and notes verbales in LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 30-33, and Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 48, 225-27. U.S. Navy spokesman and Humphrey quotes from Mansoor, Arab World, entry for May 26, 1967.
61. Descriptions of Kamel appear in Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 564-65; LBJ, National Security file, Country file, Middle East-UAR box 161: Lunch with Ambassador Kamel, Jan. 17, 1967; History of the Middle East Crisis, box 17: Rostow to Rusk, May 25, 1967. Oral history interview with Walt W. Rostow, July 27, 1999. On Noltes, see PRO FCO/39/261 UAR - Relations with the United States: Record of Conversation with Mr. Richard Nolte, May 18, 1967, Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 55-56.
62. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Conflict, box 20: United States Policy and Diplomacy in the Middle East Crisis, May 15-June 10, 1967, pp. 30-33.
63. Fawzi, Harb al-Thalath Sanawat, pp. 75-76. Heikal quote in Stephens, Nasser, p. 481. Fawzi quote in Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 567-68. Ramadan, Tahtim al-Aliha, pp. 72-76. Eban, Personal Witness, p. 383.
64. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Crisis, box 17: W. Rostow to the President, May 26, 1967.
65. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Crisis, box 17: State Department Circular, May 18, 1967. ISA, Foreign Ministry files, 4083/3, Contacts with the Soviet Union, Raviv to Shimoni, May 23, 1967; 4048/27, Foreign Ministry files, Diplomatic Relations with the Soviet Union: Moscow to Foreign Ministry, May 24, 1967. Soviet communiqué in LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Frisis, box 19, State Department Activities Report, May 21, 1967. ‘Amer’s order in Heikal, Al-Infijar, p. 454. See also Gilboa, Shesh Shanim, Shisha Yamim, pp. 114-15. Raid, The Strug
gle for Peace in the Middle East, pp. 34-35. Dagan, Moscow and Jerusalem, pp. 229, 214. Rikhye, Sinai Blunder, p. 169.
66. LBJ, National Security file, History of the Middle East Crisis, box 17: Moscow to the Department of State, May 24, 1967. USNA, Middle East Crisis files, 1967, NN3.059.96089, box 1: Chronology of U.S.-Jordanian Consultations on the Middle East, May 22, 1967. Nasser-Pojidaev conversation appears in Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, p. 27, and Heikal, Al-Infijar, pp. 519-24.
67. USNA, Central Policy files, 1967-1969, POL 2 UAR, box 2553: Moscow to the Department of State, May 25, 1967. Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, pp. 27, 50; The Six Day War, pp. 38-39, 65.
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