Six Days

by Jeremy Bowen

  ‘could not leave Lod’s’: David Horovitz (ed.), Yitzhak Rabin, p. 26.

  ‘In Deir Yassin’: Morris, pp. 113–15; see also Salim Tamari (ed.), Jerusalem, 1948.

  ‘He concentrated on the rapes’: interview with Hazem Nusseibeh, Amman, May 2002.

  ‘A meeting was arranged’: Dan Kurzman, Soldier of Peace, pp. 148–53.

  For details of Abdullah’s assassination, see Roland Dallas, King Hussein, pp. 1–3; Peter Snow, Hussein, pp. 33–5.

  For secret contacts between Abdullah and the Israelis, see Avi Shlaim, The Politics of Partition.

  ‘Despite lessons from his driver’: Yitzhak Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs, pp. 32–3.

  ‘But both sides, blaming each other’: see Itamar Rabinovich, The Road Not Taken.

  ‘From around 1952’: interview with Meir Pa’il, Tel Aviv, 3 May 2002.

  ‘Nasser’s followers’: PRO/FCO 17/456, 9 July 1968: Saunders (Baghdad) to Eastern Dept, FCO.

  ‘As a young officer’: interview with General Abd al-Muhsin Kamil Murtagi, Cairo, 14 December 2002.

  ‘Officers regarded Amer’: interview with General Salahadeen Hadidi, Cairo, 12 December 2002.

  ‘Amer and his cronies’: Anthony Nutting, Nasser, pp. 262–3.

  ‘The last straw’: Patrick Seale, The Struggle for Syria, p. 42.

  ‘The Syrian officer class’: Seale, Asad of Syria, pp. 24–40.

  ‘If the same conditions’: PRO/FCO 371/186923, 25 January 1966: annual report on Syrian armed forces.

  ‘Colonel Rowan-Hamilton’: ibid.

  ‘The Syrian army’: see Galia Golan, Soviet Policies in the Middle East from World War Two to Gorbachev.

  ‘Its aggressive behaviour’: Shlaim, The Iron Wall, p. 235.

  ‘Service on this front’: ibid., p. 229.

  ‘“We will throw them into the sea”’: PRO/FCO 371/186923, 25 January 1966: annual report on Syrian armed forces.

  ‘totally inadequate’: Israeli–Arab confrontation, National Military Command Center, May 1967, NSF, Box 104.

  ‘the hopelessness of it all’: PRO/FCO 371/186382, 15 October 1966: Evans (Damascus) to FCO.

  because of Israeli provocations’: Shlaim, p. 235.

  ‘Lads, let’s sing a bit’: Teveth, Tanks of Tammuz, p. 54.

  ‘How many Syrian tanks’: ibid., p. 56.

  ‘Using the Syrian border’: ibid., p. 59; interview with Israel Tal, Tel Aviv, 6 May 2002; Patrick Wright, Tank, pp. 343–5.

  ‘over 50 per cent’: Maariv, 7 April 1972, quoted at www.searchforjustice.org, 4 November 2002.

  ‘no amount of pseudo-legality’: PRO/FCO 17/576, 5 January 1967: briefing on demilitarised zones.

  ‘General Odd Bull’: Bull, p. 55; John Gee, ‘The Borders Between Syria and Israel’, www.caabu.org.

  ‘strange names like de Gaulle’s nose’: Van Creveld, p. 170.

  ‘This is our home’: Yediot Aharonot, 14 April 1967, quoted in Bondy, p. 337; PRO/FCO 17/473, 10 January 1967.

  ‘It went this way’: Yediot Aharonot, 27 April 1967.

  ‘Along the Syrian border’: Dayan quotes from Shlaim, pp. 235–6 and AP report, 11 May 1997, www.codoh.com.

  ‘A small team of Palestinians’: Sayigh, p. 107.

  ‘Other groups appeared’: Hirst, pp. 276–8.

  ‘the military punch’: PRO/FCO 371/186838/R109/207, 19 October 1966.

  ‘He installed Ahmed Shukairy’: Kerr, p. 115.

  ‘large-scale operation’: PRO/PREM 13/1617, 17/18 October 1966: Hadow (Tel Aviv) to FCO.

  ‘early in November’: Tessler, pp. 367, 378.

  ‘It was bigger’: Pollack, p. 295.

  ‘The major and his men’: PRO/FCO 371/186838, 3 November 1966: Hadow (Tel Aviv) to FCO.

  ‘Nobody had died’: PRO/FCO 371 186840, 21 December 1966: Dispatch No. 56 to SoSFA, George Brown.

  ‘Their plan was’: PRO/FCO 371/186839, 21 December 1966: Defence Attaché Amman’s report on Samua and Defence Attaché Tel Aviv’s report attached to PRO/FCO 371 186840, Dispatch No. 56 to SoSFA, George Brown.

  ‘dazed and frightened’: Bishop’s account is in PRO/FCO 371/186838.

  ‘He had been having secret meetings’: Amman Cables 1456, 1457, 11 December 1966, NSF, Box 146.

  ‘a quite extraordinary revelation’: Memo from Walt Rostow to LBJ, 12 December 1966, NSF, Box 146.

  ‘The King concluded’: PRO/FCO 371/186839, Ambassador Adams to London.

  ‘He told the diplomats’: US Current Intelligence Bulletin, 15 November 1966 – filed in PRO/FCO 371/186839.

  ‘he summoned all the ambassadors’: PRO/FCO 371/186839, 17 November 1966.

  ‘The United States was so concerned’: Memo from Rostow to Johnson, 15 November 1966, NSF Country File: Israel, Box 140.

  ‘The US airlifted’: Memo from Robert McNamara to Johnson, 17 April 1967, NSF Country File: Israel, Box 140; Memo from Amos Jordan to Rostow, 1 December 1966, NSF, Box 146.

  ‘The CIA believed’: CIA Memo for the Director: ‘The Jordan Regime, Its Prospects and the Consequences of Its Demise’, 13 December 1966, NSF, Box 146.

  ‘The people of Samua’: PRO/FCO 371/186839, 15 November 1966, US Embassy Amman to SoSFA.

  ‘What do they expect’: Washington Post, 15 November 1966, quoted in Neff, p. 42.

  ‘A senior security official’: Amman Cable 1456, 12 December 1966.

  ‘army officers’: Washington Post, 15 November 1966, quoted in Neff, p. 42.

  ‘Hussein’s troubles’: PRO/FCO 371/186839/272, 17 November 1966: Tesh (Cairo) to FCO.

  ‘Damascus was relieved’: PRO/FCO 371/186839/266, 16 November 1967: Evans (Damascus) to FCO.

  ‘Even if the Syrian government’: PRO/FCO 17/473, 21 January 1967: Damascus to FCO.

  ‘Let the Israelis shoot at us’: ibid.

  ‘on 7 April’: details of kibbutz in Yediot Aharonot, 14 April 1967, quoted in Bondy, pp. 337–42.

  Account of battle: PRO/FCO 17/474: Report of ground/air action on Israeli/Syrian border on 7 April 1967, from Defence and Military Attaché’s office, Tel Aviv, 11 April 1967; also PRO/FCO 17/473: Syria/Israel, account of incident from Eastern Department; attack on Sqoufiye reported by UNTSO; PRO/FCO 17/473, 10 April 1967.

  ‘a stunned awe’: PRO/FCO 17/473, 12 April 1967.

  ‘Israel basked’: PRO/FCO 17/473, 10 April 1967.

  ‘Are you out of your minds?’: Weizman, p. 197.

  ‘The British government’: PRO/FCO 17/498, 14 August 1967.

  ‘The CIA picked up’: President’s Daily Brief, 13 May 1967, NSC, Box 19.

  ‘contemplating an attack’: text of article from al-Ahram read out on Cairo Radio Home Service, 0500 GMT, 13 May 1967, SWB, Vol. 2453–78.

  ‘A high Israeli source’: MER, p. 187.

  ‘took the threats and warnings’: ibid, p. 179.

  ‘There were some’: Brecher, p. 359.

  ‘The message received’: Riad, p. 17.

  ‘the Israeli leaders had announced’: Nasser speech, 22 May 1967, quoted in Brecher, p. 359.

  ‘The Egyptians claimed’: NSF, Paris Cable 18806, 23 May 1967, Box 104.

  ‘Atassi, the head of state’: Nutting, p. 397.

  ‘the foster child state of bandits’: Syrian propaganda from Damascus Cable 1163, 22 May 1967, NSF, Box 104.

  ‘the Russians pricked the Egyptian donkey’: PRO/FCO 17/498, 14 August 1967.

  ‘They told me’: Sadat, p. 172; Parker, The Politics of Miscalculation in the Middle East, p. 5; Heikal, Sphinx, pp. 174–5.

  ‘By the evening’: Gamasy, p. 21.

  ‘The Soviets seem’: NSF, Moscow 5078, 23 May 1967, Box 104.

  ‘The Soviets wanted’: interview with Amin Howedi, Cairo, 14 December 2002; Lior, p. 150; Golan, pp. 58–62; the most comprehensive discussion of the Soviet warning is in Parker, pp. 3–35.

  ‘A “medium level”’: CIA to White House Situation Room; Soviet official’s comments on Soviet policy in the Middle Eastern war, date sanitised, NSC, Box 18.

 
; ‘I think this is difficult’: comments of Gregoriy Petrovich Kapustyan, Soviet first secretary in Kuwait and KGB officer in CIA Intelligence Information Cable, 25 May 1967; Soviet intelligence officer’s comment on the current Arab–Israeli crisis, NSF, Box 105.

  ‘Soviet advice to the Syrians’: Memo, ‘Terrorist Origins of the Crisis’, Saunders to Bundy, dated ‘Sometime prior to June 19th 1967’, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘It is probable’: Memo for Rostow from Nathaniel Davis, 2 June 1967, NSC, Box 20.

  ‘the sad capital city’: Amos Oz, Seventh Day, pp. 215–16.

  ‘General Bull’: MER, Vol. 3, 1967.

  ‘a clear violation’: President’s Daily Brief, 13 May 1967, NSC, Box 19.

  ‘battle order number one’: document captured by Israel, quoted in MER, p. 185.

  ‘astonished and alarmed’: Gamasy, pp. 21–2.

  ‘I did not’: quoted in Gamasy, p. 23.

  ‘Training, never a religion’: interview with Hadidi.

  ‘we incurred heavy losses’: interview with General Abdel Moneim Khalil, Cairo, 13 December 2002.

  ‘By 1967 the Egyptian High Command’: Field Marshal Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy, The October War, pp. 37–8.

  ‘Nasser is going’: President’s Daily Brief, 16 May 1967, NSC, Box 19.

  ‘defensive-deterrent in character’: PRO/Telegram No. 301, Tel Aviv to FCO, 17 May 1967.

  ‘We cannot leave the south’: Lior, p. 148.

  ‘Outside the stadium’: Michael Bar Zohar, Embassies in Crisis, pp. 16–18.

  ‘As soon as he could’: interview with General Yeshayahu Gavish, Tel Aviv, 21 November 2002.

  ‘In just over a decade’: Rikhye, p. 14.

  ‘Egypt promised’: Brian Urquart, quoted in Parker, Six-Day War, p. 87.

  ‘To your information’: Rikhye, p. 16.

  ‘They were being’: General Mohamed Fawzi in Al-Ahram Weekly online, 5–11 June 1997.

  ‘war would be inevitable’: Rikhye, p. 17.

  ‘General, what’s the occasion?’: ibid., p. 21.

  ‘willy-nilly be dragged in’: PRO/FCO 17/479, 17 May 1967: Damascus to FCO.

  ‘slogan of the unity’: PRO/FCO 17/479, 19 May 1967: Damascus to FCO.

  ‘On 17 May’: Tel Aviv Cable 3641, 18 May 1967, NSC, Box 22.

  ‘before taking any unilateral action’: PRO/FCO 17/479, 16 May 1967: Tel Aviv to FCO.

  ‘But other high-ranking’: PRO/Tel Aviv to FCO, 19 May 1967.

  ‘in the strongest terms’: message to PM Eshkol, 17 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘A long-delayed’: ‘The President in the Middle East Crisis’, 19 December 1968, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘one scrofulous room’: PRO/FCO 8/39, 18 November 1967: Parsons, British Political Agency, Bahrain to Balfour-Paul, British Political Residency, Bahrain.

  ‘By 1959’: Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, p. 393; also Winston Burdett, Encounter With the Middle East, p. 23.

  ‘The wire services’: wire service reports, 22 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘if we come through’: letter and draft of letter, 22 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘through sweaty, heaving, arm-flinging bodies’: Rikhye, p. 64.

  ‘On the evening’: and other details of the Nasser-U Thant dinner, Rikhye, pp. 63–79.

  ‘out to kill him’: USUN 5496, 27 May 1967, NSF, Box 105.

  ‘General Yariv’: Bar Zohar, p. 72.

  ‘decisive day’: Press review, 23 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘within ninety minutes’: Amos Elon, p. 7.

  ‘The message passed down’: interview with General Shmuel Eyal, Head of Personnel IDF, Rishon le Zion, 27 November, 2002.

  ‘I was leaning’: Henry (ed.), The Seventh Day, p. 32.

  ‘One persistent 63-year-old’: Elon, A Blood-Dimmed Tide, p. 7.

  ‘refusal to panic’: Bar Zohar, p. 78.

  ‘rapacious animals’: Ruth Bondy, Dvar Hashavua, 2 June 1967, quoted in Mission Survival, p. 30.

  ‘You have brought this state’: account of his collapse in Rabin, pp. 58–65.

  ‘At about eight’: Weizman, pp. 202–3.

  ‘a crushing burden’: Leah Rabin, p. 107.

  ‘he was alone’: Horovitz (ed.), pp. 40–1.

  ‘Abdel Moneim Khalil’: interview with General Abdel Moneim Khalil, Cairo, 13 December 2002.

  ‘with the same deep chasm’: Field bulletin quoted in Mission Survival.

  ‘Fifteen years of hard work’: interview with Meir Pa’il, 4 May 2002; also Martin Van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive.

  ‘by the superior training’: PRO/FCO 17/576: ‘Annual Report on the Israeli Army’, 27 January 1967.

  ‘militarily unchallengeable’: ‘Israeli–Arab confrontation, May 1967’, NSF, Box 104.

  ‘The British estimates’: PRO/CAB 158/66, 17 April 1967: ‘A comparison of the Armed Forces of Israel and those of certain Arab states up to the end of 1967’, JIC.

  ‘in command, training, equipment’: PRO/FCO 17/576, ibid.

  ‘enjoys superiority’: Jewish Chronicle, 31 March 1967, quoted in PRO/CAB 158/66, 17 April 1967.

  ‘Israel’s major strategic’: Helms and Wheeler, NSC Meeting, 24 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘nuclear weapons’: Memo from Katzenbach to LBJ, 1 May 1967, NSC, Box 17; also Rostow to LBJ, 8 May 1967, NSF, Box 145.

  ‘insufficient to launch’: ‘Israeli–Arab confrontation, May 1967’, op. cit.

  ‘The generals were left fuming’: Raviv, p. 93.

  ‘glory of the television cameras’: Rostow to LBJ, 9 June 1967, NSC, Box 18.

  ‘Since 1948’: Eban, Personal Witness, pp. 1–41.

  ‘Eban arrived’: ibid, p. 374; CIA Cable, ‘Impact of the Arab–Israeli crisis on the French political scene’, 16 June 1967, NSC, Box 18.

  ‘In London’: Eban, p. 378.

  ‘A couple of days earlier’: PRO/PREM 13/1617, 23 May 1967: note of a meeting between PM, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary at 10 Downing Street.

  ‘Eban did a lot of thinking’: Eban, p. 381.

  ‘biggest crowd’: Rostow account of meeting with Evron, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘one of the severest shocks’: Eban, p. 382.

  ‘Read it’: Rafael, p. 143.

  ‘We have no problems on the ground’: Lammfrom, pp. 535–7, documents 166 and 167; telegram from Eshkol to Eban, 25 May 1967.

  ‘a hypochondriac cable’: Eban, Personal Witness, pp. 382–3.

  ‘Israel had wind’: interview with Hussein al Shafei, Cairo, 15 December 2002.

  ‘playing a political game’: CIA Cable, UAR/Jordanian discussion, 25 May 1967, NSF, Box 105; and background on Jordan/UAR defense pact and reexamination of Jordan’s position as a result of it, 4 June 1967, NSF, Box 106.

  ‘During the ten-minute flight’: interview with Walt Rostow, Austin, 12 September 2002.

  ‘Johnston had the nasty feeling’: NSC, Chronological guide, Box 17.

  ‘The president would buzz’: interview with Rostow.

  ‘Waiting in Rostow’s office’: details of Israeli arguments in Dept of State Memo of interview between Secretary Rusk and Abba Eban, 25 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘not “a serious estimate”’: Memo to LBJ from Rostow, 25 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘Upstairs, in the Oval Office’: Johnson’s furniture is at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas.

  ‘Israel was not showing’: Morning Intelligence Mid-East Sitrep (as of 0700): Memo to LBJ from Rostow, 28 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘the only difference between’: Oral History, Robert McNamara, LBJ Library, AC-96-10.

  ‘If the Israelis attacked first’: quoted in Parker, Six-Day War, pp. 216–17.

  ‘Senior Soviet officials’: Moscow Cable 5170, 27 May 1967, NSF, Box 105.

  ‘The CIA’s conclusions’: CIA Office of National Estimates, 26 May 1967: Memo for the Director, NSF, Box 115.

  ‘we are not inclined’: letter to Wilson, 26 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘Eban and his team’: Rostow report of meeti
ng with Ephraim Evron, No. 2 at Israeli Embassy, 26 May 1967, NSC, Box 17; State 202587 flash telegram, 26 May 1967, NSF, Box 105.

  ‘Secretary of State Dean Rusk’: Memorandum of interview, Rusk–Eban, 25 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘I did not get the impression’: Eban, Personal Witness, p. 383.

  ‘Along about sundown’: Meeting on the Arab–Israeli Crisis, 26 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘just a six foot four friend Texan’: Raviv, p. 100.

  ‘unilateral action’: Winston Burdett, Encounter With the Middle East, p. 254.

  ‘some guy out here’: New York Times, 10 July 1967.

  ‘The Israelis were finally ushered’: Memo of interview, 26 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘they came loaded for bear’: NSC, Chronological guide, Box 17.

  ‘Eban left immediately’: Rafael, p. 145.

  ‘Eban and his team arrived’: Raviv, p. 102; interview with Moshe Raviv, Herzliya, 6 May 2002.

  ‘They feel they can finish Nasser off’: description of Barbour from Hersh, pp. 159–61; Allon’s comments in White House situation room Cable to LBJ, 29 May 1967; Ambassador Barbour’s comments and rumours about Eban’s ousting in Walt Rostow to LBJ, 28 May 1967, both NSC, Box 17; threat to Eban, also in Rafael, p. 160; Yariv’s comments to Ambassador Hadow, PRO/FCO 17/498; also MER, p. 197.

  ‘reached upper decibel range’: Cairo 8072, Sitrep, Box 105, 27 May 1967; State Dept Situation report, 28 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘Physically he was’: Sandy Gall, Don’t Worry About the Money Now, p. 276.

  ‘It was a confident’: Text of Nasser’s news conference, 28 May 1967, NSF, Box 17.

  ‘sleepwalker speaking in an exalted trance of fatalism’: Burdett, pp. 281–2.

  ‘American diplomats’: Cable, Cairo 8218 to State, 30 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘They dismissed a theory’: White House Situation Room to LBJ, Arab–Israel situation report, 0430, EDT 28 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘After Nasser had finished’: Ziad Rifai’s account in Hussein of Jordan, pp. 38–42.

  ‘New light’: CIA Intelligence Information Cable, 25 May 1967, Box 105; Background on Jordan/UAR defense pact, 4 June 1967, Box 106, NSF.

  ‘traditional Arab friends’: Amman Cable 3775, 26 May 1967, NSC, Box 17.

  ‘would result in an Israeli occupation’: Samir A. Muttawi, Jordan in the 1967 War, pp. 106–7; Hussein quotes, p. 103: interview with Leila Sharaf, Amman, 8 June 2002.