Response to a canadian friend who asked me to read an article about the 1967 war

The idea of 'Revision of History' has always been intriguing to me, especially when it comes to modern history where 'factual history' sometimes can't be differentiated from political propaganda.

Being an Egyptian, revising almost 7000 years of written history can sound impossible, yet extremely interesting. One example would be the name of the king that first united Egypt circa 3200 BC. For a long time, it was Menes, then 'revising' history guided by some new discoveries, the name Narmer came out. It took some time to realize that both were different names of the same person, although to some, the distinction is still made.

More recently the 'history' of the Arab/Israeli conflict was revisited many times. The release of many documents, then classified 'top secret, helped a lot.

The 1967 war is definitely a pivotal point in this 'history'. It had a huge impact, not only for Arabs and Israelis but I dare say the whole world.

1967, the Egyptian army was stranded in a power struggle in Yemen. Nasser, being a revolutionary leader, sent the elite of the army to back up the pro republican forces fighting against the 'corrupt' Monarchy.....a fatal mistake. The forces were drawn to a guerrilla- style street wars that usually the well trained army forces fail in (History does repeat itself in strange ways, more incidents will prove this as I go through some other details ). The results were huge Egyptian casualties, deteriorating morale and an outstretched army beyond its capabilities!
The 1967 confrontation began with faulty intelligence info!
The Soviet Union warned its allies Egypt and Syria from huge Israeli forces piled up near the Syrian borders (the Egyptian intelligence asserted Nasser that there were no such forces but he chose to listen to the Soviets).
As a result Nasser decided to play another high stake gambling game (the last one he pulled in the 1956 Suez crisis ended up in the official declaration of the decline of the British empire, emergence of Nasser as the leader of the free world against imperialism and colonialism, in fact Nasser's charisma made him a worldwide popular figure, Egypt gained control of the Suez canal to finance the high dam project)
Nasser tried to push the situation to the maximum knowing that the balance of powers in the cold war era will not allow for open confrontation between USA & USSR. He got strict warning from the Soviets not to start attacking Israel He was pushing for political gains and getting rid of the UN peace keeping forces in Sinai.
When he was 'informed' about the Israeli forces on the Syrian borders he decided to close the naval route to Israel only port on the red sea. He was hoping that it will end in withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Syrian borders. The head of the Egyptian military in an infamous conversation assured him that the Egyptian army was ready for any confrontation if it comes to it (actually it wasn't, whatever forces were left after those sent to Yemen were less trained, poorly positioned and not ready for any confrontation)

To make things worse, the Israeli well coordinated air strikes destroyed most of the Egyptian air forces while still on the ground. The infantry left without air cover was an easy target. The USSR didn't intervene except when the Israeli army was few hundred kilometers away from Cairo. The defeat was so humiliating that Nasser had to resign. Massive crowds went into the streets refusing his resignation and asking him to return (according to American and British document the main reason of the 1967 'incidents' was to bring Nasser down, the whole operation was referred to as 'the Turkey hunt')
After the demonstrations calling on Nasser to come back spread even outside Cairo, he agreed to withdraw his resignation and resume his duties; however the person that came back was totally different from before. It was obvious he was broken. Moreover his dream of a pan-Arabic state was set centuries back. The whole movement of Arabic Nationalism (Leftist by nature) was fatally stabbed in its heart. It was soon to be replaced by the radical Islam spirit. The irony was (and still is) that whomever supported the radical Islamic groups then paid heavily afterwards (As I mentioned before, Nasser successor president Sadat in an effort to make sure to get rid of whatever left of the pro-Nasser leftist nationalist groups, backed up the radical Islamic groups in what ended by his assassination by the radicalists in 1981)

1967 war ended up by Israel occupying Jerusalem, Golan Heights, Gaza, the west bank & Sinai. Egypt 'partial' victory in 1973 then a peace treaty in 1978/9 handed Sinai back to Egypt by 1982. The rest of the territories are still under Israel 'control' one way or the other. Nasser's dream of a united Arabic nation sounds like a joke now. Replaced by the Islamic caliphate ruled by extremists, I wonder if the 'turkey hunt' was worthwhile.