A Letter from Israel

What exactly was about to happen in June 1967, before Israel’s decisive counterstroke, has been the subject of much debate in the European press.

What exactly was about to happen in June 1967, before Israel’s decisive counterstroke, has been the subject of much debate in the European press. Reading the foreign commentators from this vantage point, one notes with mild astonishment how quickly those previously committed to the view that Nasser was a peaceful influence — certified experts like Eric Rouleau of Le Monde or the anonymous correspondent of The Economist— have returned to their old positions. And the people responsible for policy here were almost equally as certain, until May 1967, that Nasser would not start a war. And today, for all their caution, they do not expect another early Egyptian attack.

But no one here has any doubt about certain facts: we know in our bones that if they could (or felt they could) the Arabs would hit Israel at the first opportunity and, if they won, would liquidate both the Jewish state and the Jews. Everyone here knows about the Jordanian orders to troop ...