'Arab armies planned to destroy Israel'

Debmey

By STEVE LINDE

Those who call the Six Day War a disaster or a Pyrrhic victory are grossly mistaken, because they overlook the fact that Israel wasn't destroyed, historian Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

In an interview on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of war on June 5, 1967, Oren said his research of documents in Arab countries had revealed clearly that the Arabs had planned to destroy Israel.

Although this seems obvious to Israel sympathizers who hold to the traditional story of the Arabs' responsibility for the outbreak of war, the intervening decades have seen the promulgation of a myth that Israel was not really in danger.

# Q & A with Michael Oren

"The biggest myth going is that somehow there was not a real and immediate Arab threat, that somehow Israel could have negotiated itself outside the crisis of 1967, and that it wasn't facing an existential threat, or facing any threat at all," said Oren, who is a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies at Jerusalem's Shalem Center and author of Six Days of War: June 1967. He noted that this was the premise of Tom Segev's book, 1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East. "What's remarkable is that all the people alleging this - not one of them is working from Arabic sources. It's quite extraordinary when you think about it. It's almost as if Israel were living in a universe by itself. It's a deeply solipsistic approach to Middle East history."

What's behind the myth, Oren argued, is "a more pervasive, ongoing effort to show that Israel bears the bulk, if not the sole responsibility, for decades of conflict in the Arab world, and that the Arabs are the aggrieved party.

"It's an attempt to show that Israel basically planned the Six Day War in advance, knowing that it was going to expand territorially. My position is that it was just the opposite. Israel was taken aback by the crisis, unprepared for it and panicked, believing it faced a true existential threat, and did not plan to expand territory.

"It did everything it could to keep Jordan and Syria out of the war. My reading of the Arabic documents show that the Arabs had real plans to attack and destroy the State of Israel."

Oren said Israel's strategic relationship with the US began with the war.

"The United States, which previously regarded Israel as a friendly country but one that impaired its relations with the Arab world, suddenly realized that the Jewish state was in fact a regional superpower," he said. "The US subsequently forged an alliance with Israel that has remained ever since."

The first person to recognize that the war had dramatically changed the geopolitical balance in the Middle East, according to Oren, was US president Lyndon Johnson, who initiated a peace plan later embodied in UN Security Council Resolution 242.

"You can actually see 242 coming out of Johnson's head on June 5, 1967, including the notion that Israel would not have to return to the 1967 borders," Oren said. "Johnson is saying that particularly the West Bank border is not a defensible border; it's only eight miles across to the sea, and Israel should not have to go back to that border."

The war, Oren said, marked "the emergence for the first time of a US-Israel strategic relationship, as the Johnson administration wakes up on June 12, 1967, and says, 'Oh my God, we've got a regional superpower on our hands. We can't afford not to have it as an ally.'"

ali_setan3

Debmey - cud u pls qoute where did u get this article? izzit from a web, magazine or newspaper??

irmamanggis

one day when kiamat is near, muslim will attack and destroy israel and jewish....
but right now, arab not have enough power to declare war to israel..... we will wait until that time come.....TAKBIR!!!.... ALLAHUAKHBAR!!!!!

razhar

no need to reply to this twister la.....

Debmey

Have you ever wondered why all the Muslims of the world cannot destroy Israel?

SONofODIN

Why?...........:hmm:

Debmey

The Muslims are fighting against God.

alphawolf

Dia mula dah......

Debmey

how else can you explain 10 armies being defeated by a rag tag non unified army in 1948?
I have studied many wars and i still cannot logically explain the victory of the jews over muslims since 1948.
Israel is a narrow strip of land that is difficult to defend and can be easily divided. The enemies are just across the border with artillery, armour and aircrafts. The only explanation for the victory of the Jews is divine intervention.

alphawolf

Really? Then why didn't God help them during the Holocaust?

ferryman2393

everything IS divine intervention.

powerwoot

Biasalah, ada orang campak bangkai, dubuq dgn pantas kilat le dia bertindak.

razhar

yg hang reply tu wat pe? just abaikan...

powerwoot

laaa ko pun satu, pasal apa le reply jugak!

razhar

tu jawab soklan kao je..

alphawolf

Kita tunggu jawapan dari dubuk.....selepas ini....

SONofODIN

Originally posted by alphawolf at 6-6-2007 12:59 PM
Really? Then why didn't God help them during the Holocaust?

God couldn't fight against Hitler, the Nazi were too strong.

Debmey

Originally posted by alphawolf at 6-6-2007 12:59 PM
Really? Then why didn't God help them during the Holocaust?

God did help them, Hitler was destroyed wasn't he?

In the case of Israel, it was the first time in history that a nation was revived after it dispaeared for 2000 years. A dead language was revived in its homeland again and its people returned from all over the world after 2000 years.

Only god could have done it. God is faithful!

razhar

Originally posted by SONofODIN at 6-6-2007 16:19


God couldn't fight against Hitler, the Nazi were too strong.

good answer for this question....A+++ RATED...

SONofODIN

Originally posted by razhar at 6-6-2007 05:10 PM


good answer for this question....A+++ RATED...

Got credits ah?