Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site cad.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!cad!hijab
From: hijab@cad.UUCP (Raif Hijab)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: The "Patria" incident (Really the 1967 War)
Message-ID: <104@cad.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Mar-86 14:54:49 EST
Article-I.D.: cad.104
Posted: Mon Mar 17 14:54:49 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Mar-86 20:19:57 EST
References: <93@ubc-vision.UUCP> <1372@mtuxo.UUCP> <159@dione.rice.EDU> <1706@ihlpg.UUCP>
Organization: U. C. Berkeley CAD Group
Lines: 77
Summary: Background to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War?

In article <1706@ihlpg.UUCP>, tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum) writes:
> > [Raif Hijab]
> > Nasser felt compelled to come Syria's aid, and declared that an attack
> > on Syria would be considered an attack on Egypt. This ideally set the
> > stage for Israel's 'preemptive strike' in the dawn hours of June 5, 1967,
> -------------------
> Such distortion of history is incredible.  Nasser had ordered the
> U. N. forces out of Sharm el Sheikh (sp?) and instituted a blockade
> of the Straits of Tiran, leading into the Gulf of Aqaba and the
> Israeli port of Eilat, through which more than 90% of Israel's oil
> supply (imported from Iran) flowed.  Nasser rebuffed diplomatic
> efforts to end the blockade.   A blockade is an act of war.
> Hijab conveniently forgets to mention this.  Of course, my news sources
> were the American media (and to a lesser extent, the British media)
> which are of course subsidiaries of the Israeli War Ministry. -)

The reasons I did not mention the straits of Tiran were:
	1) I was not reciting a total history of the events of the
	   war, but the precipitous reasons for the escalation of tensions.
	2) The blockade of the straits of Tiran and the Israeli strike
	   have been well publicized, whereas the preceding causes have
	   conveniently receded in the background, thanks to the selective
	   memory of Israel's protagonists.

> 	Ok, I will say it.  Hijab is either
> 	1)ignorant,
> 	2) an out-and-out liar
> 	or
> 	3) so convinced of the moral superiority of his side that
> 	he believes he is telling the truth when he is not.
> My guess is mostly 3).

No Comment.

> 	By the way, the Israeli raid on As-Samu' (not Al-Samu')
> was in 1965, not 1966, if my memory is correct. (I could be wrong).
> -- 
> Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan

The Israeli attack on As-Samu' (as pronounced, or Al-Samu' as written)
occured on November 13, 1966, nearly six months before the war of June 5,
1967. Regarding this attack, U.N. security council resolution #228 states

	"The Security Council ....

		1. Deplores the loss of life and the heavy damage to
		   property resulting from the action of the Government
	    	   of Israel on 13 November 1966;
		2. Censures Israel for this large-scale military action 
		   in violation of the United Nations Charter and of the
		   General Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan;
		3. Emphasizes to Israel that actions of military reprisal
		   cannot be tolerated and that, if they are repeated,
		   the Security Council will have to cinsider further and
		   more effective steps as envisaged in the Charter to
		   ensure against the repitition of such acts."

As to the immediate involvement of the Syrians prior to the war, we can
refer to the events of April 1967 as recited by David Hirst in "The Gun
and the Olive Branch" (Futura Publications, London, 1983). Regarding 
developments on the Syrian front, he states,

	"Every year brought its shooting season; naturally enough, it
	began, in a fertile valley like this, with the ploughing, and
	went on through the sowing and harvesting. It was then that the
	Israeli farmers ventured forth with their armour-plated tractors
	to plow a few more furrows of Arab-owned land. On 3 April 1967 it
	was reported in the Israeli press that the government had decided
	to cultivate all areas of the demilitarized zone (between Israel
	and Syria), specifically lots 51 and 52, which, the Syrians insisted,
	belonged to Arab farmers. At eight o'clock on the morning of 7 April
	a tractor began work on a little strip of Arab land south of Tiberias.
	The Israelis waited for the Syrians to open up with mortars as they
	knew they would- and then struck back with artillary, tanks and
	aircraft. Seventy jet fighters pounded the enemy (i.e. the Syrians)
	with napalm and high explosives.
	      	... (This)  was the curtain raiser of the June war."