Rapid Fire - 6/5/07 - Six Day War Anniversary

A lot of good reads about the war (besides my previous post):

1) Six Day War Revisionist History

Yesterday I got a great email from Dave, the Soccer Dad

Please pardon this e-mail. Time magazine has (long) had its account of the 6 day war online. What I find remarkable is the absence of cynicism that so often marks today's reporting from the Middle East

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,843937,00.html

I haven't read Time's current retrospective yet, but here it is:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1627015,00.html

Well Dave, I read them both. Reading reports about the war from 40 Years ago and today reminds me of one of those Star Trek episodes where Kirk an the boys go back in history and change the past---it seems like two different wars.
Forty years ago the reports spoke of the underdog Israel and her need to defend herself against the warlike acts of the big bullies lead by Egypt who was committing many acts that could be interpreted as acts of war including: conspiring with other belligerent countries (in this case, Syria and Jordan) for a coordinated attack, closing Israel’s access to international waterways (the straits of Tiran),volating the terms of the 1956 armistice by re-militarizing the Sinai. Expelling the UN and USA peace-keeping troops form the Sinai, perpetrating illegal spy-plane fly-overs to reconnoiter Israeli sensitive areas. Massing troops and tanks on Israel’s borders.

2) Remembering The Six-Day War - FrontPage mag

3) Coverage of Six day war anniversary - Fiery Spirited Zionist

4) The Six Day War prelude, war, and aftermath - CAMERA

5) Time's original article post-war in 1967

Ever since Israel was created 19 years ago, the Arabs have been lusting for the day when they could destroy it. And in the past month, Nasser succeeded for the first time in putting together an alliance of Arab armies ringing Israel; he moved some 80,000 Egyptian troops and their armor into Sinai and elbowed out the U.N. buffer force that had separated the antagonists for a decade. With a hostile Arab population of 110,000,000 menacing their own of 2,700,000, the Israelis could be forgiven for feeling a fearful itch in the trigger finger. When Nasser closed the Gulf of Aqaba, a fight became almost inevitable.

P.S., Charles mentions the fact that the word "Palestinian" was not mentioned once in the entire Time article.