Short notes:
The drums of the war in the Middle East began to be heard in the mid 1960s exactly in the end of the 1966 when Israel declared its plans to redirect the River Jordan which passes through Syria and Jordan, so then Syria and Jordan would have lost very important water resource.
Of course the Egyptian leadership under Nasser would not leave Syria alone, in fact in my personal opinion things got escalated thanks to the Egyptian interfere ,I know very well that Israel planned for that war from long time and I think they wanted to provoke Nasser enough to push him in to war as they knew very well he wouldn’t leave a chance to prove that he and his army were the protectors of the Arab world , they wouldn’t have pushed him if they hadn’t know that his army was not strong enough to stand against the IDF
The tension began to increase more and more when the Syrian regime claimed that Israel was gathering its arm forces on the Syrian-Israeli borders on the beginning of the May 1967 despite the Israeli denial, the soviets confirmed this fact and thus the region seemed to be heading towards war.
General Amin El-Howdy[1] was sent by president Gamal Abd El-Nasser to check if there were Israeli forces on the Syrian borders like the Syrians and the soviets claim in the mid of the May, during his visit he met with Col. Abd El-Karim El-Genndy, the head of the Syrian intelligence who confirmed to him that there was no gathering for the Israeli forces on the borders!!
Ironically some of the former Syrian leaders just like former Prime Minister Youssef Zuaiyin and also from the present members of the regime are blaming King Hussein to be the one who made President Nasser to involve in the war despite the late King warned Nasser from the possibility that some members in the Syrian regime would set him up!!
According to Dr. Zuaiyin‘s memories
“The British made King Hussein deceive president
Nasser!! As they had promised the king that Israel wouldn’t invade one single
meter from his kingdom!!”
I don’t know what this Baath veteran is trying to fool, what British role he is mentioning now for God Sake we all know that the British role in the region in 1967 was over and the American role replaced him to counter the soviet role!!
The man completes and says that they were shocked in Syria when they knew that Egypt and Jordan signed the common defense treaty, well the Doctor may not be aware that king warned Nasser from the Syrians , of course I am amazed with that treaty because Nasser and Hussein could not stomach each other !!
When El-Assad announced the fall of the city of Quintiara even before the arrival of the IDF to it, the Syrian militaries ran away from it and didn’t bother to stand and defend the city, the withdrawal order came!! The first to escape were the officers with high ranks who became later big names in the political military history of Syria like Rafaat El-Assad!!
For example:
- On the 8th of June 1967 General “Ahmed El-Suwadany” who later became the high commander of the Syrian army took off his ranks and clothes ,disguised himself as a shepherd and went to the village of “Noy” which is a couple of miles of the city “Quintiara”
- The commander of the front Col. “Ahmed El-Mire “followed him, riding a donkey!! Of course some officers denied this incident which was mentioned internationally in Patrick Seale’s biography about President Al-Assad and that Seale took this piece information from people in the streets of Syria , but I think it is not the guilt of Seale as he found an interesting story the Syrians are telling to each other ; generation from generation, some of those officers go beyond this and claim that it is a conspiracy to destroy the spirit of the Syrian people
But there are other officers who confirm the popular shameful story, as according to them when the withdrawal order came it was not a tactical withdrawal but a qualitative withdrawal, just to get the hell as soon as possible, leave your arterially behind and thus the general didn’t have much options to fast from his withdrawal except by disguise himself as a peaceful shepherd
The man himself who died in 2006 didn’t confirm or deny, silent he was regarding it and thus I guess it could be true
- Anyhow, “Mire” wasn’t alone as he was followed by several high commanders, officers and ranks including Rafaat El-Assad, the brother of Hafiz El-Assad himself!!
- The ruling cabinet and the rest of regime in Damascus itself packed its bags and took the money from the Syrian Central bank and headed to Homs as they were certain that Damascus was going to fall in the hands of the Israelis!!
They left it alone with its people and fled away with no intention to defend it, a typical Baath act that reminds me with what Saddam and his army had done in the invasion of Baghdad, the sudden disappearance from the capital
Imagine if Damascus had fallen, well my imagination tells me that the Israelis were wise enough not to invade it because they didn’t want to convert their victory in to defeat because the people not the regime would stand against them!!
[1] This information was mentioned in his Memories ,also he mentioned it on Al-Jazeera channel in the date of 27/8/2001, General Howdy at that time during his visit wasn’t the head of the intelligence yet
It is well known that Jordanian and saudi Radio statons were talking day and night about Nasser's hiding behind international foces.
ReplyDeleteDear Zeinobia politcsd is a multidimensional complex process, people dont always meanwhat they say, or sometimes they sathings just to give false impressions.
Amr with my all respect they didn't say that Nasser with the Americans but with the Soviets
ReplyDeleteI know very well that politics is a multidimensional complex process and that's why I don't take from one source , but from multi sources
I never said they said he was wit he Americans. They said that he claimed to be the hero of Arabs while he allowed Israeli ships to pass through the Tirans.Also they said that he was a coward hiding behing the U.N troops in Sinai
ReplyDeletedear Amr I don't understand do you blame Saudi Arabia and Jordan for the war ??
ReplyDeletewhat do you think about what I wrote here and in the fall of the idol conerning Nasser and his msgs to the Americans ??
Zeinobia you only think in balck and white. Reality is much more complex than that. Nasser is responsible of course.
ReplyDeleteBut a combination of interacting factors lead to 1967. Of those Saudi Arabia playeda prominent role byprovoking Nsser, nd supporting the yemenis royalists and paying mercenaries to fight the Egyptian army in Yemen
Dear Amr till now I don't understand what bring the Saudis to the game, don't forget that we didn't have relations with them back them
ReplyDeleteI will try to get what say in the way that Our army was exhausted in the Yemen war ,the war that we shouldn't entr but as you said we were provoked to enter the war
yet this didn't answer my big question why nasser went from Yemen to Sinia and his army was exhauseted , you didn't get what I am trying to say , he had no control on the army , he knew very well that we were exhausted , he received warning from around the globe whether the Syrians were setting us up or the date of the attack , he sent messages to the soviets and the americans that he didn't want to go to war and they knew how weak his army was
but why escalating the matters to the level of war
why sending hundreds of thousands to the front
if he had fall in the Saudi trap why did he go by his feet to the Syrian trap
and the big question why he returned back the relations with Saudi Arabia in Khartoum's Arab summit !!
Dear Zeinobia,
ReplyDeleteI can't find your email, so I'll post here.
You might find these sites interesting
1) The 40th anniversary of the 1967 war
and
2) The parent site
and our Cairo (and Egypt) mini site
@anonymous, thanks so much for the links , by the way my email is my profile
ReplyDeletethese are wonderful websites :)
Zeinobia Nasser didnt transfer the army from Sinai to Yemen. The trained elite Egyptian forces were 80,000 again i repeat eighty thousand were fighting a guerilla war in the mountains of yemen which is more like Afghanistan! Americans cant control afghanistan. Egyptians despite of the heavy losses and the exceution
ReplyDeletebrought Yemen to the 20h century.
we won the war!
Nasser massed in Sinai un trained reservists people who were brought form their homes to the front without any training or plans, in addition to the chaoes and corruption of the mental retard Amer.
I would like to tell you that yemense are one of the most intelligent people in the world, and the have very good trasits, they are honorable and they remeber the good. there is a big staue in sanaa for an " Egyptian soldier" and all of their offcials hold Egypt with great respect for its historical role and great sacrifices.
If it hadnt been for Egypt Yemen wuld have been ruled by retards like those of Iran!
Also have you noticed the yemen providede refugee to the baathist heroes of IRAQ, DESPITE ALL OF THE PRESSURE BY THE PERSIAN DIRT TO DESTABILISE IT. aND THEY REJECTED THE aMERICAN PRESSURE TO HAND THEM IN- THEY REPLIED TO THE aMERICANS THAT IT IS NOT AMONG THE TRADITIONS OF aRABS TO HAND IN THEIR GUESTS.
HATS OFF TO THE GREAT YEMENSE PEOPLE