War till the end: The fall of an idol

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 at 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!!

Howdy informed president Nasser by this information yet it didn’t stop the southern man from escalating the matter more and more from a silly rumor to an international crisis. Already after the defeat Nasser did the best thing he was good at and began to blame the Baath regime in Syria, strangely he didn’t blame or ask himself why he didn’t listen to the information his trust man in intelligence got from the Baath regime itself, in fact that is another question we may ask ourselves about why Nasser didn’t withdraw from the charade, Ironically we will never know the answer

A question that even those who know Nasser personally asked them, after no one can say that President Nasser wasn’t very smart man, Late Syrian Politician Akram El-Hurani who was appointed as vice president to Nasser during the union with Syria in 1959 before turning to him asked the same question in his Memories exactly in page 3420 from the fourth part :

Gamal Abd El-Nasser used to say about himself that he was a careful man, he said that in front of me in several occasion, so what made him involving in closing the “Aqaba” Gulf at the same time he knew that the Israelis would lead a war if it were closed !!??

On the 17^th of May, 1967 the emergency condition was announced in Egypt, it was like the drums of war, then on 23th of May,1967 Nasser announced that the closure of the “Aqaba” Gulf in front of the Israeli navigation and requested the UN to withdraw its emergency troop from Sinai. Of course the Public in Egypt was prepared through the media to a huge war that would erase Israel from the map , also the public was surprised by the president’s order to close the Aqaba Gulf in front of the Israeli navigation because in 1956 when President Nasser agree to let the Israeli ships go through the Aqaba Gulf as they liked he didn’t inform the Egyptian people at all ,it was from the security council resolution that reached between Egypt ,Israel, UK, France and the international community. Some people began to feel that they were deceived and they were dragged to war despite our refusal to it because Israel would fight the whole world if the Aqaba Gulf was closed in front of its navigation, because the close of the Gulf means partially closing a life vent to it.

On the 25^th of May, 1967 President Nasser gave a promise to the United Nations Secretary General Mr. U Thant then that he wouldn’t the war starter, well practically he didn’t start the war but gave Israel a good reason to start it

On then the 31^st of May, 1967 King Hussein of Jordan came to Cairo and signed another agreement to enter the war and to appoint General Abd El-Monam Riyad as the commander of the common forces in Jerusalem, ironically Israel didn’t intend to have war with King Hussein, the little king Hussein as they used to call him but he went to Nasser’s side plus they wanted the holy city, I think there was not much of a choice

Strangely in Ahmed Hassenein Heikel book “the explosion “in page 485, the closet writer to president Nasser is taking about strange incident no mentioned before that King Hussein before this visit had called General Riyad to Amman to deliver a very important urgent secret message to President Nasser only personally despite the great differences between Nasser and the Jordanian king which reached to the level of conspiracy to kill each other[2] but there were much important stuff that are above any difference and argument because it affects the Arabic national security as King Hussein said in the message to Nasser that Heikel published completely in his book, what came in the message was the following and that’s according to Heikel

The king has what makes him sure that there is a trap being made right now for the United Arab Republic[3] and President Mubarak ,as there is a trial to make them involve in a war that doesn’t suite their circumstances now. The ruling group in Syria is breached and some of them are cooperating with some parties with plans and agenda .end of the message

Very important message that makes us ask several questions

1.       How did Heikel get to it?? “okay may be Nasser told him about it or King Hussein told him about “

2.       Why did King Hussein come to Cairo later to sign the war agreement despite he knew it was a trap?? “The late King was a very wise cunning man ,it doesn’t make sense to be involve in a war with all its consequences and you already you know it is a trap, in the end he lost the west bank and the holy city of Jerusalem”

3.       Who were those parties exactly?? “The only parties I can think of right now who got benefit for involving Egypt in war were Israel and the Soviets and that would be the greatest skimp of all”

4.       Who were those members in the ruling regime in Syria working with those parties?? “With my all respect for reading to the level of studying the Syria political conditions and names back then the only name I can suspect holding powerful and critical position in the Syrian military and political decision making is the name of Hafez El-Assad himself”

5.       Why didn’t Nasser listen to this message? “The most important question of all”

 

It doesn’t make sense to me because Nasser now from two different sources knew for sure that it was a trap and some member of the ruling regime in Syria were involved in it, don’t forget that the ones who are still living and saying this are one of the most famous Nasserites who helped and still consider Nasser an idol

Nasser went to the war despite all the warning despite the fact he didn’t control the army as he left to it the playboy Amar not to mention the terrible losses in the war of Yemen, I remember the USS Liberty Veteran Jim Ennes when he told me that the United States was sure 100% that Nasser was bluffing and didn’t want to go to war if so why he closed the “Aqaba Gulf “

The big mystery and the scandal was the Egyptian intelligence was informed by the date of the Israeli attack accurately from different multiple sources including the famous Rafaat El-Hagan decoded message and my scoop, my own personal scoop of the Egyptian Chronicles that one of my family members himself who was working in one of the Egyptian Embassies I won’t say where or who or in what position succeeded in knowing the exact time and delivered to the intelligence , the surprise that he knew it from some Soviet source ,our same ally

Some times I think that the Soviets wanted this war to happen more than the Americans so we can rally on them more and buy more weapons from them, unfortunately the old weapons not even new like they used to give the Syrians!!

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[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

[2] President Nasser tried to kill King Hussein and his crown prince then King now Abdullah II

[3] This is the name of Egypt during the Nasserite era