Surely he doesn't claim Egypt attacked before the Israeli airstrikes too?
Like many critics, they tend to avoid the opinions and statements of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. A simple review would reveal just how much they wanted war.
Egypt's closure of the Straits of Tiran was a Casus Belli according to President Johnson. It was Israel's ONLY supply route with Israel and cut of Israel's
primary source of oil - Iran.
The day following the Blockade, Nasser said:
The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war.
In the following days he made more threatening comments:
Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight. We will not accept any...coexistence with Israel...Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel....The war with Israel is in effect since 1948
Pretty honest right?
On May 30 - 5 days before the War, Jordan and Egypt signed a defense pact, and Nasser declared:
The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations
Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq said:
The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear -- to wipe Israel off the map
This simply wasn't Iranian-styled saber-rattling. Egypt mobilized 500,000+ troops, 300 tanks, and 800 jets.
Israel's economy and military could not support an indefinite state of belligerence. Had Israel awaited for an Arab invasion, it would not have survived. The Arab states could depend on Soviet support, but the French placed an embargo on Israel's military and USA sold more weapons to the arabs than to israel by that time.
Your accusation that Israel wanted to hold unto the WB and Gaza is not supported by facts. Also, at that point the land was
not considered "Palestinian territory" by neither the UN or the Arabs.
If Israel wanted the land, it could have simply expelled the Palestinians and annexed it - but instead implemented what was supposed to be a brief military occupation pending territorial swaps with the Arab states as part of UN242 which called for a negotiated peace.
Israel figured such a humiliating defeat would force the Arab's to re-think their belligerence towards Israel.
Arabs of course outright rejected UN242 and passed the Khartoum Resolution followed by an oil embargo. Israel couldn't very well give up land it had just captured for nothing.
Israel did annex Jerusalem and the Golan for strategic purposes, but it had nothing to gain from holding on to the WB and Gaza indefinitely. The Arabs would never accept Israeli citizenship and Israel already treated their current Arab population as a "hostile entity."
Ultimately Israel did return 94% of all land captured in the war for peace with Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinians. It offered the Golan to Syria and asked for the remains of an executed POW as a "good-faith" gesture. Syrian's told Israel to go fuck itself.
You tell me who wanted peace? Israel or the Arabs?
No one intelligent sees Israel as entirely blameless, but there is zero evidence that supports the accusation that the Arab's were victim to Israel's aggression, and it was Israel, not the Arabs, that rejected peace.
And for those who don't know, Israel's military losses during those 6 days is roughly equivalent to America's losses in Iraq since 2003 (Over 1.2 million have served in Iraq, while ~200,000 israelis fought in the six day war).
If Israel wanted to eliminate the Arab states it could do so in 5 seconds. The Arab world invaded Israel with full knowledge of its nuclear capabilities. they knew the Jews would never use the bomb....even if their country was on the bring of collapse, they knew Israel did not have the stomach to kill millions of Arabs.
Clearly the Arabs had the stomach to kill millions of Jews, as demonstrated by their Nazi-styled expulsion of 900,000+ Jews and calls for its eliminated every other week. Only the blind cannot see such obvious aggression. Is the Left so blind with hate and rage?