10/09/2008
The following quotes were voiced by national leaders, leading politicians, military leaders and state-controlled media outlets. They clearly underline the very real, undeniable existential threat faced by Israel on the eve of the Six Day War.
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March 8th 1965
"We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand, we shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood" - President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser
Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979) p. 616
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Feb 22nd 1967
"It is the duty of all of us now to move from defensive positions to offensive positions and enter the battle to liberate the usurped land...Everyone must face the test and enter the battle to the end." - President of Syria , Nureddin al-Attassi
Theodore Draper, Israel and world politics: Roots of the third Arab-Israeli war, (New York: Secker & Warburg, 1968)
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April 8th 1967
"(this battle will be)...followed by more severe battles until Palestine is liberated and the Zionist presence ended." - Syrian Information Minister Mahmoud Zubi
Theodore Draper, Israel and world politics: Roots of the third Arab-Israeli war, (New York: Secker & Warburg, 1968)
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May 16th 1967
"The existence of Israel has continued too long. We welcome the Israeli aggression. We welcome the battle we have long awaited. The peak hour has come. The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel." - Cairo Radio (Egyptian state radio) broadcast
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, The Six Day War
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May 17th 1967
"All Egypt is now prepared to plunge into total war which will put an end to Israel" - Cairo Radio (Egyptian state radio) broadcast
Quoted by David Peleg, Israeli representative to the UN, UN website
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May 18th 1967
"The Zionist barrack in Palestine is about to collapse and be destroyed. Every one of the hundred million Arabs has been living for the past nineteen years on one hope - to live to see the day Israel is liquidated...There is no life, no peace nor hope for the gangs of Zionism to remain in the occupied land." Cairo Radio (Egyptian state radio) broadcast
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001(New York: Vintage, 2001) p 309-310
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"As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel....The sole method we shall apply against Israel is a total war which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence". - Cairo Radio (Egyptian state radio) broadcast
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001(New York: Vintage, 2001) p 309-310
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May 20th 1967
"Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse any aggression, but to initiate the act ourselves, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland of Palestine. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united. I believe that the time has come to begin a battle of annihilation." - Syrian Defence Minister Hafez Assad
Isi Leibler, The Case For Israel, (Australia: The Globe Press, 1972) p. 60
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May 22nd 1967
"The Israeli flag shall not go through the Gulf of Aqaba. Our sovereignty over the entrance to the Gulf cannot be disputed" - President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser
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"We want a full scale, popular war of liberation... to destroy the Zionist enemy" - President of Syria Nureddin al-Attasi, speaking to troops
Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, (Random House: New York, 2003)
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May 23rd 1967
"Arab masses, this is your day. Rush to the battlefield...Let them know that we shall hang the last imperialist soldier with the entrails of the last Zionist." - Damascus Radio (Syrian state radio) broadcast
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001(New York: Vintage, 2001) p 309-310
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May 25th 1967
"The Arab people is firmly resolved to wipe Israel off the map and to restore the honour of the Arabs of Palestine" - Cairo Radio (Egyptian state radio) broadcast Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, The Six Day War
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May 26th 1967
"Taking over Sharm el Sheikh meant confrontation with Israel (and) also meant that we were ready to enter a general war with Israel. The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel" - President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser addressing the General Council of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions
Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, The Six Day War
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May 28th 1967
"The existence of Israel is in itself an aggression...what happened in 1948 was an aggression - an aggression against the Palestinian people. ...(the crisis had developed because) "Eshkol threatened to march on Damascus, occupy Syria and overthrow the Syrian regime. It was our duty to come to the aid of our Arab brother. It was our duty to ask for the withdrawal of UNEF. When UNEF went, we had to go to the Gulf of Aqaba and restore things to what they were when we were in Aqaba in 1956" - President of Egypt Gamel Abdel Nasser
Donald Neff, Warriors for Jerusalem: The Six Days That Changed the Middle East (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1984)
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"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". - Gamel Abdel Nasser press conference
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001(New York: Vintage, 2001) p 309-310
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May 29th 1967
"Now, eleven years after 1956 we are restoring things to what they were in 1956...The issue now at hand is not the Gulf of Aqaba, the Straits of Tiran or the withdrawal of UNEF, but the rights of the Palestinian people." - President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser, speech to the General Assembly in Cairo
Vick Vance and Pierre Lauer Hussein of Jordan, (London: Peter Owen, 1968)
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May 30th 1967
"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 of more declarations." - President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser
Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, The Six Day War
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May 31st 1967
"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" - President of Iraq Abdel-Rahman Aref
David Kimche and Dan Bawly, The Sandstorm: The Arab-Israeli War of June 1967: Prelude and Aftermath (London: Secker and Warburg, 1968) p 101
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"Under the terms of the military agreement signed with Jordan, Jordanian artillery, coordinated with the forces of Egypt and Syria, is in a position to cut Israel in two at Qalqilya, where Israeli territory between the Jordan armistice line and the Mediterranean Sea is only 12 kilometres wide" - Al Akhbar
Sixdaywar.co.uk - Crucial quotes
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June 1st 1967
"Brethren and sons, this is the day of the battle to avenge our martyred brethren who fell in 1948. It is the day to wash away the stigma. We shall, God willing, meet in Tel Aviv and Haifa" - President of Iraq Abdel-Rahman Aref, radio broadcast
Sixdaywar.co.uk - Crucial quotes
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"Those who survive will remain in Palestine. I estimate that none of them will survive." - Chairman of PLO Ahmed Shukairy, asked what will happen to Israelis if there were to be a war
Theodore Draper, Israel and world politics: Roots of the third Arab-Israeli war, (New York: Secker & Warburg, 1968) p 98
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