more at http://quickfound.net Israel prepares for war following a blockade by the United Arab Republic (UAR: Egypt and Syria). It is 10 years after the 1956 Arab-Israeli War (Suez Crisis), and the Six-Day War is soon to begin. From Universal Newsreel V. 40 R. 43 1967-05-26 Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War The Six-Day War (Hebrew: מלחמת ששת הימים, Milhemet Sheshet Ha Yamim; Arabic: النكسة, an-Naksah, "The Setback" or حرب ۱۹٦۷, Ḥarb 1967, "War of 1967"), also known as the June War, 1967 Arab--Israeli War, or Third Arab--Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria. The war began on June 5 with Israel launching surprise strikes against Egyptian air-fields in response to the mobilisation of Egyptian forces on the Israeli border. A period of high tension had preceded the war. In response to PLO sabotage acts against Israeli targets, Israel raided into the Jordanian-controlled West Bank and initiated flights over Syria, which ended with aerial clashes over Syrian territory, Syrian artillery attacks against Israeli civilian settlements in the vicinity of the border followed by Israeli responses against Syrian positions in the Golan Heights and encroachments of increasing intensity and frequency into the demilitarized zones along the Syrian border, and culminating in Egypt blocking the Straits of Tiran, deploying its troops near Israel's border, and ordering the evacuation of the U.N. buffer force from the Sinai Peninsula. Within six days, Israel had won a decisive land war. Israeli forces had taken control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria... Military preparation Before the war, Israeli pilots and ground crews had trained extensively in rapid refitting of aircraft returning from sorties, enabling a single aircraft to sortie up to four times a day (as opposed to the norm in Arab air forces of one or two sorties per day). This enabled the Israeli Air Force (IAF) to send several attack waves against Egyptian airfields on the first day of the war, overwhelming the Egyptian Air Force, and allowed it to knock out other Arab air forces on the same day. This has contributed to the Arab belief that the IAF was helped by foreign air forces (see Controversies relating to the Six-Day War). Pilots were extensively schooled about their targets, and were forced to memorize every single detail, and rehearsed the operation multiple times on dummy runways in total secrecy. The Egyptians had constructed fortified defenses in the Sinai. These designs were based on the assumption that an attack would come along the few roads leading through the desert, rather than through the difficult desert terrain. The Israelis chose not to risk attacking the Egyptian defenses head-on, and instead surprised them from an unexpected direction... On May 22, Nasser declared the Straits closed to Israeli shipping, blocking 90% of Israeli oil that passed through the Straits of Tiran. Oil tankers that were due to pass through the straights have been delayed... On May 21, Eshkol had told the cabinet Defense Committee that Egypt wanted to close the straits and to bomb the reactor in Dimona. Egypt planned to attack Israel at 27 May. A couple of days before the attack date, Israel discovered it, and asked the Americans to deal with it. The American president called the Soviet leadership, and the Soviet ambassador, in the middle of the night, warned Nasser to avoid attacking Israel. on 25 May Israel mobilized the whole army reserves, which caused the economy to come to a standstill. In the first days of June Israel feared that the Arab states might launch an attack within days. Israel was especially afraid of a limited Jordanian or Jordanian-Egyptian offensive against Eilat. On June 1, Israel formed a National Unity Government by widening its cabinet. On June 4 the decision was made to go to war. Israel's defence forces were confident of victory in any conflict with the Arab states, and military leaders provided prime minister Eshkol with alarmist information to persuade him to support an attack. The next morning, Israel launched Operation Focus, a large-scale surprise air strike that was the opening of the Six-Day War. The leaders of the Arab states were caught by complete surprise when Israel took their threats at face value...

• published: 24 Jun 2014
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