Word: israel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Disappointed Troopers. To the south of Israel, Nasser's soldiers were having considerably more trouble sticking to their guns. By Wednesday night, the third day of war, all Israel brimmed with the sense of victory. As Dayan's chief of staff, Major General Yitzhak Rabin, summed it up succinctly: "We have inflicted almost total destruction on the Egyptian army, delivered a crushing blow to the Jordanian army, captured most of the relevant parts of the Sinai Peninsula and the west bank of the Jordan, and we have destroyed almost totally the air forces of four countries." Eager young Israeli paratroopers...
What seems certain now is that, for the moment at least, Israel is the absolute master of the Middle East; it need take orders from no one, and can dictate its own terms in the vacuum of big-power inaction, U.N. fecklessness, and Arab impotence...
...Israel manage to win so big so quickly? Much of the answer can be found in the almost incredible lack of Arab planning, coordination and communications. Despite their swift defeat in 1956, this time the Arabs seemed to expect a long, leisurely war of attrition. Though two squadrons of Algerian MIG-21s arrived, they were a fatal 24 hours too late because Egyptian commanders had failed to instruct them which airbase to head for. In retrospect, it might have been even worse if they had arrived in time for the Israeli raids. Five planeloads of Moroccan troops actually...
...hide from ourselves the fact that we have met with a grave setback in the last few days." With that uncharacteristic bit of understatement, Gamal Abdel Nasser began his accounting to Egypt and the Arab world in a radio and television address the day after his cease-fire with Israel. Nasser went on to assert that, of course, Israel alone could never have defeated the united legions of Arabia: the U.S. and Britain must have helped. And then his despairing and disbelieving followers heard Nasser announce his resignation from "every official post and every political role." He was, he said...
...Jordan and the Baathist regime in Syria can do as well in the wake of disaster remains to be seen. Hussein, unshaven and haggard in battle dress after three days without sleep, made his own public reckoning. But it was the plain speaking of a candid and courageous man. Israel had won "with overwhelming strength," he said, adding, his eyes glistening, "I hope people all over the world will recognize the efforts this country made to defend its soil...