Waiting period (Six-Day War)
Encyclopedia
The waiting period was a 3-week interval in the history of the State of Israel, May 15 - June 5, 1967, between the Egypt
ian crossing of the Suez Canal
into the Sinai Peninsula
and the outbreak of the Six-Day War
.
demanded that the United Nations
emergency force of 4,000 men in Sinai and in the Gaza Strip
withdraw. Despite efforts from Abba Eban
, the UN forces did evacuate its troops a few days later. Israel military commentators and political officials nevertheless believed that Egypt would not open a front against Israel, due to its involvement in the North Yemen Civil War
.
However, when Nasser declared that his forces were withdrawing from Yemen and making their way to Sinai, Israel drafted every fit man, which led to an economic paralyzation. No emergency was felt on the Jordanian border. Tourists kept crossing the Mandelbaum Gate
, although there were reports of Jordanian Legion forces moving from Amman
to towards Judea and Samaria
.
Meanwhile, Egyptian forces moved into Sharm e-Sheikh and closed the Straits of Tiran
to passage of Israeli ships, as well as strategic materials delivered to Israel by non-Israeli ships. Israel considered this a Casus belli
. Nasser's move was supported by Moscow
, while the United States
warned both Israel and Egypt not to take military action. Speaking before the Knesset
, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol
tried to calm the situation by assuring the Arab states that Israel was not seeking war. Still, Israel continued to prepare for war.
Israeli scholar Avner Cohen
has argued that this period was also crucial to Israel's nuclear policy, and that the anxiety led Israel to advance towards "operational readiness" of its nuclear option.
calling for an emergency government. Old rivals David Ben-Gurion
and Menachem Begin
met in Sde Boker
, where Begin asked Ben-Gurion to join Eshkol's government. Although Eshkol's Mapai
party initially opposed the widening of its government, it eventually changed its mind.
On May 23, chief of general staff Yitzhak Rabin
met with Ben-Gurion to ask for reassurance. Ben-Gurion, however, accused him of putting the country in mortal jeopardy by mobilizing the reserves and openly preparing for war against a coalition of Arab states, saying that at the very least, Rabin should have obtained the support of a foreign power as he himself had done during the Sinai Campaign 11 years earlier. Rabin was shaken by the meeting and took to his bed for 36 hours, in what became known as the 'nicotine poisoning' incident. Rabin turned to Ezer Weizman
and asked him to replace him as Chief of Staff. Weizman refused, saying that it would be a severe blow to the IDF.
Meanwhile, Eban went to the United States and met three times with Secretary of State
Dean Rusk
. However, Washington
announced that it would intervene on Israel's behalf only if the USSR joined the fighting. President of the United States
Lyndon B. Johnson
asked Israel not to start a military operation, promising to provide Israel with oil.
On May 29, Haaretz
newspaper wrote in its editorial that "Mr. Eshkol is not built to be the prime minister and the security minister in the current situation". Eshkol spoke in the Knesset and tried to calm the public that "it is reasonable to expect that the states that support in the principle of the freedom of sailing, will do and will coordinate an efficient action in order to ensure that the straits and the bay will be open to the passage of the ships of all the nations without discrimination". But the internal pressure continued. On June 1, Eshkol handed over the security portfolio to Moshe Dayan
. Gahal
representatives Menachem Begin
and Yosef Sapir
joined the government and were appointed ministers without portfolio
. It was the first unity government established in the State of Israel, and in this time was called Memshelet Likud Leumi. Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv
and Jerusalem, people began digging trenches and filling sandbags.
On June 2, Eshkol convened the security cabinet along with the IDF's General Staff at the Tel Aviv headquarters. Opposition to an attack came from Mapai's Zalman Aran
and the NRP's Haim-Moshe Shapira
, who said "I am ready to fight but not to commit suicide." Major-General Motti Hod tried to convince them that an Israeli Air Force
attack is necessary. Moshe Peled
wondered why Israel is waiting, while Major-General Ariel Sharon
said "IDF forces are more prepared than they ever were" to "totally destroy the Egyptian forces". Eshkol remained unconvinced.
On June 4, a cabinet session now led by Dayan, decided to embark on a war. On June 5, at 7:45 AM, the war erupted
.
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian crossing of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
into the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
and the outbreak of the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , 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 , Jordan, and Syria...
.
Early military moves
On May 17 Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
demanded that the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
emergency force of 4,000 men in Sinai and in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
withdraw. Despite efforts from Abba Eban
Abba Eban
Abba Eban was an Israeli diplomat and politician.In his career he was Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations...
, the UN forces did evacuate its troops a few days later. Israel military commentators and political officials nevertheless believed that Egypt would not open a front against Israel, due to its involvement in the North Yemen Civil War
North Yemen Civil War
The North Yemen Civil War was fought in North Yemen between royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen and factions of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1962 to 1970. The war began with a coup d'état carried out by the republican leader, Abdullah as-Sallal, which dethroned the newly crowned Imam...
.
However, when Nasser declared that his forces were withdrawing from Yemen and making their way to Sinai, Israel drafted every fit man, which led to an economic paralyzation. No emergency was felt on the Jordanian border. Tourists kept crossing the Mandelbaum Gate
Mandelbaum Gate
Mandelbaum Gate is a former checkpoint between Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem, just north of the western edge of the Old City along the Green Line...
, although there were reports of Jordanian Legion forces moving from Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
to towards Judea and Samaria
Judea and Samaria
Judea and Samaria Area is the official Israeli term roughly corresponding to the territory usually known outside Israel as the West Bank and to the Israeli settlements there that are not governed as part of Jerusalem.-Terminology:...
.
Meanwhile, Egyptian forces moved into Sharm e-Sheikh and closed the Straits of Tiran
Straits of Tiran
The Straits of Tiran , are the narrow sea passages, about wide, between the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas which separate the Gulf of Aqaba from the Red Sea...
to passage of Israeli ships, as well as strategic materials delivered to Israel by non-Israeli ships. Israel considered this a Casus belli
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
. Nasser's move was supported by Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, while the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
warned both Israel and Egypt not to take military action. Speaking before the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol
Levi Eshkol
' served as the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death from a heart attack in 1969. He was the first Israeli Prime Minister to die in office.-Biography:...
tried to calm the situation by assuring the Arab states that Israel was not seeking war. Still, Israel continued to prepare for war.
Israeli scholar Avner Cohen
Avner Cohen
Avner Cohen is writer, historian, and professor, and is well known for his works on nuclear weapons. Cohen received a B.A. in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University in 1975. He went on to study at York University where he received an M.A. in Philosophy in 1977 and four years later earned a Ph.D....
has argued that this period was also crucial to Israel's nuclear policy, and that the anxiety led Israel to advance towards "operational readiness" of its nuclear option.
Political moves
Calls were growing in Jerusalem for unity government, with the National Religious PartyNational Religious Party
The National Religious Party ) was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement. Formed in 1956, at the time of its dissolution in 2008, it was the second oldest surviving party in the country after Agudat Yisrael, and was part of every government coalition until 1992...
calling for an emergency government. Old rivals David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
and Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
met in Sde Boker
Sde Boker
Sde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, it falls under the jurisdiction of Ramat HaNegev Regional Council.-History:...
, where Begin asked Ben-Gurion to join Eshkol's government. Although Eshkol's Mapai
Mapai
Mapai was a left-wing political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in 1968...
party initially opposed the widening of its government, it eventually changed its mind.
On May 23, chief of general staff Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
met with Ben-Gurion to ask for reassurance. Ben-Gurion, however, accused him of putting the country in mortal jeopardy by mobilizing the reserves and openly preparing for war against a coalition of Arab states, saying that at the very least, Rabin should have obtained the support of a foreign power as he himself had done during the Sinai Campaign 11 years earlier. Rabin was shaken by the meeting and took to his bed for 36 hours, in what became known as the 'nicotine poisoning' incident. Rabin turned to Ezer Weizman
Ezer Weizman
' was the seventh President of Israel, first elected in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. Before the presidency, Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force and Minister of Defense.-Biography:...
and asked him to replace him as Chief of Staff. Weizman refused, saying that it would be a severe blow to the IDF.
Meanwhile, Eban went to the United States and met three times with Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Dean Rusk
Dean Rusk
David Dean Rusk was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk is the second-longest serving U.S...
. However, Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
announced that it would intervene on Israel's behalf only if the USSR joined the fighting. President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
asked Israel not to start a military operation, promising to provide Israel with oil.
National unity government
On the evening of May 28, Eshkol gave a radio address to the nation. During the preparation of the speech several versions were drafted after Eshkol had proofread it. When he reached the paragraph in which a correction was made, and the words "withdrawing forces" were changed to "moving forces," Eshkol began to hesitate, not understanding that a correction was made. The entire country heard him stammer in front of the live microphone. This address became known as the "stammer address".On May 29, Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
newspaper wrote in its editorial that "Mr. Eshkol is not built to be the prime minister and the security minister in the current situation". Eshkol spoke in the Knesset and tried to calm the public that "it is reasonable to expect that the states that support in the principle of the freedom of sailing, will do and will coordinate an efficient action in order to ensure that the straits and the bay will be open to the passage of the ships of all the nations without discrimination". But the internal pressure continued. On June 1, Eshkol handed over the security portfolio to Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan
Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. The fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces , he became a fighting symbol to the world of the new State of Israel...
. Gahal
Gahal
Gahal , lit. Herut-Liberals Bloc) was the major right-wing political faction in Israel led by Menachem Begin from its founding in 1965 until it merged into Likud in 1973.-Background:...
representatives Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
and Yosef Sapir
Yosef Sapir
Yosef Sapir was an Israeli politician and Knesset member of the 1st to 7th Knessets. He served as head of the General Zionists and was a founding member of the Gahal party....
joined the government and were appointed ministers without portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
. It was the first unity government established in the State of Israel, and in this time was called Memshelet Likud Leumi. Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and Jerusalem, people began digging trenches and filling sandbags.
On June 2, Eshkol convened the security cabinet along with the IDF's General Staff at the Tel Aviv headquarters. Opposition to an attack came from Mapai's Zalman Aran
Zalman Aran
-Biography:Aran was born Zalman Aharonowitz in 1899 in Yuzovka in the Russian Empire , and received a religious education in a heder. He later studied agriculture in Kharkov. In his youth, he was active in Tze'irei Zion, and in 1917 became a member of the "Self-Defense Organization Committee" of...
and the NRP's Haim-Moshe Shapira
Haim-Moshe Shapira
Haim-Moshe Shapira was a key Israeli politician in the early days of the state's existence. A signatory of Israel's declaration of independence, he served continuously as a minister from the country's foundation in 1948 until his death in 1970 apart from a brief spell in the late...
, who said "I am ready to fight but not to commit suicide." Major-General Motti Hod tried to convince them that an Israeli Air Force
Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force is the air force of the State of Israel and the aerial arm of the Israel Defense Forces. It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence...
attack is necessary. Moshe Peled
Moshe Peled
Moshe Peled may refer to:*Moshe Peled, an Israeli politician who served as a Knesset member between 1992 and 1999.*Moshe Peled, an Israeli general during the Yom Kippur War...
wondered why Israel is waiting, while Major-General Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
said "IDF forces are more prepared than they ever were" to "totally destroy the Egyptian forces". Eshkol remained unconvinced.
On June 4, a cabinet session now led by Dayan, decided to embark on a war. On June 5, at 7:45 AM, the war erupted
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , 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 , Jordan, and Syria...
.