[Jerusalem Post] Zalman Shoval - President Obama's speech at the UN, with its reference to ending "the occupation that began in 1967," implies, perhaps unintentionally, that Israel's occupation of the West Bank is the cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This clearly inverts cause and effect. Terrorist activities against Israel had started years before the "occupation," and the PLO, committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, was founded in 1964. On May 13, 1967, the Egyptian dictator Gamel Abdel Nasser announced that two Egyptian divisions would move into the Sinai Peninsula bordering on southern Israel - contrary to international agreements, U.S. commitments and UN guarantees. Shortly after, Cairo announced that it would block all shipping to the port of Eilat, Israel's only maritime outlet in the south, while Egyptian Mig21 war planes began flying over Israeli territory. Concurrently, Syrian and Iraqi forces were ordered to prepare for an assault on northern Israel. On May 30, King Hussein of Jordan signed a military agreement with Egypt's Nasser, including a Jordanian commitment to join Egypt in any war with Israel. Its "Arab Legion" was put under Egyptian command. The rest is history. Israel achieved complete victory in a war of legitimate self-defense against blatant aggression whose declared aim had been its obliteration. Successive American leaders declared that Israel should never be asked to go back to its former vulnerable borders. This is what 1967 is all about: not "ending" occupation, but making sure that Israel will never again be put in a situation like the one it faced in 1967. The writer is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
2009-10-09 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive