Had the Arabs Won the 6th Day War, Then What?
Reader comment on item: [Michael Oren's] "Six Days of War"

Submitted by Joe Levi (United States), Jun 6, 2002 at 14:53

It is often said that had Hitler won WW2, our Western civilization as we know it would not exist. And Hitler was that close to winning the war. A few less mistakes by him, and even perhaps an accomodation with the Jews of Germany (rather than destroying them), would certainly have resulted in a stronger, nuclear armed Germany. We must remember that thanks to so many Jewish nuclear and chemical scientists (both American, German and Austrian), we develped the atomic bomb first.

I shudder to think what the course of history would have been had Hitler given more priority to the making of the bomb (he was already working on it)

Similarly, I'm always fascinated by what would have occurred had Israel NOT sent those few hundred planes in a 92 minute flight to bomb the Egyptian airforce while still parked on the bomb, its crews resting from a just completed exercise?

Assuming our State and Defense Departments were wrong in predicting that an Israeli offensive would result in defeating its enemies within one week, how would the Middle East have changed?

We must remember that Israel was surrounded by over 100,000 Egyptians, deployed near it's borders, that there were pacts between Egypt and Syria, and Jordan had probably the best trained Arab army. Additionally, we know that the more time being given to mobilize Arab armies from Algeria to Iraq, the more the destruction that certainly would have resulted in an Israeli defeat. We also cannot forget the Palestinian contribution to the effort against Israel.

I believe that after Israeli defeated the Arab armed forces, mobile gas vans were discovered in the desert. (I could be confusing this with the 73 war however). We can conjecture what those vans were to be used for?

After the Arab defeat, Israel made offers for peace to the Arab world, which were rejected. I wonder had the battle gone the other way, whether the Arabs would have made similar offers, assuming any Israeli was alive to receive them? But to be more current, many pro-Israeli commentators are often rebuked for bringing up history...as if history plays no part in the current crisis.

In fact, as I perceive this never-ending conflict, it's all about history. Certainly the Arab side never misses an opportunity to remind the world of every historical occurrance, from the "catastrophe" of Israeli's creation. to the 6th day war..and on and on and on.

The Israeli reaction to the murder of a few of it's policemen really paled in comparison to the Egyptian moves in the Sinai, the massive outpouring by Muslims in Arab and other capitals for "Jihad" and the military maneuvers by the Arab armies, not to forget the UN's terrible mistake in removing it's security thus paving the way for the eventuality of warfare.

If anything, Israel has hopefully learned that it must not ever depend on others' to protect it's rights. To do so, I believe, would result in it's destruction.

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