Throughout the war the Egyptian media under President Gamal Abdel Nasser had been falsely reporting military victories against Israel. But on June 9th, Nasser could no longer hide the truth. He appeared on national television, and while primarily blaming the US and Britain for providing Israel with massive military support – which was a false accusation – he admitted the defeat of the Egyptian army, and resigned his office. But, after receiving an outpouring of Egyptian publi
Looking down on the Old City of Jerusalem from its strategic vantage point on Mount Scopus, the Israeli Defense Force was preparing to strike the Jordanians. For the last 19 years Jerusalem had been divided. In the 1948 War of Independence, Jordan had captured the eastern part of the city, including the Old City and the Temple Mount, the location of the ancient Jewish Temples and Judaism’s holiest site. Under Jordanian rule, Jews were evicted from the Jewish Quarter, synagogu
Israel had succeeded in destroying two thirds of the Egyptian air force just the day before. Now, on June 6, the Israeli Defense Force engaged Egyptian tanks and troops in the Sinai. In another remarkable feat, Israel defeated Egypt in the desert, despite being outnumbered three-to-one. Egypt, seeing the extent of their loss, retreated, leaving the Sinai Peninsula in Israel’s hands. By noon the next day, Israel would control the port at Sharm El-Sheikh, reopening the sea lane
In the early morning of June 5th, Israel launched a preemptive aerial strike on Egyptian air force bases in response to Egypt’s ongoing provocations. Every military jet in the Israeli Air Force, except for 12, took off, flying low to avoid radar detection and observing complete radio silence. They bombed and incapacitated the runways of 11 Egyptian air force bases, as well as the aircrafts on the ground. In just four hours, Israel demolished two thirds of the entire Egyptian
By late May, Egyptian President Nasser’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops in the buffer zone along Israel’s border was an unambiguous threat to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol responded cautiously that Israel would not initiate hostilities as long as Egypt refrained from closing the international waterway leading to Israel’s southern port - the Straits of Tiran. Such an act would cut off Israel’s supply of oil and other vital resources, by blocking Israeli
1,934 dagen lang was er nooit een glimlach op haar gezicht. Het verdriet groeide dagelijks in haar ogen. ‘Er is geen plaats voor geluk in mijn leven’, zei Aviva Shalit vele keren in de vijf en een half jaar dat Gilad gevangen zat in de Gaza Strip.
Het moment dat dat de ‘deal’ over de vrijlating van Gilad was goedgekeurd verscheen er een enorme lach op het gezicht van zijn moeder, voor het eerst in al die jaren. Toen op 25 juni 2006 het nieuws over de kidnapping van Gilad het