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On June 8th 1967 at 2:00 PM local time, in the middle of the 1967 six day war, the intelligence ship USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli air and naval forces. By June 8th the fighting had ended on all fronts (2a). The Six Day War could have been the four day war. Instead, on the morning of June 9th Israeli forces initiated new actions against Syria. This attack lead to significant international intrigue. Both the US and USSR considered military intervention. If the US had had prior knowledge of Israeli plans, they may have stopped them. Israel took action to preempt this possibility.
Israel was apparently unsatisfied with the terms of its 7/20/1949 armistice with Syria. Prior to the 1967 War, in order to enhance its influence in the de militarized zones, it instigated border clashes with Syria. Moshe Dayan admitted in interviews that Israel was responsible for at least eighty percent of the border clashes with Syria between 1949 and 1967 (2b). On the morning of June 9th 1967, Israel instigated another border clash with no initial interference from the US.
One could argue that the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba was an act of war, but it was Israel that began preemptive military action in the four day war. Further, it was Israel that began military action in the two day war, and this action was in no way preemptive. Two thirds of Syria's air force had already been destroyed; Syria could offer no serious threat. It was precisely this weakness that, allegedly, lead to Dayan's final decision to attack (2c). I submit this decision was actually made well in advance of June 9th.
Both the Great Satan and the Little Satan are aggressor nations. Both have acted contrary to American ideals, but their interests are not always synonymous.
Sources:
(1) Several books and the BBC documentary USS Liberty : Dead in the Water argued that Liberty was attacked in order to prevent the U.S. from knowing about the forthcoming attack in the Golan Heights, which apparently would violate a cease-fire to which Israel's government had agreed. (Source: Wikipedia "USS Liberty incident")
(2) Primary Source: The Fifty Years' War Israel and the Arabs by Ahron Bregman and Jihan El-Tahri. This was the companion text to the 1998 PBS documentary of the same name.
(2a) p. 109 "On June 8 at 7 PM, Prime Minister Eshkol summoned his ministers. Just four days after the war had begun, the fighting had ended on all fronts: the Egyptian army was defeated, Jordan was crushed, and the West Bank and Jerusalem were in Israeli hands. The only Arab state, it seemed, that would survive the war intact was Syria."
(2c) p. 111"On June 9, at 3:30 AM, Mossad intercepted a cable sent from President Nasser to Syrian President Nur el Din Attasi. 'I think,' wrote Nasser, 'that Israel is interested in concentrating its forces against Syria, in order to crush the Syrian Army... I would like to advise you to end the hostilities and let U Thant, the Secretary General, know in order to keep the Syrian Army intact. We have lost this battle. God will be with us in the future.'When Dayan saw the cable, he came to the conclusion that the Syrians would not put up serious resistance and phoned David Elazar, who was in charge of forces in the north. Dayan asked, 'Are you ready for an attack?' Elazar replied, 'Yes, I am." Dayan said, 'So, go ahead and attack.'"
"...At the Dan Hotel, Eshkol was in for a shock when his wife called him to the phone. It was 8 AM, and Dayan was on the line. 'We have gone up to the Golan Heights,' Dayan said."
p. 315 In the 7/20/1949 Israeli-Syrian armistice agreement, Syria withdrew from the areas it had occupied allowing these to become demilitarized zones without either country having sovereignty. "...Although Israel signed on the dotted line, the Israelis were unhappy with this agreement and, during the nineteen years leading up to the 1967 war, took actions to expand their control over the demilitarized zones. These tactics were intended to provoke the Syrians, so that the resulting border clashes could be exploited to increase Israel's influence in the areas. Moshe Dayan, a former chief of staff and defense minister, admitted in a newspaper interview, 'It used to go like this: we would send a tractor into the demilitarized zone knowing, in advance, that the Syrians would start shooting. If they refrained we would instruct the tractor to keep on advancing until the Syrians lost their temper and started shooting. Then we would use our cannons and, later, also our air force.'"
(2b) p. 315 "While Syria was responsible for some border clashes, Dayan also admitted in the interview quoted above that Israel was responsible for at least eighty percent of the clashes between 1949 and 1967."
p.316 "In 1967, Israel went on the offensive, consolidated its hold on the demilitarized zones, and took the Golan Heights... Israel took action to turn the Golan Heights into de facto Israeli land by starting to build settlements on the Heights, and, from autumn of 1967 up to mid-1968, systematically destroying Arab houses and villages."
