Why Israel went to war in 1967

Dan Buckley’s article ‘Lifeblood of the World is Running Dry’ (Sept 5) suggests that a leading motivating factor in Israel’s participation in the 1967 Six Day War against three Arab armies was its desire to conquer water sources in the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

There is no basis for this claim. The war was forced on Israel by aggressive actions on the part of its Arab neighbours.

The precipitating factors in the war were: (1) the massing of 100,000 Egyptian troops and 100 tanks in the Sinai peninsula next to Israel’s border from May 16, 1967, by Egyptian president Gamal Nasser; (2) the expulsion of the UN Emergency Force from the Sinai by Nasser on May 19; (3) the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping by Nasser on May 22, which Israel had warned would be considered an act of war; (4) a barrage of inflammatory propaganda from Nasser, including his declaration on May 27 that his basic objective was the destruction of Israel, and his co-ordination of military operations with Syria.