Israel, Britian and France attacked Egypt in 67 and again by Israel in 73, in the first Egypt prevailed and in the second we regained our rightfull land thru the UN.
Mae2050, I have no idea what they teach you in Egyptian schools, but it looks suspiciously like Soviet school history. In 1967, Gamal Abdel Naser was preparing for an ATTACK. He officially declared that any Israeli ship trying to pass through Tirana straits will be shelled by coastal artillery, which was a direct violation of 1956 cease-fire agreement, which ruled that Tirana straits had to be open to all shipping. If you don't understand what this means, look at the map - it completely blockades Eilat, blocking Israel's access to Indian and Pacific oceans. He, along with other Arab leaders, also announced, in the clear, that he is going to destroy Israel.
On June 5, however, we struck first - and saying that Egypt "prevailed" in that war is nothing but propaganda, as you guys have lost your entire air force within several hours, and the entire Sinai peninsula within several days. The war lasted six days only, ending in complete defeat of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, and Israeli capture of Sinai peninsula, West Bank of Jordan river, and Golan Heights.
As for "again by Israel in 73", that's an outright lie. On October 6th, 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a joint attack against Israel that was prepared in such secrecy, that most Egyptian officers in the rank of
colonel didn't know about it until the morning of actual attack. It also "happened" to be on Yom Kippur, the Judgement Day, the holiest day of Jewish year, when IDF is at it's lowest state of alert - and unlike Egypt, that maintains one of the largest standing armies in the world, our standing army is very small, and we depend on reservists for our defense. In 1973, we barely managed to mobilize in time to contain Egypt and Syria's attack, and in the two week war, completely defeat them, pushing deep into Syria, and crossing Suez Canal, which resulted in complete surrounding and capture of Egyptian 3rd Army.
In 1978, however, US stepped in, as with Egyptians sitting on west bank of canal, and Israelis sitting on east, and waging a constant low intensity conflict, the canal was closed to shipping, and that was hurting international trade, so they arranged for Israel to give Sinai back to Egypt, in return for monetary compensation (provided by US - not Egypt - though now most have forgotten about it, and Americans are waving their "aid to Israel" like a flag).
the Suez Canal was built by egyptian slaves under the British Occupation.
More propaganda. The Suez Canal was a joint project of Britain, France, and Egypt - Egypt at the time was barely capable of digging a ditch, much less a canal between Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. Yes, Egypt supplied the workers, while Britain and France supplied the money, the equipment, and the
qualified, professional engineers - all of which simply didn't exist in Egypt. Later, Egypt went into international debt, and sold it's shares of Canal to other shareholders - Britain and France. However, in 1956, Naser looked and thought: "hey, British and French have this canal on our territory, and are making big bucks from it - but hey, it's our territory, our canal, never mind that we don't own it!" - and seized it, rightfully pissing off it's owners.
As for that article you linked, this has been discussed already on another board, and I'm not going to bother retyping what I said there, so I'll just post a
link.
