The June 1967 War • 331he had done in 1956, Nasir ordered the Suez Canal blocked, but by taking
Sharm al-Shaykh, Israel broke the blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba.
As King Husayn, hoping to share in any Arab gains, had made a pact
with Nasir one week before the war that effectively put his army under
Egyptian command, Jordan plunged into the war by firing into Israeli sec¬
tions of Jerusalem. The IDF then invaded the northern part of the West
Bank and also the north side of Arab Jerusalem to secure Mount Scopus
(an Israeli enclave since the 1949 armistice) and to attack the Old City
from its eastern side. On 7 June the Israelis took the city, after fierce fight¬
ing, and prayed at the Western Wall for the first time in nineteen years.
Elsewhere on the West Bank Israeli forces drove back the Jordanians, un¬
der Husayn's direct command, in extremely tough combat. The Arabs ac¬
cused Israel of dropping napalm on Jordanian troops and of using scare
tactics to clear out some refugee camps and West Bank villages. Some
200,000 Arabs sought refuge across the Jordan River, and new tent camps
ringed the hills around Amman. Many Palestinians, after hearing promises
from the Arab radio stations that Israel would be wiped out and that they
would be allowed to return home, wondered why the Arab armies failed to
work together for the desired victory.
Syria was the least helpful. Owing to recent border clashes with Jordan,
the Syrians did nothing for Husayn until he was defeated. By then, Israel
could storm Syria's well-fortified positions on the Golan Heights—no easy
task—when no other Arab country could help the Damascus regime,
which had already called for a cease-fire. If Israel and Syria had not finally
agreed to stop fighting on 10 June, nothing would have stopped the Israelis
from marching into Damascus itself. A Palestinian historian concluded his
Modern History of Syria with the following: "Syria had often in history
marched under the banner of Islam to victory and glory; it had yet to prove
that it could do so under the banner of Arab nationalism."
One tragic incident during the war involved US military forces. On 8
June, a cloudless day, the US intelligence ship Liberty sustained repeated
attacks by Israeli aircraft and gunboats, killing 34 American sailors and
wounding 172. Israel claimed this was a case of mistaken identity, having
thought that the Liberty was an Egyptian freighter, although the ship was
clearly signed and flew an American flag. On the day of the attack, rescue
aircraft sent to aid the ship were called back on the command of President
Lyndon Johnson. A subsequent naval investigation took no testimony from
Liberty crew members. There has never been a congressional investigation,
and documents pertinent to the attack are still classified. Israel's motive
for attacking the ship remains unclear. Arab sources claim that the attack
was meant to cover up Israel's execution of Egyptian prisoners of war in