Editing Six-Day War (section)

== Controversies ==
{{Main|Controversies relating to the Six-Day War}}

=== Preventative war vs war of aggression ===
{{Further|Preemptive war}}

At the commencement of hostilities, both Egypt and Israel announced that they had been attacked by the other country.<ref name=Quigley2005p163>{{Cite book|last=Quigley |first=John |title=The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective|url=https://archive.org/details/caseforpalestine00quig|url-access=limited|year=2005|publisher=Duke University Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-8223-3539-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/caseforpalestine00quig/page/n87 163]}}</ref> The Israeli government later abandoned its initial position, acknowledging Israel had struck first, claiming that it was a preemptive strike in the face of a planned invasion by Egypt.<ref name=Quigley2005p163/><ref name="BBC Panorama">{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7875000/7875655.stm |title=BBC Panorama |work=[[BBC News]] |date=6 February 2009 |access-date=1 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512172600/http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7875000/7875655.stm |archive-date=12 May 2011}}</ref> The Arab view was that it was unjustified to attack Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Story.aspx?sid=1662 |title=Egypt State Information Service |publisher=Sis.gov.eg |access-date=1 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123054519/http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Story.aspx?sid=1662 |archive-date=23 January 2012}}</ref><ref>[https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/cd0beba6a1e28eff0525672800567b2c?OpenDocument UN Security Council meeting 1347] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319194348/http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/cd0beba6a1e28eff0525672800567b2c?OpenDocument |date=19 March 2011 }} (5 June 1967)</ref> Many scholars consider the war a case of preventative war as a form of self-defense.<ref name="Szabo2011p147" /><ref>{{harvp|Quigley|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0zEi3qGWLFIC&pg=PA135 135–]}}. "Terence Taylor wrote in 2004...that 'many scholars' considered Israel to have 'conducted the (1967) action in anticipatory of self-defense'."</ref> The war has been assessed by others as a war of aggression.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Olson, R. W. |date=2013 |title=Quigley, John. The Six-Day War and Israeli self-defense: questioning the legal basis for preventive war |journal=Choice |volume=50 |issue=12 |pages=2312–2313 |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&u=anon~80f33a6c&id=GALE%7CA338216958&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=9c6a30eb |access-date=14 December 2023 |archive-date=17 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517182627/https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&u=anon~80f33a6c&id=GALE%7CA338216958&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=9c6a30eb |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Allegations of atrocities committed against Egyptian soldiers ===
It has been alleged that Nasser did not want Egypt to learn of the true extent of his defeat and so ordered the killing of Egyptian army stragglers making their way back to the Suez canal zone.{{Sfnp|Churchill |Churchill|1967 |p=179}} There have also been allegations from both Israeli and Egyptian sources that Israeli troops killed unarmed Egyptian prisoners.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bron |first=Gabby |title=Mass Graves |website=umassd.edu |url=http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/mideastaffairs/witness2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070219220611/http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/mideastaffairs/witness2.htm |archive-date=19 February 2007}}</ref><ref>Bar-Zohar, Michael 'The Reactions of Journalists to the Army's Murders of POWs', ''Maariv'', 17 August 1995.</ref>{{Sfnp|Prior|1999|pp=209–210}}{{Sfnp|Bar-On|Morris|Golani|2002|p=}}{{Sfnp|Segev|2007|p=374}}<ref>Fisher, Ronal 'Mass Murder in the 1956 War', ''Ma'ariv'', 8 August 1995.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Laub |first=Karin |title=Historians: Israeli troops killed many Egyptian POWs |url=https://apnews.com/article/25ac46caafc811c70c9367f04ef136fb |access-date=2021-12-24 |website=AP News |date=16 August 1995 |archive-date=8 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220608203246/https://apnews.com/article/25ac46caafc811c70c9367f04ef136fb |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Israel Reportedly Killed POWs in '67 War |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/08/17/israel-reportedly-killed-pows-in-67-war/ddf09333-2556-4c4a-b928-6a4614e31ab0/ |access-date=2021-12-24 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |author=Ibrahim, Youssef |title=Egypt Says Israelis Killed P.O.W.'s in '67 War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/21/world/egypt-says-israelis-killed-pow-s-in-67-war.html |work=The New York Times |date=21 September 1995 |access-date=12 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121001047/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/21/world/egypt-says-israelis-killed-pow-s-in-67-war.html |archive-date=21 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Allegations of military support from the US, UK and Soviet Union ===
There have been allegations of direct military support of Israel during the war by the US and the UK, including the supply of equipment (despite an embargo) and the participation of US forces in the conflict.{{Sfnp|Mansour|1994|p=89}}{{Sfnp|Green|1984|p={{page needed|date=December 2021}}}}<ref>{{Cite news |title=Envoys Say Nasser Now Concedes U.S. Didn't Help Israel |work=The New York Times |last=Smith |first=Hedrick |date=15 September 1967 |at=p.&nbsp;1, col.&nbsp;5, p.&nbsp;3, col.&nbsp;1}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Bowen|2003|p=89}}{{Sfnp|Phythian|2001|pp=193–194}} Many of these allegations and [[Arab conspiracy theories|conspiracy theories]]{{Sfnp|Shlaim|Louis|2012|pp=8, 53, 60, 75, 193, 199, 297}} have been disputed and it has been claimed that some were given currency in the Arab world to explain the Arab defeat.{{Sfnp|Podeh|Winckler|2004|pp=51–62}}
It has also been claimed that the Soviet Union, in support of its Arab allies, used its naval strength in the Mediterranean to act as a major restraint on the US Navy.{{Sfnp|Hattendorf|2000|p={{page needed|date=December 2021}}}}<ref name="bg1983">{{Cite news |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/663999751.html?FMT=ABS&date=Sep%2016,%201983 |title=McNamara: US Near War in '67 |date=16 September 1983 |work=The Boston Globe |page=1 |access-date=7 July 2017 |via=The Boston Globe Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130324193751/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/663999751.html?FMT=ABS&date=Sep%2016,%201983 |archive-date=24 March 2013}}</ref>

America features prominently in Arab conspiracy theories purporting to explain the June 1967 defeat. [[Mohamed Hassanein Heikal]], a confidant of Nasser, claims that President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] was obsessed with Nasser and that Johnson conspired with Israel to bring him down.{{Sfnp|Shlaim|Louis|2012|p=8}} The reported Israeli troop movements seemed all the more threatening because they were perceived in the context of a US conspiracy against Egypt. Salah Bassiouny of the Foreign Ministry, claims that Foreign Ministry saw the reported Israeli troop movements as credible because Israel had reached the level at which it could find strategic alliance with the United States.{{Sfnp|Shlaim|Louis|2012|p=60}}

During the war, Cairo announced that American and British planes were participating in the Israeli attack. Nasser broke off diplomatic relations following this allegation. Nasser's image of the United States was such that he might well have believed the worst. [[Anwar Sadat]] implied that Nasser used this deliberate conspiracy in order to accuse the United States as a political cover-up for domestic consumption.{{Sfnp|Shlaim|Louis|2012|p=75}} Lutfi Abd al-Qadir, the director of [[Egyptian Radio|Radio Cairo]] during the late 1960s, who accompanied Nasser to his visits in Moscow, had his conspiracy theory that both the Soviets and the Western powers wanted to topple Nasser or to reduce his influence.{{Sfnp|Shlaim|Louis|2012|p=199}}

=== USS ''Liberty'' incident ===
{{Main|USS Liberty incident}}

On 8 June 1967, [[USS Liberty (AGTR-5)|USS ''Liberty'']], a [[United States Navy]] [[ELINT|electronic intelligence]] vessel sailing {{convert|13|nmi|km}} off [[Arish]] (just outside Egypt's [[territorial waters]]), was attacked by Israeli jets and torpedo boats, nearly sinking the ship, killing 34 sailors and wounding 171. Israel said the attack was a case of mistaken identity, and that the ship had been misidentified as the Egyptian vessel ''El Quseir''. Israel apologized for the mistake and paid compensation to the victims or their families, and to the United States for damage to the ship. After an investigation, the U.S. accepted the explanation that the incident was an accident and the issue was closed by the exchange of diplomatic notes in 1987. Others, including the then [[United States Secretary of State]] [[Dean Rusk]] and [[Chief of Naval Operations]] [[Thomas Hinman Moorer|Admiral Thomas Moorer]], some survivors of the attack, and intelligence officials familiar with transcripts of intercepted signals on the day, have rejected these conclusions as unsatisfactory and maintain that the attack was made in the knowledge that the ship was American.<ref>{{Cite news |author=John Crewdson |date=2 October 2007 |title=New revelations in attack on American spy ship |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-liberty_tuesoct02,0,66005.story |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011020947/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-liberty_tuesoct02,0,66005.story |archive-date=11 October 2007 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=26 September 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Tim Fischer, [http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/six-days-of-war-40-years-of-secrecy/2007/05/26/1179601730257.html "Six days of war, 40 years of secrecy"] ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010074006/http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/six-days-of-war-40-years-of-secrecy/2007/05/26/1179601730257.html%26rct%3Dj%26frm%3D1%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds |date=10 October 2017}}). ''[[The Age]]'', 27 May 2007.</ref><ref>{{harvp|Quigley|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=0zEi3qGWLFIC&pg=PA93 93]}} Cf. [[Dean Rusk]], ''As I Saw it: A Secretary of State's Memoirs'', W. W. Norton, 1990, pp.&nbsp;386–388.</ref>