Nasser’s Peace: Egypt’s Response to the 1967 War with Israel

248 Pages·2017·2.33 MB·English

by  Michael Sharnoff

NASSER'S
PEACE
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NASSER'S
PEACE
Egypt's Response
to the 1967
l
War with Israel
Michael Sharnoff
•
Transaction Publishers
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Copyright © 2017 by Transaction Publishers
Transaction Publishers is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
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without prior permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries
should be addressed to Taylor & Francis, 711 Th ird Avenue, New York,
NY 10017, USA.
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National
Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2016048822
ISBN: 978-1-4128-6515-9
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on Transliteration xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. Nasser’s Pre-1967 Peace Perception 9
The Paradox of Nasser’s Pan-Arab Ideology
and Actions 10
The Gaza Dilemma 11
The Bandung Conference 12
The 1956 Suez War 12
Nasser’s Palestine Policy during the 1960s 15
The Road to War 19
2. Nasser’s 1967 War Defeat 27
Egyptian Attacks on Westerners and Jews 28
Nasser Resigns and the Collusion Myth 29
Nasser’s Toleration of the “Big Lie” 32
Nasser Resumes as President 35
The Chinese–Egyptian–Soviet Triangle 37
Israel’s Postwar Position 40
3. Nasser’s Responses to United Nations’ Proposals 49
Nasser Reshuffles His Cabinet 53
The Soviet Proposal 53
The American Proposal 55
The Albanian Proposal 57
Israel Annexes the Old City 58
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The Nonaligned Proposal 59
The Latin American Proposal 61
The Pakistani Proposal 62
UN Indecision 63
4. Clandestine Meetings at the United Nations 73
The Salah Nasir Note 75
The Sincerity of Negotiations 76
Gromyko’s First Series of Talks with Fawzi 80
Nasser–Podgorny Talks 82
Johnson–Kosygin Meeting 87
Private Egyptian Talks 88
Gromyko’s Second Series of Talks with Fawzi 90
5. Arab Summits and Clandestine Meetings 95
The Cairo “Little Summit” 100
A Potential Diplomatic Breakthrough? 102
Nasser–Malik Talks 103
Boumedienne and Aref Travel to Moscow 105
The Revised American-Soviet Draft Resolution 107
Reactions to Nasser’s Alleged Diplomatic
Breakthrough 108
6. Nasser’s Palestine Policy, Khartoum, and
Tito’s Proposal 113
The Arab League Khartoum Summit 115
Khartoum Results: A Victory for Conservatives
or Radicals? 119
Tito’s Peace Proposal 121
7. Nasser’s British Strategy 131
Nasser’s Meeting with Sir Dingle Foot 134
The Nasser–Beeley Meeting 138
Nasser’s British Policy: Sincere or a Ploy? 142
8. United Nations Deliberations and Private
Party Negotiations 147
Ashraf Ghorbal’s Meeting with Richard Parker 152
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Nasser’s Meeting with Siddiqui 153
Mahmoud Riad’s Meeting with Robert Anderson 156
Vasili Kuznetsov’s Meeting with Riad 157
Vladimir Vinogradov’s Talks with Nasser 157
9. Nasser’s Meeting with Robert Anderson 163
Egyptian and Lebanese Accounts of the Meeting 164
Anderson’s Account of the First Meeting
with Nasser 165
Anderson’s Account of the Second Meeting
with Nasser 171
10. Nasser and UN Resolution 242 179
Mahmoud Riad’s November 9 Address to the
Security Council 183
Muhammad Heikal’s Commentary 184
The British and Soviet Draft Resolutions 186
UN Resolution 242 187
Nasser’s Speech to the National Assembly 189
The Proposed Rabat Summit and the
Jarring Mission 193
Toward a War of Attrition 195
Conclusion 203
Bibliography 213
Index 229
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Acknowledgments
I am greatly indebted to the following individuals for their advice
and assistance: Efraim Karsh, Rory Miller, Michael Kerr, Jehan Sadat,
Linda L. Woolridge, Doron Avi-Ad, Israel Gershoni, Miladin Milošević,
Bruno Derrick, Ian Strawbridge, Lynsey Robertson, Mike Walker,
Youssef Ziedan, Reem Saad, Khaled Fahmy, Judith Vera, Luisa Parrado,
Fred Burchsted, Bradley L. Schaff ner, Mark Kramer, Harold M. Leich,
Joel Gordon, John Buchtel, Scott S. Taylor, Lynsey Robertson, Ella
Molenaar, and Kamel Labidi.
I am especially grateful to the staff at the Maughan Library, the Brit-
ish Library of Political and Economic Science, the School of Oriental
and African Studies Library, the British Library, Th e National Archives,
the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the National Archives
at College Park, Maryland.
Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends for all their love and
support. Any errors in the fi nal manuscript, needless to say, are mine
alone.
ix
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