Soviets prepare to bomb Israel

As Israel routs its Syrian enemies, Moscow feels compelled to intervene

With the Syrians in retreat, a new and – to the Soviet Union – intolerable prospect now revealed itself: the Israelis might have Damascus in their sights.

Soviet grandee Alexei Kosygin contacted Washington and told the Americans: “A very critical moment has arrived which forces us, if military actions are not stopped in the next few hours, to adopt an independent decision… These decisions may bring us into a clash, which will lead to a grave catastrophe… We propose that you demand from Israel that it unconditionally cease military action in the next few hours.”

As Israeli jets flew over Damascus, Soviet forces prepared to bomb Israel. Eventually, US president Lyndon Baines Johnson, alongside the UN, forced Israel to halt its forces short of the Syrian capital.

At one stage, Israel’s foreign minister, Abba Eban, called Eshkol and got his wife on the line. She told her husband: “Eban wants you to stop the war because he can’t stand the pressure from the United Nations.” At 6.30pm, a ceasefire went into effect.

For the cost of fewer than 1,000 dead, Israelis troops were now 31 miles from Amman, 38 miles from Damascus and 69 miles from Cairo. This victory gave Israel a military solution to the political problems of its legitimacy. Humiliated, the Arabs refused to accept the defeat of 1967, Israelis settled the newly occupied lands and the Palestinians resisted. The result was another conflict – the 1973 Yom Kippur War – and a legacy of acrimony that continues to plague the Middle East today.