This book, exhaustively researched over many years by the authors, carefully elucidates the heretofor unknown but seminal role of the Soviet Union in the genesis of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
In brief, the author's hypothesis is that the USSR, by a campaign of incitement and disinformation (such as informing Syria of the non-existant massing of Israeli troops on the Northern Frontier) fomented an incidiary situation with the deliberate attempt to start an Arab-Israeli war. Why? The USSR was constitutionally opposed to the possession of nuclear weapons by the Israelis. US and Soviet intelligence services estimated that completion of a deliverable nuclear device by Israel was immenent. Soviet overflights of the Dimona reactor (using the MiG-25 "Foxbat") were part of a coordinated plan for a combined sea (amphibious), air and land campaign integrating Soviet armed forces with those of it's Arab allies to demolish the reactor and ultimately to destroy the Israeli State.
While Soviet involvement was never a secret, the conventional line is that the USSR exercised a "restraining" role vis-a-vis it's Arab allies (the short-lived "United Arab Republic" and, to a lesser extent, Jordan). The authors of this book convincingly demonstrate that the Soviets took a diametrically opposite approach: instigating the conflict, promising military, logistical and diplomatic support and encouraging aggression.
As is well known, the proximate causes of the conflict were the removal of the United Nations Observer force from the Sinai, closure of the Strait leading to Eilat (violating UN "freedom of the sea" resolutions and international law) and, not incidentally, a massive influx of Soviet arms and advisors. This and other aspects have been dealt with by many other authors (beginning with the Churchills and, more recently, by Michael Oren in "Six Days of War"). This book concentrates on the Soviet role and, as a result, assumes some background knowledge of the conflict.
Perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of the book is the explanation of the Israeli attack on the US "spy ship" the "Liberty". This action was attributed by the authors to confusion by Israeli radar monitoring: by their explanation, Israeli equipment detected a rapidly moving (~28 knots) ship which they assumed to be a Soviet war vessel. This ship was in relatively close proximity to the "Liberty". As the entire US Sixth Fleet had, in response to Soviet and Arab allegations of US participation in military actions with the Israelis, withdrawn by hundreds of miles from the vicinity with the sole exception of the "Liberty", the potential for a mistake was high. Some conspiracy theorists allege that the ship was deliberately attacked by the Israelis to thwart US interference in further military actions: the authors show that there were National Security Agency linguists abord, but they were all experts in Russian and Arabic; none spoke Hebrew. Given this finding, the conspiracy angle becomes less enticing. The attack appears to have occurred for this reason and (albeit hard for some to accept) a stupid blunder by the Israelis and by the Americans, as well.
The book was difficult to read: it is written as a factual exposition and has none of the novelistic style that entices a casual reader. There are exhaustive references and a mountain of minute detail, all of which support the author's premises, but do little to ease the burden of the reader.
In summary, this is a fine journalistic work and provides a firm basis for further research. Ultimate clarification will depend upon release of still-classified documents from US and Russian archives. Some elements may never be confirmed, as the USSR Politburo often cloaked important decisions in propaganda and sometimes did not record them at all. Nonetheless, the book is convincing and worth attention from any student of the Middle East and it's apparently incessant wars.
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