1967, East Jersusalem Holds

June 1967, Ahmed's House:


Captain Ahmed Al Popovi was physially, spiritually and mentally exhasusted. He barely noticed the two Israeli bodies in the shattered room. For nine days he and his dwindling unit had fought off continous Israeli attacks with desperate frenzy. After their counter attack from the second to the first floor, Ahmed's men were now in possession of the entire house again. In two weeks of combat, a strange alliance of Jordanian regulars, Palestinian para military units, and a motley crew of armed civilans including Christians, secular leftists and bright eyed Islamacists with green banners had turned East Jerusalem and other West Bank towns into Stalingrads.

Whether it was due to a miracle as the surviving Islamacists and the more devote Christians proclaimed, or due to the excellent advance preperations and the fact that the solid granite buldings made natural fortifications as Ahmed was inclined to believe, the Arabs were standing tall in East Jersusalem.

Israeli Headquarters:

The staff meeting yeield no solutions. Israeli units were triumphant in the Sinai, Gaza and the Golan Heights. The West Bank, however, was different. Israeli advances in East Jersusalem and other key West bank towns were measured in yards. In East Jerusalem, the latest Israeli effort towards the strategic Al Aqsa Mosque using satchel charges had just been stopped (again). Now the local commander was urgently requesting flamethrowers.

Sure, Israeli armour would eventually control the open areas and elite infantry being brought in would eventually reduce the fortified towns and villages, but the second action was going to take weeks or more. Meanwhile, international pressure and Israeli casualties were soaring....

What happens next:

-Do the Israelis ignore the pressure and their soaring casualties and capture East Jersusalem and other key towns?

-Do the Arabs keep control of the West bank, or a large portion of it?

-What happens in 1973 and beyond?
 
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Jordan, IIRC, wanted simply to capture enough Israeli territory/ cause enough military casualities that they could get Status Quo Ante Bellum.
 
Where the hell is the israeli air force? why the hell is Israel not just bombard the defenders into submission?
 
Where the hell is the israeli air force? why the hell is Israel not just bombard the defenders into submission?

The Israeli arforce is flying around, but cant offer any easy solutions.

1967 was way before the days of precision munitions. Not only would mass bombardment kill alot of civilians and damage holy sites, but as Stalingrad and Monte Cassino demonstrated, rubbled buildings (especially those made of granite and not bamboo) are even more beneficial to determined defenders than intact ones.
 
Based on the forces available to Jordan and the military reality, including lack of existing fortifications and Jordan's two armored brigades being shattered at the start of hostilities due to an Egyptian imbecile* ordering both to make unnecessary movements in broad daylight knowing that the Israeli Air Force controlled the skies there isn't the slightest chance of East Jerusalem holding out, let alone an entire list of other towns.




*The appointment of the Egyptian in question was just a part of the price Jordan had to pay for joining the alliance and was a special point of anger in King Hussein's book on the war.
 
Based on the forces available to Jordan and the military reality, including lack of existing fortifications and Jordan's two armored brigades being shattered at the start of hostilities due to an Egyptian imbecile* ordering both to make unnecessary movements in broad daylight knowing that the Israeli Air Force controlled the skies there isn't the slightest chance of East Jerusalem holding out, let alone an entire list of other towns.

I agree, and would add that the Civil Government of East Jerusalem had made NO plans for war, that had NO medical or food stock piles, dug no bunkers, no stand bags, no evacuation plans, so the idea of armed civilans of the city doing anything is.... well not in line with the reality on the ground.
 
I agree, and would add that the Civil Government of East Jerusalem had made NO plans for war, that had NO medical or food stock piles, dug no bunkers, no stand bags, no evacuation plans, so the idea of armed civilans of the city doing anything is.... well not in line with the reality on the ground.

In my alternative scenario, the leadership of East Jerusalem and various key other towns do make advanced preperations. Please note, the advanced preperations would not have to be comprehensive. In street fighting, even modest advance preperations can be leveraged alot by determined defenders.
 
Cryptic...

1) The Israeli spy network would be fully aware of any such preparations.

2) East Jerusalem and other municipalities can not enact their own defensive preparations or private armament plans nor would such be tolerated by the Jordanian government which put down an uprising on the West Bank in the 1950s quite harshly. These preparations simply can not exist.

3) For Jordan to assume that an alliance of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and perhaps other nations is so outclassed by Israel that Jordan should start defensive preparations at once makes little sense. Making even less sense is joining the alliance at such a late date, as Jordan did, and as for actually entering the war if you expect your enemy to win...

4) Retreating into a handful of towns ensures that Israel takes the vast bulk of the West Bank and will then destroy or capture the Arab Legion. There is no chance that King Hussein or the Jordanian government will ever accept a plan which actually requires the probable loss of the national army.
 
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