++++ And that blockade was never implemented. Egypt navy checked few ships, rest went straight on to the Israeli harbour.

Source : US department of state archive.

The war was fought because Nasser decided to cut off Israeli shipping between the Israeli port of Eilat and the Red Sea. He announced that any Israeli ship trying to navigate that waterway would be fired upon. The situation is similar to one in which your next door neighbor announces that he will shoot to kill anyone driving a car out of your driveway into the public street, including your wife or any member of your family. If the police refuse to do anything, what would you do? (The “police” at the time, i.e. the U.N, did do nothing.)

“Israel went to war because its military and political hawks wanted war and insisted that the Arabs were about to attack.”

No, as I said, they went to war because Nasser cut off Israel’s access to the Red Sea. By the way, Nasser gave a brilliant reason for his action. You see, he had just sent troops into Sinai, and ordered the U.N. peacekeepers out. Nasser cut off the Straits to Israeli ships because “It would have hurt the feelings of my soldiers to see the flag of the enemy” freely traversing the Straits. A dictator is, of course, understandably afraid to appear weak, especially to his soldiers. But cutting off another country’s shipping is a very risky gamble. And Nasser lost.

“I do not believe that Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent into Sinai on 14 May would not have been enough to unleash an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it.”

Nasser didn’t need a hot war. By cutting off Israeli shipping, he could slowly strangle Israel’s economy to death.

“the single most catastrophic happening was the refusal of the Security Council of the United Nations to condemn Israel as the aggressor.”

Remember that before the war, as soon as Nasser made the demand, the U.N. peacekeepers fled the Sinai. The U.N. was not so arrogant back then as to declare Israel the aggressor for opening the Straits again, which the U.N. deliberately had allowed to close in the first place.

“There might well have been a negotiated end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and a comprehensive peace within a year or two.”

I do not see how, given that the Arab attitude after the war consisted of the “three no’s”:
1. No recognition of Israel
2. No negotiations with Israel
3. No peace with Israel.
The U.N. declaring Israel the aggressor would have made the Arabs even less inclined to make peace. Why make peace with an aggressor?

“President Johnson, pre-occupied with the war in Vietnam, and mainly on the advice of those in his inner circle who were hardcore Zionists, turned back the clock of international order.”

Actually, Israel’s action helped save the rules of international order. Nasser’s actions were like those of a schoolyard bully: “I don’t like him, so I am going to use my whole gang to block all the exits so he can’t get onto the school bus and go home.” And if the victim actually fights back and wins, causing injury in the process, the bully goes to the principal the next day and complains that he was the VICTIM of bullying!

Nasser had blocked the Straits, violating another nation’s right to freedom of navigation. The U.N. did nothing to prevent this, nor did the Western democracies challenge Nasser’s action with force. But Israel did, showing the world that a small unpopular country still has rights.

“And that effectively created two sets of rules for the behaviour of nations – one set for all the nations of the world excluding only Israel, which were expected to behave in accordance with international law and their obligations of members of the United Nations; and one set for Israel, which was not expected to behave, and would not be required to behave, as a normal nation.”

And what was the situation before the war? Answer: One set for all the nations of the world excluding Egypt and its allies, that you may not legally interfere with another nation’s freedom of navigation UNLESS YOU ARE AT WAR; and one set for Egypt and its allies, that if you can get away with it you can do anything you like to an unpopular and small country like Israel.

“my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews”

In the 1930s, Zionism saved the lives of 200,000 Jews by providing a haven, at a time when nobody else wanted to take in any Jews. If I were one of those 200,000 I would not see how the people who saved my life (and the lives of my family) are my enemy.