Israel has spent the years since 1948…

Israel has spent the years since 1948 in developing the arid country and training a reserve force of two hundred thousand men and women armed primarily with French weapons.

David Ben-Gurion, believing that the Arabs will never accept the existence of Israel except by force, seeks to inflict a mortal blow on the Egyptian regime.

Because Nasser threatens Western interests in the Suez Canal, Ben-Gurion enters into secret talks with Britain and France about the possibility of Israel striking at the Sinai Peninsula, while Britain and France move in on the Suez Canal, ostensibly to help protect Western shipping from combat.

Moshe Dayan quietly mobilizes all of Israel's mobile brigades.

The preparations for an Israeli invasion of the Sinai Peninsula, planned by Dayan, coincide with the Anglo-French decision to regain the Suez Canal from Egypt, the French having brokered a secret alliance with Israel and Britain.

Israeli war aims include the elimination of the Egyptian army as an offensive threat, neutralization of Palestinian bases in Gaza, and capture of the Strait of Tiran.

The Anglo-French goals are to secure the Suez Canal and possibly to topple Nasser and thus strike a blow at Arab radicalism.