Denial Runs From Egypt in 1967 to Iran Today

Wall Street Journal

02-07-2025

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been issuing victory tweets: 'The Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic.' 'The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the US's face.' 'The Iranian nation is victorious and will remain victorious by the grace of God.' It's reminiscent of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail,' in which the Black Knight taunts King Arthur even as the king cuts his limbs off one by one.
It's also familiar behavior from Israel's enemies. Perhaps the most notorious instance was in the 1967 Six Day War. State-controlled Radio Cairo continually claimed that Egypt was defeating Israel even after Israel had destroyed the Egyptian air force while the planes were parked and was in the process of taking over the Sinai Peninsula. Michael Oren's 'Six Days of War' lays out some of Radio Cairo's most farcical claims, including that 'our airplanes and our missiles are at this moment shelling all Israel's towns and villages,' that 'we have destroyed most of the Israeli planes and cut off radio contact with the infantry,' and that Egypt had taken over Israel's Sh'ar Yishuv. The claims were lies, but as a result of them, according to one Egyptian intelligence officer, 'the whole world thought our forces were on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.'
The false statements had real world effects. Israel had warned Jordan's King Hussein to stay out of the war. Hearing the false reports, he joined the hostilities and lost Jerusalem and the West Bank in the process. Egyptian crowds were bused into Cairo to celebrate the supposed victory that was already—unknown to them—a humiliating defeat.
In 1973's Yom Kippur War, the Egyptians and Syrians did better at the outset. Israeli overconfidence in the early days led one Israeli soldier to lament, 'We taught the Arabs how to fight and they taught us how to lie.' Yet the final results were the same—as was the response from Israel's enemies. The false claims continued, even as Israeli forces approached the outskirts of Damascus, having already won the Arabs' capitulation after surrounding and cutting off Egypt's third army. Egypt continued to celebrate its 'October victory,' and President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi still refers to the anniversary of that war as 'a day of pride and victory.' What it was in reality was a wake up call to Egypt's then-leader Anwar Sadat, who wised up and signed a peace treaty with Israel that remains in place to this day.