TH E WORLD

MIDDLE EAST The Quickest War No amount of warning, however shrill, ever quite prepares a people for the air-raid siren's scream. The first wail is always difficult to believe. In Cairo, last week, it scarcely disturbed the morning bustle of the bazaar. This was no drill. In stunning pre-dawn air strikes across the Arab world, Israeli jets all but eliminated Arab airpower--and with it any chance of an Arab victory. By Monday night, the end of the first day's fighting, some 400 warplanes of four Arab nations had been obliterated. Egypt alone lost 300, Syria 60, Jordan 35, Iran 15. The cost to Israel's 400-fighter air force: 19 planes.

In the Sinai Peninsula, as in the air, the Israeli tactics were based on surprise and speed. From Kerem Shalom in the north to El Kuntilla in the south, Israeli Centurion tanks, halftracks and field guns, plus convoys of infantrymen in sand-colored fatigues, pounded across from the Negev into Sinai in the blazing morning sunlight. Within two days, the Israelis had knocked out or captured 200 of Nasser's tanks, and were deep in Sinai.

At 11 a.m. on the first day of battle in response to a plea from Nasser, Jordan opened a second front. Mortar and artillery shells rumbled down from the heights of Arab Jerusalem to splatter the Israeli sector. No part of the city was spared. Shells hit near Premier Eshkol's home and in the garden of The King David Hotel.

As darkness descended, the Israelis moved to the attack. Two armored columns snaked out and around the Old City of Jerusalem. Within its ancient walls are nestled the holy sites of three world religions. By 10 a.m. the conquerors stood before the great boulders of the Wailing Wall, the only remnant of the Second Temple, that for 1,897 years has been the symbol of Jewish national hope--and despair. Said the tough commando leader who took the Wall: "None of us alive has ever seen or done anything so great as he has done today." And there by the Wall, he broke down and wept. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.