In tandem with the military preparations, consultations and estimates of the situation were carried in the Government, in the Defense Ministerial Committee and in the General Staff. On May 22, the Defense Ministerial Committee voted to regard the closure of the Tiran Straits to Israeli shipping, as a Casus Belli.
US President, Lindon Johnson, requested the Israeli Government to allow him some diplomatic leverage to put an end to the Egyptian naval blockade.
In response to Johnson's request, in the Government deliberations, some ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, Levy Eshkol, supported the continuance of diplomatic efforts, thus postponing the war.
On May 28, on his return from Washington, Foreign Minister, Aba Eban, reported to the government that the US president requested Israel to avoid initiating a war, to allow him to solve the crises via the UN's Security Council, and by convincing other states to break the blockade.
In consultations carried that same day in the General Staff, with the participation of the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, the deputy Prime Minister, and IDF Generals, some of the last spoke derisively about the "impotence" of not going to war.
Mr. Eshkol, succeeded in convincing all present that Israel should exhaust all diplomatic efforts before launching a war.
However, the prolong mobilization of the reserve forces weighted heavily on Israel's economy, therefore some of them were demobilized.
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