MIDDLE EAST HISTORY

Nasser's greatest defeat was the Six Day War. The Arab world's defeat by Israel resulted in the Israeli occupation of Syria's Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Palestine and, a heavy blow for Egypt in particular, Sinai. Above all, however, the fall of Jerusalem to Israeli hands, is still seen as the biggest shame associated with 1967 throughout the Arab world (Stephens, 187).

It is generally considered that Egypt initiated the crisis leading to the 1967 war by taking actions which forced the Israelis to plan a preventive war to avoid destruction Nasser planned of a three-way assault against Israel from Egypt, Jordan and Syria. A contrasting view of many Middle East specialists and Arab political leaders is that Israel instigated the crisis by fooling the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union. Soviet diplomats in turn led both Syria and Egypt to believe that Israel was massing troops to attack Syria, prompting Nasser to begin preparations to come to Syria's aid. President Nasser obviously overreacted in the

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litary inadequacies promoted following the 1967 defeat. The subsequent peace moves between Israel and Egypt, widely believed to have only been possible due to the events of 1973, are also part of the positive results of the war. Certainly, the rest of the Arab states have been taken far more seriously by the nations of the West after the 1973 oil embargo, which demonstrated that Arabs would act in unity and take action even to the point of economic harm for the good of their political cause (Mahmoud, Gado, 7-9). Peace, a fruit of the October victory, has provided Egypt with the opportunity to give enough attention to the development process and enabled Egyptians to feel a sense of stability and security after the long decades of a state of war with the Israelis. Unfortunately, this may well be unraveling as a result of the Haram al Sharif Intifada. Works Cited Heikal, Mohamed: Nasser: The Cairo Documents; London: New English Library, 1973. Love, Kennett: Suez: The TwiceFought War; New York: McGrawHill Book Company, 1969. Parker, Richard B.: The Politics of Miscalculation In the Middle East; Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1993. Mahmoud, Khaled; Gado, Soha: "After 25 years, October War is
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Approximate Word count = 2152
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)