Discussion of The Six-Day War Between Arabs and Israelis

The "Six-Day War" between the Arabs and Israelis is also known as the "1967 Arab-Israeli War," the "Third Arab-Israeli War," and in Arabic, "an-Naksah" or "The Setback" (Six 1). The Arabs refer to the Six-Day War and "The Setback" for good reason. At the end of the war Israel has won possession of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, largely accomplished by out-powering the Arab air forces with their own (Six 1). Control of these areas remains a significant factor in the Arab-Israeli conflict that continues to this day. This analysis will discuss the personalities and events leading up to the Six-Day War and its impact on geopolitics of the time and to the present.

The main event precipitating the Six-Day War occurred in 1956 and is known as the Suez Crisis. The incident represented a military defeat for Egypt, but the nation won a political victory in that Israel, under heavy diplomatic pressure from the U.S. and U.S.S.R., was forced to withdraw its military presence in the Sinai Peninsula. After this war, Israel agreed to a UN peacekeeping force in the Sinai to keep the region a demilitarized zone and to "prevent Palestinian fedayeen guerillas from crossing the border into Israel" (Six 1). At this time, no Arab state had yet recognized Israel, while Syria was secretly funding guerrilla raids on Israel in the 1960s as part of its "people's war of liberation" (Six 1).

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s on territories won by Israel during the Six-Day War. The comments made by Nasser were in the wake of him ordering the UN Emergency Peacekeeping Force out of the Sinai. The provocation most responsible for the Six-Day War other than the Suez Crisis was the repeated Arab terrorist attacks on Israeli farms and villages. Syria continued the attacks with more frequency as Nasser continued spewing annihilation rhetoric in Israel's direction. After Syria attacked Israeli kibbutzim in the Golan Heights, Israel launched a retaliatory attack in April, 1967 (Bard 2). In what U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson labeled the "casus belli" for the war; in May of 1967 Egypt erected a blockade of the Straits of Tiran, effectively cutting Israel off from its trade routes with Asia and its oil supply from Iran (Bard 2). Israel had been surrounded by Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Syrian forces since the withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces. Fearing devastation if the Arabs attacked first, on June 5, 1967, Israel launched a preemptive surprise attack against Arab forces. Largely because of its superior Air Force, funded and supplied by France, six days later Israeli forces remained ready to march on Cairo, Damascus and Am

Category: History - D