ARAB–ISRAEL WAR (1967)

rapid and decisive victory by israel over the combined forces of egypt, syria, jordan, and iraq.

The third major military conflict between Israel and the Arab states, the Arab–Israel War of 1967 between Israel and Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, continued the century-old confrontation by Zionists and Arab nationalists over Palestine. The war erupted because of the failure to settle issues left unresolved by the wars of 1948 and 1956 and by the establishment of Israel in 1948. These issues included the problem of Palestinian refugees, disputes over water rights and the borders between Israel and the Arab states, the Middle East arms race, the rising tide of Arab nationalism, and the question of Israel's right to exist.

Buildup to War

Efforts to peacefully resolve the Arab–Israel conflict had been unsuccessful since 1948; despite the defeat of the Arabs in 1948 and 1956, the state of war continued and intensified many of the problems it had caused. As the number of Palestine refugees increased, their infiltration from the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip and from the West Bank of Jordan created incidents that led to repeated border skirmishes. In retaliation for Fidaʾiyyun raids, Israel attacked Egyptian and Jordanian outposts. Disputes over the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between Israel and Syria erupted in battles that escalated into air warfare in which six Syrian MIGs were shot down in early 1967. Israel's insistence on proceeding with land development in the DMZ and its unilateral diversion of the Jordan River headwaters following the failure by the Arabs to ratify the Eric Johnson Jordan Valley Development project led to the decision by the Arab League to begin its own water-diversion scheme. The conflict over the Jordan River was a major cause of rising tensions and repeated border incidents.

The confrontation between Israel and the Arab states became a factor in the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and the West, with the Soviet Union providing arms to Egypt, Syria, and Iraq and with France and the United States helping to supply Israel. Israel continued to resist demands by the Arabs that it permit the return of the Palestinian refugees and that it withdraw to the borders established in 1947 by the UN partition plan.

Hostility to Israel, intensified by the Palestinian refugee problem, increased nationalist fervor throughout the Arab world, and this sentiment was rallied by Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser. After the air battles between Syria and Israel in April, the Arab states (under Egyptian leadership) drew up a military pact to confront Israel. Egypt and Syria signed the agreement on 4 May, Jordan on 30 May, and Iraq on 4 June. The pact was backed by the Soviet Union, which supported Egypt's military buildup along the borders with Israel in Sinai, Gaza, and the Gulf of Aqaba. Border tensions between Israel and Egypt and Syria were intensified by false reports disseminated by the Soviet Union in Damascus and Cairo about an Israeli army buildup along the Syrian border and Israel's intent to attack Syria.

Responding to the challenge by Arab nationalists that he take a more confrontational position, in May Nasser ordered the withdrawal of the UN Emergency Force from its post along the Egyptian-Israeli border. Despite Egypt's heavy military involvement at the time in the Yemen civil war, Nasser deployed thousands of troops along the Israeli border and ordered a blockade of Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Aqaba.

The War and Its Aftermath

These actions created a sense of crisis in Israel, which led to the formation of a national unity government that for the first time included Menachem Begin and his right-wing Herut Party. Efforts to mediate the crisis through the United Nations and the Western nations failed, and proposals to form an international naval flotilla to test free passage in the Gulf of Aqaba were rejected. While negotiations to ease tensions were still being discussed in the United States, the Israel cabinet decided to initiate preemptive surprise strikes in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq, and early on 5 June 1967 Israeli warplanes bombed airfields in these countries. Simultaneously, Israeli forces attacked Gaza and quickly advanced into Sinai. After three days, the Egyptian army was routed, and Israel seized the Gaza Strip, Sinai up to the Suez Canal, and Sharm al-Shaykh at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba.

Shortly after Israel attacked Egypt, Jordanian forces fired on the Jewish sector of Jerusalem, despite Israel's warnings to King Hussein not to intervene in the fighting. However, Hussein entered the war as a result of mass pressure to join forces with Egypt in expectation of a decisive victory. Within three days, Israel captured Jordanian East Jerusalem and most of the West Bank. On 7 June the UN Security Council called for a cease-fire, which Syria refused to accept. Shelling of Israeli settlements in northern Israel led Israel to attack and then capture the Golan region, and Syria to accept a cease-fire on 10 June. In the six days of combat, Israel destroyed over 400 Arab aircraft (mostly on 5 June), destroyed or captured more than 500 tanks, and demolished 70 percent of Egypt's, Syria's, and Jordan's military equipment. Egyptian casualties included more than 11,000 men killed and 5,600 prisoners of war; Jordan lost 6,000 men; and Syria about 1,000. Israel lost more than 20 planes and 60 tanks, and 700 of its soldiers were killed.

As a result of the war, Israel occupied territory equivalent to more than three times its pre-1967 area, including the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, Jordan's West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The routing by Israeli forces and flight of some 300,000 Palestinian and Syrian civilians increased the refugee problem and further intensified Palestinian nationalism. The defeat led to the discrediting of most Arab leaders and to a new phase in the Palestine national movement, which ultimately resulted in the expansion of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Immediately after the war, efforts to establish peace were renewed through the United Nations and passage of Security Council Resolution 242, which called for Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories and peaceful resolution of the conflict. Resolution 242 became the basis of most attempts to settle the conflict. Although the Arab states passed a resolution at a summit meeting in Khartoum in September 1967 that called for no peace, no negotiations, and no recognition of Israel, they eventually moderated their demands for a settlement from a return to the 1947 UN partition borders to an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967—that is, to the 1949 armistice lines. They also no longer insisted on the repatriation of all refugees to their original homes within Israel.

In Israel, the war reinforced those militant nationalists who called for unification of the "whole land of Israel" and led to the formation of the Likud Party, which opposed withdrawal from territory acquired in June 1967. Arab East Jerusalem was for all practical purposes annexed by Israel soon after the war, and the Golan area was subjected to Israeli law in 1981. Israel's victory polarized politics between those who favored a peace settlement based on return of territory in exchange for secure borders and those who opposed any territorial concessions.

Victory in the 1967 War underscored Israel's position as the dominant military power in the region and strengthened the view of those who believed that territorial concessions were neither necessary nor advisable to resolve the Arab–Israeli conflict. This perception led to a program to establish a network of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza, and Sinai, and plans to integrate the economies of the conquered areas into Israel's economy. However, occupation and the imposition of military government in the territories stimulated Palestinian nationalist sentiment and led eventually to the Intifada in December 1987.

see also arab–israel conflict; begin, menachem; fidaʾiyyun; nasser, gamal abdel; palestine liberation organization (plo); united nations emergency force.

Bibliography

Gawyrch, George W. The Albatross of Decisive Victory: War and Policy Between Egypt and Israel in the 1967 and 1973 Arab–Israeli Wars. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Gordon, Haim, ed. Looking Back at the June 1967 War. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.

Haddad, William W.; Talhami, Ghada H.; and Terry, Janice L.; eds. The June 1967 War after Three Decades. Washington, DC: Association of Arab-American University Graduates, 1999.

Oren, Michael B. Six Days of War; June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Parker, Richard B., ed. The Six-Day War: A Retrospective. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996.

Don Peretz