Part IV History Segment - 1967 Six-Day War

From: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Famous Photo of Paratroopers at the Western Wall

     Hopes for another decade of relative tranquility were dashed with the escalation of Arab terrorist raids across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, persistent Syrian artillery bombardment of agricultural settlements in  northern Galilee, and massive military build-ups by the neighboring Arab states. When Egypt again moved large numbers of troops into the Sinai desert, ordered the UN peacekeeping forces (deployed for the past 10 years) out of the area, reimposed the blockade of the Straits of Tiran, and entered into a military alliance with Jordan, Israel found itself faced by hostile Arab armies on all fronts.

     As Israel's neighbors prepared to destroy the Jewish state, Israel appealed to its innate right of self-defense, launching a preemptive strike against Egypt in the South, followed by a counterattack against Jordan in the East and the defeating of Syrian forces entrenched on the Golan Heights in the North.

     At the end of six days of fighting, previous cease-fire lines were replaced by new ones, with Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights under Israel's control. As a result, the northern villages were freed from 19 years of recurrent Syrian shelling; the passage of Israeli and Israel-bound shipping through the Straits of Tiran was ensured; and Jerusalem, which had been divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule since 1949, was reunified under Israel's authority.

MYTH

“After the 1967 war, Israel refused to negotiate a settlement with the Arabs.” 

FACT

By the end of the war, Israel had captured enough territory to more than triple the size of the area it controlled. The victory enabled Israel to unify Jerusalem as well as capture the Sinai, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.  

Israel hoped the Arab states would enter peace negotiations and signaled to the Arab states its willingness to relinquish virtually all the territories it acquired in exchange for peace. As Moshe Dayan (Israeli soldier) put it, Jerusalem was waiting only for a telephone call from Arab leaders to start negotiations. 

Then in August 1967, Arab leaders adopted a formula of three noes: “no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel.”

From: JewishVirtualLibrary.org
Book by: Mitchell G. Bard