HISTORY 244 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Aerodrome, Time Attack, Moshe Dayan
10, The Six-Day War
I. Significance
● Two other rivalries that fed arab-israeli tension
○ Rivalry between different arab states
■ Competed w one another until egypt felt itself trapped by its own public
rhetoric
○ Rivalry btw soviet union and US
■ Soviets helped push the arabs into war
● Transformed the geography of the middle east
● In 1967
○ Israel was content w staying within their borders
○ But arab attack provided an incentive and opportunity to take additional territories
to strengthen defensive position
○ Israel took remaining 22%
○ After war was over, israel was no longer 9 miles wide
■ No longer vulnerable to getting cut in half
● Third clear cut israeli victory in 20 years
● Vanquished israels fear of being annihilate
● Transformed pal prospects
○ Looked for salvation in the arab states
○ Played role in precipitating war
○ Realized they had to stay on their own
○ After war began to create more independent org
○ Shift btw israel and arab states to arab and palestinians
■ This is how it remains today
● Major turning point
II. Tensions to 1967
● Until now, the most powerful state of egypt led by nasser
○ Cautious of dealing w israel
○ His forces had been mauled in ‘56
■ This memory urged caution
○ After israel withdrew from sinai, nasser agreed to keep limited forces in the sinai
peninsula
○ Allowed UN peacekeeping forces to remain in sinai
○ Began letting ships come to eilat
■ It was closed until ‘56
■ Opened gulf of aqaba
○ Nasser and other leaders found themselves obliged to take militant positions
● The official position of egypt and all other states was that israel was illegitimate
○ Called openly to israel's destruction
○ March of 1957- said that the final account of israel will be in 5 years
● Militancy and bold rhetoric reflects 2 dynamics
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○ Understandable sense of injustice, humiliation, and shame
■ Israel was seen as an alien entity imposed an unwilling arab world by
west
■ Military humiliation was an end to the humiliation to arab states,
● Solution: liquidation of israel
○ The internal instability of most arab regimes
■ Reflected the novelty of most arab nation states
■ Had not yet have time to have workable institutions to build up
nationalism sense
● In most of arab land there was no elections, most came to power by force
○ ‘49-’67: over 20 military seizures
● Many arab leaders felt insecure politically
● The surest way to gain support was to take strong stand against israel
● Leaders were expected to match words w deeds
● 1960s- military coup de tait put together military regime
● Many people in the suni majority deeply resented this military domination
○ Foreign policy that would strengthen shaky claims to speak for all syrians
○ Hostility to israel became centerpiece
○ Syrian regime tried to block israels use of the jordan river
○ From golan heights- syrians gunned down israeli farmers in the gailele
● ‘63-’69: israel was led by levy eshkol
○ Weak shadow of ben gurion
○ Overreacted to arabs
○ Authorized aerial attacks on the golan heights
○ By early 67 full scale war btw israel and syria seemed like possibility
● Arab leaders sought to prove their revolutionary credentials and enhance their popularity
by mocking the anti-israel commitments of anti arab regimes
● The chief rivalry in arab world was btw radical pro soviet states (mainly egypt syria and
iraq) and pro western states (jordan and saudi arabia)
● Cairo radio called king of jordan (US hassherheight whore) ??/
○ These taunts lef hussain to take an anti-israel position
● Hussein said nasser was hiding behind UN
○ Hussein dared nasser to closer off the port of eilat
○ Helped set the stage for war
III. Soviets' Role
● Finally pushed mideast over the cliff
○ The actions in combination with deliberate soviet provocations
○ A dominant faction in the soviet sought benefit in another arab israeli war
○ If arabs won- it would prove the value of soviet weapons
○ If lost- increase their dependence on sov union and make their military losses
● Some argued soviets wanted a pretext for their own forces to invade israel
○ If they could entice israel w a war where they made the first move
○ Soviet would have reason to rush to arabs defense and destroy israels nuclear
facilities
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Document Summary
Two other rivalries that fed arab-israeli tension. Competed w one another until egypt felt itself trapped by its own public rhetoric. Soviets helped push the arabs into war. Transformed the geography of the middle east. Israel was content w staying within their borders. But arab attack provided an incentive and opportunity to take additional territories to strengthen defensive position. After war was over, israel was no longer 9 miles wide. No longer vulnerable to getting cut in half. Third clear cut israeli victory in 20 years. Looked for salvation in the arab states. Realized they had to stay on their own. After war began to create more independent org. Shift btw israel and arab states to arab and palestinians. Until now, the most powerful state of egypt led by nasser. His forces had been mauled in 56. After israel withdrew from sinai, nasser agreed to keep limited forces in the sinai peninsula. Allowed un peacekeeping forces to remain in sinai.