Timely Encounter: The Six Day War

Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel are all geographically in the same region known as the "Middle East". With their same general location, comes lots of similar however extremely different beliefs. The aforementioned countries either fall into majority Islam or majority Judaism. Can you guess the country that believes in Judaism based off the map? Yep, the majority of Israelis are Jewish. Islam and Judaism are actually really close in terms of similarities however, each respectively, believes they are entitled to the sacred promise land of Jerusalem for their own reasons. Arab-Israeli conflicts are much more than this one war, they date back all the way to 1948. However, this war in particular was a grave turning point.

Since its inception in 1948, Israel has been at the forefront of conflict. During their war for independence, Israel fought Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Israel, through armistice deals, walked away with 75% of what was Palestine. For ongoing years, Israel would continue to fight its neighboring Arab countries for land, water, political and religious reasons.

Legend:

Green: Arab Countries

Yellow: Territory gained

Red: Israel

On May 22, 1967 Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the closure of the Straits of Tiran, a pivotal choke point. Consequently, Israel didn't have any access to the strait to travel or transport goods and oil. Approximately 2 weeks later, on June 5, 1967 is when mayhem started. Israel launched a preemptive strike on 14 of Egypt's airfields using 220 aircrafts. 338 Egyptian aircraft were destroyed and over 100 pilots were killed. This granted Israel's immediate air superiority which prompted retaliation from Jordan, Syria, and Iraq hours later. Israel again attacked by air and destroyed 28 Jordanian, 53 Syrian, and 10 Iraqi planes. Within the next 5 days, Israel ends up taking control of Gaza, West Bank, Suez Canal, and Golan Heights. Israel makes Jordan retreat and cease fire, then Egypt after ignoring a cease fire once, and lastly Syria. The war ended on June 10, 1967 and Israel emerged the clear victor.

Many consequences came from the collection of Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, Suez Canal, and Golan Heights. The most obvious being territorial changes. Taking over a territory also means you take over the people who previously lived there. For the most part this was Palestinians. Due to the new acquisition, many Palestinians were displaced from their homes and had to flee to bordering countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. This exacerbated the ongoing Palestinian refugee issue. A close second that was met with lots of condemnation was declaring Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital. Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries are still angry about this today. As mentioned before, this war also caused major subsequent tension between Israel and bordering countries. Arab states, through the Khartoum Resolution of 1967, issued the "Three Nos" - no peace, no recognition, no negotiations with Israel.

References

Bowen, J. (2017, June 4). 1967 war: Six Days that changed the Middle East. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461 

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2023, August 13). Six-Day War. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War 

Finlayson, C. (2019, June 14). North Africa and Southwest Asia. World Regional Geography. https://pressbooks.pub/worldgeo/chapter/north-africa-and-southwest-asia/#chapter-81-section-3%C2%A0 

Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). The Six Day War. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/hijacked-wars-threats-responses/#:~:text=The%20war%20began%20on%20June,the%20Egypt%2Doccupied%20Gaza%20Strip.%C2%A0 

YouTube. (2018, August 28). Six-Day War (1967) - third Arab–israeli war documentary. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHqJ6pgdE-c 

Zieve, T. (n.d.). This Week in history: The Arab League’s Three no’s. The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. https://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/This-Week-In-History-The-Arab-Leagues-three-nos