55 years ago

The Six-Day War

I plan to start a new series on the website where I give more space to a special event or anniversary. The first event which I chose is the Six-Day War. This topic is close to me, because I researched the history of the Middle-East and the Jewish people much, and I wrote my thesis about the Six-Day War. Why is these six days in June, 1967 so important?

We all know that a war doesn’t begin with the first shot. There are steps which lead to it, and we can follow them back to the roots. Furthermore, a war doesn’t finish when the weapons are silenced. The consequences can be short- or long-term. In case of the Six-Day War the first steps are usually followed back to autumn of 1966, when the tension began to grow, the series of actions and reactions started. The reason which usually is mentioned the guerrilla warfare/infiltrations/terrorist actions used by the Palestinians – which usually resulted in Israeli retaliation against the territory of Jordan or Syria – or incidents near the border/armistice line. The number of these incidents were rising as well as the pressure on Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to step up as the leader of the Arab world.

However, there were, of course, many other motives and reasons behind the events which culminated in those six days. There were the two opposite sides, Israel and the Arab countries, but they were divided in many ways as well. And we shouldn’t forget, it was the time of the Vietnam War, not long before there was a coup in Greece, and there were a civil war in Yemen which caused more confrontation in the Arab world.

In Israel, even if the founders were still in power, and the country won a big victory on the battlefield, there were serious conflicts between fractions in the leadership. There was enormous tension until almost the last seconds concerning the goals of the war, the scale of the war, and there was even reshuffling in the eve of it. Furthermore, the victory brought the moral problems of occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. After the war the Palestinian organizations got more attention and became more influential, and the world began to look at the Palestinian Arabs/Palestinians differently. Finally, it also turned out that the military victory isn’t enough itself to be accepted by the neighbouring countries.

The Arab countries usually stood up for the Palestinian Arabs/Palestinians united, and the leaders of them could rely on this topic as one which ensured the support of their people. However, there were conflicts in the background which prevented them from cooperating effectively. Egypt were one of the most important Arab countries. It had the largest population, and Nasser played an important role in world politics. On the other hand, the country had a conflict with Saudi Arabia, they were on the opposite sides in the Yemeni civil war. Their relationship with Syria and the Soviet Union which stood strongly behind the regime in Damascus wasn’t without tensions as well. And there were fractions with Jordan, the “reactionary” kingdom too. It caused a problem as well that Egypt and Jordan – then Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan – took territories of the planned Palestinian Arab country after the war in 1948/49. Jordan, itself, had conflicts almost with everyone around, in Saudi Arabia there was a dynasty which took Hijaz form the Hashemites, in Iraq the cousin and ally of King Hussein, King Faisal II was overthrown and executed less then ten years before, and as a kingdom and ally of the West they had issues with Syria. The regime in Damascus itself was very unstable, and had a very controversial relationship with Egypt. All these conflicts resulted in the fact that the Arab countries were not really disappointed to see there allies to fall. The Arab countries misled not only their enemies and the world, but even their own allies with fake information about their operations and casualties.

Concerning the great powers and the superpowers, Britain and France were retreating and rephrasing their politics towards the Middle East and the Arab countries. While Britain mainly followed the lead of the United States in the World politics, France tried to find its own way while they lost their positions in North Africa and the Middle East. The United States which took the place of the other two in many regions was pinned in Vietnam what restricted her capabilities to interfere. The Soviet Union liked to act as the champion and supporter of the freedom fighters in the world, and took every opportunity to challenge the Western Powers. Her closest ally in the region was Syria, and she had a traditional interest in Iraq and Iran. Because of the many Jewish people who directly or indirectly came from Russia and participated in the creation of Israel, and the left-wing Israeli leadership, the Soviet Union had some hopes to win a new ally when the State of Israel was established, but these hopes failed soon. In the middle of the fifties the Soviet leadership found the local champion in Nasser, but at the end of the decade the honeymoon was over, and new champions came. Before and during the Six-Day War the Soviet Union and Syria seemed to try to make Nasser’s position weaker by accusing him not stepping up firmly enough and giving him false information. After the war Moscow and Eastern European countries broke off the diplomatic relationships with Israel, but it practically backfired.

In my opinion, if you tried to write down history with scheme’s of Physics, the Six-Day War was the case when every power aimed at one direction: the armed conflict. However, the result was surprising for many.

(See a bibliography to start your journey in this topic here.)