Six-day War
By: Maria Eugenia Trombini,
Pedro Henrique Ratti, and Andrea
Sarria
Causes of the War
Cold
War
context
Nasser’s
attitude
PLO and
border
tensions
Six-day
War
•PLO founded in 1964 as a
umbrella for all Palestinian resistance
groups.
•Consistent policy of border
attacks
•In Syria, especially, where border
clashes occurred in the
demilitarized zones
•Water in Golan Heights
•Nasser’s rhetoric and belligerent
attitude:
•“We shall not enter Palestine with its
soil covered with sand. We shall enter
it with its soil saturated with blood.”
•Withdrawal of UNEF- requested
by Nasser
•(May 14th) Moving of troops into
Sinai
•(May 22cd) Nasser closes the
Straits of Tiran, believing his acts
would not lead to war
regarded as a clear casus belli
by Israel
Cold War:
• Cold War background: US-Soviet
manipulation of regional powers
• Soviet Disinformation:
▫ Soviet Union was mislead by Israel and
informed Anwar Sadat that Israeli troops
had mobilized and intended to invade Syria
 Reasons behind possible
motivations of USSR for planting
this info remain speculation:
1) inaccurate, poorly evaluated
report;
2) deliberately mislead by Israel,
who wanted to draw Egypt into
the war;
3) USSR wanted to take pressure
off Syria, believing both the
Arabs and Israelis would stop
short the war; or
4) The Soviet Union wanted a war
 Nasser was bound by the
mutual defense pact he decided
to act immediately.
• Nasser abandoned his former
cautious policy and took the lead
for new aggression against
Israel. Syria and Iraq eagerly
joined Egypt in the preparation
for war
Events
Line-up
Countries
Israel
Egypt
Syria
Jordan
Troops
250,000
150,000-180,000
70,000
56,000 (troops or
Iraq, Egypt,
Palestinian)
Strengths/
Weaknesses
Air force (IDF most
powerful
component)
Intelligence services
were incompetent
Training soldiers
Long-term
professionals
Relatively poorly
trained, mechanized,
incompetent and
inexperienced
commanders
Relatively poorly
trained, mechanized,
incompetent and
inexperienced
commanders
Relatively poorly
trained, mechanized,
incompetent and
inexperienced
commanders
Egyptian, Syrian, or
Jordanian soldiers
may have been filled
with hatred, or at
least animosity,
toward the uprising
Israeli
Egyptian, Syrian, or
Jordanian soldiers
may have been filled
with hatred, or at
least animosity,
toward the uprising
Israeli
Deployment of
troops
Motivation
Deployed in Sinai
and along the Suez
Canal
Israeli believed that
they were fighting
for their life, family,
and home
Egyptian, Syrian, or
Jordanian soldiers
may have been filled
with hatred, or at
least animosity,
toward the uprising
Israeli
Aims, Plans, and Execution
• During the waiting period and the first days, most people were
focused on the here-and-now: the battle against the Arab armies,
the efforts to stave off a cease-fire imposed by the Great Powers, and
the threat of Soviet intervention.
• The forces that eventually conquered the northern West Bank had
been earmarked purely for defense, not offensive
• The same type of thinking dominated considerations regarding the
Syrian front- no IDF offensive unless provoked by Syria.
• The Six-Day War was in all essentials a clockwork war carried out by
the IDF against three relatively passive, ineffective Arab armies
• Main objective of Israelis:
o Destruction of the Egyptian army in Sinai
Attack through air
o Plan:
o destroy the Egyptian air force on the ground.
 attaining strategic surprise
 first wave- take out the vital runways, leaving the Egyptian
planes on the ground sitting targets, and rendering landing by
aircraft already in the air extremely hazardous.
o The Egyptians were caught almost completely by surprise
o First attack- IAF destroyed 197 aircraft and demolished or
damaged eight radar stations
o Second attack- 14 air bases hit and 107 aircrafts destroyed
o Third attack- struck Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, whose
warplanes had begun to attack Israeli targets about fifty
minutes before.
o Whole Jordanian air force (28 aircrafts) destroyed
o Half Syrian air force (53 aircrafts) destroyed
o In Iraq ten aircrafts were destroyed
o The day’s air offensives gave Israel almost unhindered
superiority over the battlefields of Sinai, the West Bank, and
the Golan Heights
o The Israeli planes were to bomb, napalm, and strafe the Arab
positions and armored columns almost at will;
Attack through ground (Sinai +
Gaza Strip)
• IDF planning:
▫ massive offensive against the Egyptian army in Sinai
 while leaving relatively sparse defensive forces on the Jordanian and
Syrian fronts.
• Aim:
▫ destroy the Egyptian army
▫ then deal, if forced to – and if time and the powers permitted – with the
Syrians and Jordanians.
• The plan called for a three-pronged east-west offensive across northern Sinai,
initially bypassing the Gaza Strip.
▫ June 5
o Three divisional task forces, comprising the IDF´s best conscript units
and armors, crossed the border almost simultaneously and rapidly
overcame the opposition.
▫ June 6-7
 some Egyptian units succeeded in reaching the Canal, outdistancing the
IDF columns advancing from the northeast, who were poised to cut off
their routes of retreat
 Giant trap for Egyptians
▫ June 7
 IDF takes the Gaza Strip
▫ June 8
 Israeli units were at the Canal
o The Egyptian army defeated
Heliborne troops at the Suez Canal,
Six Day War: Al-Farida, Lebanon, showed Nasser kicking the "Jew," Israel, into the sea, with the armies of Lebanon, Syria
and Iraq supporting him.
Jordan (East Jerusalem + West
Bank)
• Israel found itself almost instantaneously engaged against Jordan and, at the
same time, so successful against the Egyptians that it was able to switch to the
offensive on the Jordanian front by the end of Day 1.
• Israeli government issued a warning and Hussein (Jordanian president) ignored
it.
• June 5▫ Israelis had the all-important advantage of complete mastery of the skies.
• Jordan’s aggressiveness was apparently prompted by misinformation and
deliberate deception.
▫ Hussein, it seems, had been persuaded by false Egyptian reports of early
victories, Israeli air losses, and Egyptian air raids on Tel Aviv and IAF bases.
• The IDF returned fire, but at the same time Israel issued one last appeal to the
Jordanians
o Warnings ignored
• June 7
▫ IDF were ordered to take the Old City
• June 7-8
▫ West Bank cities: Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Jericho fell to the IDF
Syria (Golan Heights)
• Israel’s decision to attack had to do with the harassment of the border settlements
during the previous five years, and a desire for territorial expansion pressed by
these self-same settlements, which coveted the lands on the Golan.
• The Syrian army had turned the western edge of the heights into fortified
emplacements backed by artillery and antiaircraft batteries.
• June 9▫ Dayan ordered the IDF to storm the slopes
• The Syrian general staff had ordered the withdrawal of all its units, and many had
begun to retreat even earlier, without orders.
• June 10▫ Israel takes over Golan Heights
▫ cease-fire came into effect
Events Timeline
Date
Israel vs. Egypt
Israel vs. Jordan
Israel vs. Syria
Monday, June 5
Israeli planes bombed
all 19 Egyptian
airfields and wrecked
300 planes. Israeli
troops advanced into
the Gaza Strip and
Sinai desert.
The Israelis destroyed
the Jordanian air
force.
Jordanian troops
atacked West
Jerusalem.
Israeli planes
crippled the Syrian
air force
Tuesday, June 6
The Israelis raced the
Egyptian forces to the
Suez Canal. The
israeli air force
destroyed many
Egyptian tanks and
other vehicles, while
Israeli ground forces
destroyed or captured
the rest.
Heavy fighting for
control of Jerusalem
and the West Bank of
the River Jordan
Wednesday, June 7
The Israelis won
complete control of
Sinai and accepted
the UM call for a
ceasefire with Egypt.
The Israelis captured
all of Jerusalem.
Jordan accepted for a
ceasefire.
Date
Israel vs. Egypt
Israel vs. Jordan
Thursday, June 8
Egypt accepted the
call for a ceasefire
Israel won control of
all the West Bank of
the River Jordan
Israel vs. Syria
Friday, June 9
Israeli troops
attacked the Golan
Heights
Saturday, June 10
Israelis took control
of the Golan Heights.
Syria accepted the
UM call for a
ceasefire
Results
Israel
• Land Gained:
▫ Sinai (Egypt)
Victorious Israeli soldiers at the
Western Wall in Jerusalem, 1967.
 Ending Syrian artillery attacks on
northern Israel
 Providing Israel excellent intelligence and
observation locations overlooking the bulk
of the Syrian army and air force”
▫ Suez Canal (Egypt)
▫
▫
▫
▫
 Closed strategic waterway
Golan Heights (Syria)
Gaza Strip (Egypt)
West Bank/ River Jordan (Jordan)
East Jerusalem (Jordan)
Israeli taken control of East
Jerusalem for the first time in
nearly 2,000 years.
Israeli Settlements
• Israeli government decided:
▫ Military occupation of the conquered lands
▫ Army confiscate Arab land
▫ Build Jewish settlements
 Secure conquered lands
• “Were established both for security reason –they ‘covered’ the
border, dominated strategic crossroads, and so on – and as part of
the settlement drive”.
• 1968• 6 settlements on the Golan
• 1973- “17 settlements established in the West Bank, 7 in the Gaza
Strip and in the northwestern corner of the Sinai Peninsula”
• By 1977- 11, 000 Israeli were living in the territories
• Total it was established approximately 145 settlements
▫ Palestinians deeply resented the settlements
Arab states
• Instability
▫ 1968- Syria had another military coup
▫ 1968-69- Egypt and Israel continued hostilities in the “War of
Attrition”
• Arab aid
– Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Libya helped the states that had suffered the
most (Egypt and Jordan)
– Payed £266 million annually
• Egypt
–
–
–
–
Army destroyed
Lost equiptment
Suez Canal blocked indefinitely
Sinai oil fields in Israeli hands
Palestinians
• “Israeli victory contributed to the re-focusing on particularistic
Palestinian-nationalism”
• “Placed the Palestinians back on the international agenda”
• Before June 1967
▫ 1.5 million lived in Jordan
▫ 350,000-400,00 lived in the Gaza Strip
▫ 300,000 lived in Lebanon and Syria
• After June 1967
▫ Israel became the country with the largest Palestinian population
• Israeli relations with Palestinians living in Israel
▫ No competition allowed against Israel:
 Industries
 Industrial development frustrated
 Farming
 Prevent farmers to increase their productivity that much
▫ Political freedoms diminished:
 Censorship: news publications, journals, and books
 Parties regarded as potential resistance hunted
▫ Civil disobedience
Cold War
• United States
▫ “started to see Israel as a valuable asset in the region through
which to counter Soviet influence
▫ US support was based primarily on Israel´s military strength and
reliability as well as Israel´s opposition to the radical Arab states
whic were perceived as Soviet clients.”
• Soviet Union
▫ Replaced the weapons lost during the war
▫ June 10 roke off diplomatic relations with Israel
 Soviet puppet regimes: Bulgaria, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia,
and Hungary did the same
Resolution 242
• Nov. 22, 1967- United Nations Security Council prepared it as a
result of the Six Day War
• It stated:
▫ Inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war
▫ Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in
the recent conflict- West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, Sinai
Peninsula
▫ Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for
the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of
every State in the area and their right to live in peace within
secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of
force
▫ Freedom of navigation through international waterways in the
area
▫ Just settlement of the refugee problem