"The Best Defense is a Good Offense"

In 1967 Israel did not wake up one morning and decide to go to war - she
woke up one morning and found she had to defend herself.


The
Six-Day War took place in June 1967. The Six-Day War was fought between
June 5th and June 10th. The Israelis defended the war as apreventative
military effort to counter what the Israelis saw as an impending attack
by Arab nations that surrounded Israel. The Six-Day War was initiated by
General Moshe Dayan, the Israeli’s Defence Minister.The war was
against Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Israel believed that it was only a
matter of time before the three Arab states co-ordinated a massive
attack on Israel.



After the 1956 Suez Crisis, the United Nations had established a presence in the Middle East,
especially at sensitive border areas. The United Nations was only there
with the agreement of the nations that acted as a host to it. By May
1967, the Egyptians had made it clear that the United Nations was no
longer wanted in the Suez region. Gamal Nasser, leader of Egypt, ordered a
concentration
of Egyptian military forces in the sensitive Suez zone. This was a
highly provocative act and the Israelis only viewed it one way – that
Egypt was preparing to attack. The Egyptians had also enforced a naval
blockade which closed off the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.



Rather than wait to be attacked, the Israelis launched a hugely
successfulmilitary campaign against its perceived enemies. The air
forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq were all but destroyed on June
5th. By June 7th, many Egyptian tanks had been destroyed in the Sinai
Desert and Israeli forces reached the Suez Canal. On the same day, the
whole of the west bank of the Jordan River had been cleared of Jordanian
forces. The Golan Heights were captured from Syria and Israeli forces
moved 30 miles into Syria
itself.



The war was a disaster for the Arab world and temporarily weakened the
man who was seen as the leader of the Arabs – Gamal Abdul Nasser of
Egypt. The war was a military disaster for the Arabs but it was also a
massive blow to the Arabs morale. Here were four of the strongest Arab
nations systematically defeated by just one nation.

http://youtu.be/F_AMGj-BOkk