Six-Day War

The **Six-Day War** took place from 5 June to 10 June 1967 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt. Israel won the war, which has had huge effects on the future of the Middle East. Israel has occupied Arab-majority areas, such as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, before withdrawing from the Gaza Strip in September 2005; Hamas subsequently took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. That in turn has caused many wars between both the terrorist group and Israel, as Hamas seeks to destroy Israel. 

## Background 
After the World War I, Zionist ideals started to become a reality. Jews from Europe started moving to Palestine in the 1920s, when the territory was still under the British mandate. The migration led to conflict with the local Arabs. The foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 was not recognized by the Arab states. Following Israel's decleration of independence, Egypt, along with 5 other Arab countries, declared war on the Jewish state in 1948 and 1949 and become Israel's main enemy.  

The Suez Crisis in 1956 established a geopolitical situation that failed to solve the problems in the area. The crisis made the United Nations send troops to the Sinai Peninsula to maintain the peace between Egypt and Israel. The coming to power of the Baa'th Party in Syria in 1963; the establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964; and the alliance of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan in 1966 contributed to the rise of tensions, which eventually led to the war.

In May 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was informed by the Soviet Union that Israel was moving its troops on its border with Syria. Because of that false information, Nasser decided to expel the UN troops from the Sinai Peninsula and to move his army close to the Egyptian border with Israel. In the last days of May, other Arab countries such as Jordan and Iraq gathered troops and prepared for battle. The main event that led to the beginning of the war was Egypt's closing of the Tiran Straits on 23 May 1967.  This blocked Israel's only access to the Red Sea.

## The War Timeline 
### Day 1: 5 June 1967 
At 7 a.m. local time, the Egyptian Air Force was taken by surprise by an aerial attack by the Israeli Air Force, and Operation Focus started. Israeli had been training the execution of its plan for a long time.

After the first air attack, the ground war started in the Sinai Desert. Israeli troops moved forward quickly, but Egyptian intelligence initially told the troops stationed in the Sinai to let them pass since they believed it to be just a diversion of the actual main attack that was believed had not yet happend.  That made it easy for the Israeli troops to reach the city of al-Arish well ahead of schedule, at 10 p.m. At 10 a.m. Jordan started firing at Israeli facilities, both military and civilian. Jordan’s participation led to Syria and Iraq also participating in the war by attacking Israel from the east. Israel pushed back by attacking Jordan’s air bases and bunkers around Jerusalem; continuing its attack on Egypt, now from multiple directions; and quickly gaining more territory.

The victory of Israel had many different meanings. It was a defeat for the Arab countries but also for the Soviets, who had helped Egypt to maintain its power in the Middle East. More importantly, Israel had confirmed its supremacy in the region and proved very powerful despite its small size. Feelings of enthusiasm and optimism spread inside and outside the country and convinced many Jews to migrate to Israel. Across the Arab world, violence rose against the Jewish communities. The war also resulted in a change of strategy for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which had been founded in 1964 but only now became military active.

In an interview in late June 1967, David Ben-Gurion, a former prime minister of Israel, affirmed that his country would have accepted to give back the occupied territories in exchange for a definite peace treaty and its recognition of the by the Arab countries. called the Yom Kippur War. Israel won once again, but the war did not bring much change to the borders that had been on the ground since 1967. Eventually, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982 but kept the lands it had acquired from Jordan. The UN requested Israel to retreat to the pre-1967 borders and to help form an Arab-Palestinian state, but negotiations and intermittent fighting continued, and the tensions with Palestinians in the territories occupied by Israel have never been solved.

## References
## Other websites 
* Six Day War Personal recollections & Timeline 
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* "Six-Day War"  in the *Encyclopaedia of the Orient*
* Liberation of the Temple Mount and Western Wall by Israel Defense Forces – Historic Live Broadcast on Voice of Israel Radio, 7 June 1967
* "How the USSR Planned to Destroy Israel in 1967" by Isabella Ginor. Published by the journal *Middle East Review of International Affairs* (MERIA), Volume 7, Number 3 (September 2003)