Six Day War - Biographies Biographies "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight." Gamel Abdel Nasser, Levi Eshkol, Forgotten Hero - MICHAEL B. OREN - AZURE A detailed reapppraisal of Eshkol: "Today...Eshkol [can be] restored to his rightful historical place. Archives ... have now completed the declassification of documents from the Six Day War period. These papers, together with published memoirs and oral-history interviews of former senior officials, provide unprecedented insights into Israeli decision-making both before and during the war.

They also paint a highly detailed and surprising portrait of Levi Eshkol and the pivotal role he played in winning the Six Day War." Yitzhak Rabin - Chief of Staff in the Israel Defense Forces - Wikipedia Moshe Dayan - defence minister during Six Day War - Wikipedia Uzi Narkiss - commander of the Israel Defense Forces units in the Central Region during the Six Day War - Wikipedia Ariel Sharon - Major General, commanding the most powerful armored division on the Sinai front which made a breakthrough in the Kusseima-Abu-Ageila fortified area - Wikipedia Mordechai ("Mottie") Hod - Commander of the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six-Day War - Wikipedia Israel Tal - armored-division commander in Sinai Peninsula during the Six Day War - Wikipedia - also see Britannica ; CNN Profiles Abdel Hakim Amer - Egypt's deputy supreme commander. Relieved of his posts and forced into early retirement after Egypt's defeat. In August1967, Amer, along with over 50 Egyptian military officers and two former ministers, were arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow Nasser.

On September 14, 1967, 'Amer was approached in his jail cell by high-ranking Egyptian officers and given a choice to remain there and stand trial for treason, or 'die an honorable death by taking poison'. He chose the latter option. - also see Britannica Hafez al-Assad - Syrian Defence minister in 1967 - The Guardian We have made every effort to give full accreditation and endeavoured to ensure that copyright has been respected. If you feel that your copyright has been infringed by any material here please advise us and we will immediately remove it. Copyright © 2007 sixdaywar Six Day War Six Day War Introduction The Six Day War broke out on June 5, 1967, following three weeks of tension which began on May 15, 1967 when it became known that Egypt had concentrated large-scale forces in the Sinai peninsula.

Egypt's force buildup in the Sinai was accompanied by other serious steps: the United Nations Emergency Force stationed on the border between Egypt and Israel and Sharm el-Sheikh in 1957 and which had provided an actual separation between the countries was evacuated on May 19 upon the demands of the Egyptian president at the time, Gamal Abdel-Nasser; the Egyptian navy blocked the Straits of Tiran, located at the end of the Gulf of Eilat, on the night of May 22-23, 1967, preventing the passage of any Israeli vessels; and on May 30, 1967, Jordan joined the Egyptian-Syrian military alliance of 1966 and placed its army on both sides of the Jordan river under Egyptian command. Iraq followed suit. It agreed to send reinforcement and issued a warning order to two brigades: Contingents arrived from other Arab countries including Algeria and Kuwait. Israel was confronted by an Arab force of some 465,000 troops, over 2,880 tanks and 810 aircraft. In this way, a direct threat along the whole length of Israel's territory was created.

The Egyptian Army was deployed in the Sinai, the straits were closed signaling the failure of Israeli deterrence, and Jordan joined the military alliance closing the circle of the states threatening Israel's borders. As the situation deteriorated, Israel increased its reserve forces call-up which had already been underway and established a National Unity government which included representatives of the opposition parties at that time. Moshe Dayan was appointed Minister of Defense. Though the Government of Israel viewed the closing of the straits as a belligerent act and a warning bell, the government tried to solve the crisis through political channels. The government of Israel approached the Great Powers who had guaranteed the freedom of Israeli navigation. Britain and France reneged on their commitment and the President of the United States proposed a plan for breaking the blockade by an international armada. Israel agreed to wait and give the plan a chance and Prime Minister Eshkol announced his Government's intentions in a radio broadcast on 28 May. Israel's decision to wait was taken despite the fact that it was well aware that the main threat had now become the Egyptian deployment in the Sinai and not the closing of the straits.

When it became clear later that the political demarches had failed, the Government, on June 4 gave approval to the Israel Defense Forces to undertake military offensive to eliminate the threat to Israel's existence. This dramatic development was the height of continued deterioration in the relations between Israel and her neighbors. The state of war that had existed since 1948 was already intensified between 1964-67 with the increase in the number of dangerous incidents on the Syrian border following Israel's activation of the National Water Carrier from the Sea of Galilee to the Negev in 1964. This tension came against the backdrop of Syrian attacks on Israeli farmers cultivating land in the demilitarized zone and on Israeli fishing boats and other craft in the Sea of Galilee. The Arabs opposed the National Water Carrier project and tried to destroy it by diverting the subsidiaries of the Jordan river located in their territories. In addition, at the start of 1965 Palestinian terrorist organizations, under the patronage of both Syria and Egypt, began to operate against Israeli settlements. Their attacks led to Israeli military reprisals against their bases located in neighboring countries.

The Arabs were strengthened in their stand by the consistent support of the USSR, through both the supply of weapons and military advisers and through political support in the framework of the cold war between the East and West. It was the Soviets who spread the false report in 1967 that Israel had concentrated large forces on the border with Syria in preparation to attack, after the Syrians had already "heated up" the border area. This fraudulent report was the declared reason for the concentration of Egyptian forces in Sinai, in confirmation with the military alliance between Egypt and Syria. This concentration of forces gradually led the Arabs to believe that an opportunity had been created to realize their 19-year aspiration to destroy Israel. In the light of this development, Israel had no choice but to preempt. The War in the Air The Six-Day War started with a far-reaching air attack, code named “Moked”, to shatter the Arab air forces while their aircraft were still on the ground. The attack was planned even before General Mordechai (Moti) Hod, had been appointed Air Force Commander. The main element of the plan was to carry out a massive, simultaneous attack of Israeli first-line aircraft against all Egyptian air force bases - the main Arab air force.

This required exact and detailed planning of departure times and approaches of each of the attacking forces, in order to ensure the element of surprise on every target. On the morning of June 5, the aircraft of the IAF took off from their bases and attacked Egyptian air force bases in Sinai and Egypt. During the first wave, eleven fields were hit (among them some that had also been attacked in the first wave). In a short, efficient and decisive blow, approximately 300 Egyptian aircraft, including bombers, combat planes and helicopters, were destroyed in less than 2 hours. The main air threat against Israel was eliminated and the Israel Defense Forces achieved air supremacy when Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi aircraft attacked targets in Israel. Once it was clear that King Hussein, the Jordanian leader, had chosen to undertake a military campaign on the Jerusalem front, the Israel Air Force turned to the Jordanian airfields in Amman and Mafrak and destroyed a large part of the Jordanian Air Force. When the confrontation was further extended on the same day over Syria and Iraq, Israeli aircraft continued their combat against these countries and also destroyed their aircraft. Airfields attacked in Syria included Damascus, Damir and Seikel.

In Iraq, the H-3 airfield in the vicinity of the Jordanian border was attacked. Before the end of the first day of fighting, the air forces of the participating Arab states had been destroyed, thereby determining the fate of the entire war. Israeli armored forces could then fight the battle under ï¿½clear skiesï¿½, and air force pilots were free to provide support to IDF ground forces in all the sectors, the breakthrough and transportation axes without leaving the rear of the State of Israel in danger of air attack. Israel Air Force losses in the fateful day of the battle were a total of 20 aircraft. Twelve pilots were killed, five were wounded and four captured. The main effort of Israeli armor was directed toward the Egyptian forces deployed in fortifications in the eastern parts of the Sinai and in the Gaza Strip, which consisted of 7 divisions with a total of about 100,000 soldiers, approximately 1,000 tanks and hundreds of artillery pieces. The Israel Defense Forces went against this disposition with a force of three divisions composed of armored, infantry and paratrooper brigades, as well as an independent mechanized brigade and an independent infantry brigade reinforced with paratroopers and armor.

The fighting lasted four days, in a single, continuous momentum. Aware of the fact that the war could well last only a few days and that it was imperative to achieve a rapid victory, the IDF concentrated all of its armored strength in order to break through the Egyptian disposition. This was a fast attack forward, without securing the flanks and transportation axes. Very quickly, the Egyptian dispositions were broken through despite their initial resolute resistance. The battle on the Egyptian front was conducted by the commander of the Southern Command, General Yishayahu Gavish. Under his command, breakthroughs were achieved along three main axes. The northern axis, and the Rafah-El Arish axis were allocated to General Israel Tal's division. After difficult breakthrough battles in the Khan-Yunis and Rafah areas on the first day of the war, the combat units continued onward past Sheikh-Zuwayd and from there in the direction of El-Arish, although the enemy quickly regrouped in the fortified El- Jiradi positions, the road to El-Arish was only opened up that day after bitter combat. All the Egyptian forces which faced the division were either destroyed, dispersed or taken prisoner.

The task of the division under the command of General Ariel Sharon was to conquer the large Egyptian fortified disposition in the Umm-Kateif Abu Awegeila-Quseima area. The force displayed excellent maneuverability against the dug-in and well-organized army, which had the advantage of much larger numbers. Combined forces of armor, paratroopers, infantry, artillery and engineers attacked the Egyptian disposition from the front flanks and rear, cutting the enemy off. The breakthrough battles which were in sandy areas and minefields, continued for 3 and-a-half days. The division under the command of General Avraham Yoffe penetrated between the sectors covered by these two divisions, through Wadi Haroudin, a sand dune area considered impassable to mechanized units. Its aim was to reach the rear of the Egyptian forces. On the first night of the war, the force captured the Bir- Lahfan junction, cut-off of the Egyptian army forces between the two other combat sectors and prevented the approach of reinforcements from the heart of Sinai.

On the second day of the war, 6 June, 1967, General Tal's division made its way through northern Sinai, proceeding towards the Suez Canal in two axes (El-Arish Qantara axis and El-Arish Bir-Lahfan-Ismailiya axis) while engaging Egyptian forces in heavy combat. The Egyptian disposition at Bir-Lahfan was defeated, and a coordinated attack with General Yoffe's division blocked the western retreat lines of the Egyptian army in this sector. General Yoffe's division, composed of reserve soldiers, captured the Jebel-Libneh camps and destroyed the Egyptian reinforcements sent to the Umm-Kateif Abu Awegerila camp, where General Sharon's division completed the cleaning-up operation and continued south in the direction of Quseima. On the same day, complete control of the Gaza Strip was achieved, and on the afternoon of the following day Khan Yunis was captured. On the third day of the war, 7 June, 1967, General Tal's division continued its advance towards the Suez Canal along the El-Arish-Qantara and El-Arish-Bir- Lahfan-Ismailiya axes, while conducting heavy armored battle against Egyptian forces.

The important Bir-Gafgafa junction was captured and attempts by the Egyptian army to cross over the Canal in this sector were repressed. General Yoffe's division advanced on Bir-Hassneh and Bir El-Thamada and blocked the rear Egyptian armored columns retreating west from the Sinai towards the Mitla Pass. The mountains passes became a large killing ground for Egyptian vehicles, with the air force providing air support. A long line of obstacles blocked the retreat path to cross the Canal for Egyptian personnel and vehicles gathering at the approaches. General Sharon's division captured Quseima and continued its advance south-west in the direction of Nakhl. The independent tank brigade under the command of Colonel Albert defeated the Kuntila outpost north of Eilat and continued to confront the Egyptian force posted in the sector and threatening to cut-off the town. Another force gained control of the Ras E-Nakeb Egyptian border post near Eilat. On the same day, Sharm El-Sheikh was captured without a fight. The Egyptians retreated following an air attack, and the Israel Navy landed personnel. In addition, paratroopers were landed in Sharm El-Sheikh and E-Tur and they started their advance northwards along the coast of the Gulf of Suez.

By capturing the area, the Straits of Tiran were opened for the passage of Israeli and other vessels to and from Eilat. On the fourth day of the war, 8 June, 1967, the Egyptian forces were defeated. General Tal's division conquered Qantara on the banks of the Suez Canal and continued south along the canal in order to join up with the main force of the division which continued from Bir-Gafgafa to the Suez Canal in the Ismailiya sector. South of them, General Yaffe's division also continued towards the canal along two axes in the Suez sector, while another force of his division continued on another route to Ras-Sudar on the Gulf of Suez, south of the Canal. From there, the force continued south along the Gulf of Suez and reached Abu- Zenima, where it met up with the paratroopers coming from E-Tur. General Sharon's division continued its advance south-west to the heart of Sinai and conquered Nakhl. In a more southern sector, Colonel Albert's independent tank brigade fought and defeated the Egyptian armored force which threatened to cut-off Eilat.

The possibility of war breaking out in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem intensified the tension and preparedness of the Central Command under the command of General Uzi Narkiss. Although all the forces were prepared for defense rather than attack, during the morning hours the news on the radio announced the start of the battle on the Egyptian front. A short time afterwards, the first shots were fired in the Jerusalem sector, first from light weapons and quickly followed by heavy Jordanian artillery shelling along the while length of the cease-fire line with Israel. When the Jordanians opened fire, the Central Command pressured the General Staff that it be allowed to react. However the General Staff rejected this demand since it did not want to open up another front while the IDFs main effort was being directed at the Egyptian front. Israel sent a message to Jordan that she had no hostile intentions and if Jordan would not enter the war, Israel would even understand a "salvo of honor" on Jordan's part, an expression of their identification with the Egyptians and part of their obligation towards the Arab world. However, the continuation of the barrage led to an understanding that the Jordanians had decided to open their own front.

Indeed, Jordanian army forces penetrated and took control of Government House, the house used as the headquarters for the UN observers. The Israeli response was fast. At 3:35 p.m. on 5 June, 1967, a task force of the Jerusalem Brigade gained control of Government House and routed the Jordanian soldiers from the rooms. On completion of the short battle at Government House, the Jerusalem brigade continued under the command of Colonel Eliezer Amitai to conquer a series of neighboring Jordanian posts, up to Tsur Bakdar and the ï¿½Bellï¿½ position, eastern Jerusalem from the South. At the same time as the Jerusalem force fought in the south-east sector of the city, the armored forces of the Harel Division under the command of Colonel Uri Ben-Ari started their advance on the Jordanian posts in the areas of Radar Hill, Sheikh Abed El-Aziz and Bet-Ihse in the north-west of the town and enemy deployments along the Jerusalem-Ramallah highway. A reserve brigade of paratroopers under the command of Colonel Mordechai (Motta) Gur was brought to Jerusalem.

Their task was to make a nighttime breakthrough of the Jordanian lines at the Police School posts and Ammunition Hill in the northern part of Jerusalem, from where they would be able to join up with the defenders of Mount Scopus enclave. One battalion broke through the area of the Police School conquering it and Ammunition Hill. The second battalion broke through in the Nahalat Shimon sector to capture Wadi Juz and the American Colony. The third battalion followed after the second and proceeded towards the walls of the Old City and the Rockefeller Museum. The night battle, which started at 2.00 a.m., was cruel and bloody. The Jordanian outpost on Ammunition Hill held firm and its fighters refused to surrender. The battle ended with sunrise. The paratroopers gained control of Ammunition Hill and the Police School, while other members of their unit advanced through the alleyways of the east of the city through to the walls of the old city and the Rockerfeller Museum, at the same time as joining up with the besieged Israeli enclave on Mount Scopus. At that time, General Elad Peled's division which had been allocated for combat by the Northern Command was active in the Samaria area.

The division, which was composed of two armored brigades and infantry forces, concentrated its efforts to gain control of the Dotan valley and the nearby junctions. Jenin was encircled and the hills surrounding the town were under Israel control. Most of the time, infantry forces from the Central Command returned fire against Jordanians in the Tulkarm and Qalqilya areas. On the second day of the 6-Day War, 6 June, 1967, the fighting continued. Latrun was captured with daybreak, providing retribution for the blood of the fighters lost there in the War of Independence. The conquering force, an infantry brigade under the command of Moshe Yotvat, advanced in the direction of Beit Horon and joined up with the tanks of the Harel brigade in the southern entrances to Ramallah. During the morning hours, the Harel brigade was forced to advance twice on the Mivtar Hill, the key to the northern entry to Jerusalem, until the enemy resistance was overcome. The conquer of French Hill, Givat Shaul (Tel El-Ful) and Shuafat completely opened the Israeli approach to Mount Scopus and cut off the city from the north.

By the evening of the second day, the Harel brigade tanks entered Ramallah and gained control of the city. Along the narrow waistline of the state, in the Qalqilya area, the Givati infantry brigade under the command of Zeev Shacham and reinforced with tanks started its advance eastwards to the back of the mountain which was to be taken the following day. At the Kabatiya junction, there was a fierce fight between an armored brigade from Peled's division and a Jordanian armored brigade which reached the area from the Damya bridge. A little further north from there, IDF troops completed the defeat of Jenin. The Northern Command added an additional tank division to the fight, which fought battles with Jordanian tanks along the way to Tubas. The Jordanian army attempted to supply reinforcements of additional tanks, but they were trapped by the air force on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem and destroyed. The paratroop brigade, continued to gain control of east Jerusalem up to the walls of the old city. Their advance in the populated area was difficult, since many houses became the source of fire from Jordanian army soldiers.

The Jerusalem Brigade, who captured in the Abu-Tor district in the south of the city, also faced similar prolonged house to house combat. The eagerly awaited command to take the old city was given at sunrise on the third day of the war, 7 June, 1967. The Command assigned this task to the paratroopers, who started with an attack on the Augusta-Victoria hills and the Mount of Olives, overlooking the old city. After firing in the direction of the breakthrough path, the Lions Gate, the force from the east advanced forward very quickly and broke through into the old city. The paratroopers ran towards the Dome of the Rock, located next to the last remains of the Temple, the Western Wall, where, in the presence of the sector commander and the deputy head of the armed services, General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief chaplain of the IDF blew a long blow on the rams horn, announcing the release of the Western Wall and the old city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the divided and split capital of Israel, was reunited.

In the mountains of Samaria, the Harel brigade completed the capture of mountain between Ramallah and Nablus, and two battalions of the brigade continued into the Jordan valley along two axes, captured Jericho and in cooperation with a Golani infantry brigade, gained control of Nablus. The tank forces of Peled's division captured the routes to Jordan at the Damya (Adam) bridge and gained control of the northern part of the Jordan valley. During the morning hours, the Jerusalem Brigade advanced on Bethlehem, the Etzion block and Hebron. Resistance was poor, and only here and there the sound of sharpshooters was heard and silenced. Within a short time, the whole of the Hebron mountain area was in the hands of the IDF. The Syrian Front The battle against Syria, Israel's bitterest enemy, persisted until the fifth day of the Six-Day War, despite the Syrian's heavy bombardment of the Hula valley settlements and the Galilee.

The delay in the breakthrough of the Syrian attack after the defeat of the Egyptian army across Sinai, the release of Jerusalem, and IDF control of Judea and Samaria, raised a fear that it would be the Syrians, who were the source of the tension and caused the general flare-up in the first place, who would not be affected by the IDF. The main reason for the delay in the attack against Syria was because the Northern Command forces under the command of General David Elazar were confined to the Samarian front, where brigade after brigade was taken to help fight in this unexpected front. However, the delay in the attack on the Syrians enabled the concentration of a force enlarged with reinforcements from both the Egyptian and Samarian fronts, on completion of the battles there. International political pressure threatened to impair the operational plans, and a delegation from the northern settlements traveled to Tel Aviv in an effort to convince the Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan, and the government to release them from the Syrian threat once and for all. In the end, the command was given to open the attack on the Syrian post on the Golan Heights. The attacking force had to face very difficult topographical conditions.

To scale steep, rugged and rocky heights and open a line for transportation while under constant fire from above. The Syrian army sat safely in its strong fortifications on the Golan Heights. It consisted of six infantry brigades, five National Guard battalions and about 200 tanks. The breakthrough came at 10:00 AM on the morning of 9 June, 1967, after 2 days of heavy bombardment by the air force. It was spearheaded by Colonel Albert's tank brigade which came from the direction of Givat Ha'em north of Kfar Szold and showered the Syrian posts to the north, on the top of the Heights. In a complex engineering operation, soldiers from the Engineering Corps cleared the way of mines. They were followed by bulldozers which leveled a route for the tanks on the rocky face. The force conquered the Zaura and Kala positions while under heavy artillery fire. At the same time, the Golani infantry brigade under the command of Colonel Yona Efrat fought a fierce battle to conquer its targets in the sector, which included the Tel El-Fahar post which was the most fatal of all.

A force consisting of infantry, Nahal and paratroopers defeated a series of other posts overlooking the Hula valley in the southern sector of the Heights and enables the passage of tanks deep into enemy territory. On the night of June 9- 10 an attack was mounted on Jalabina and enemy positions on the region of the border and the Banyas were captured. The following day, in the morning of the 10 June, 1967, the forces renewed their advance in the north and central regions of the Golan Heights. The infantry and paratrooper units completed their defeat of targets in the area, and the tank units advanced on a number of axes to beyond the town of Quneitra, which was defeated at 3:30 p.m. without any battle. From there, a brigade continued traveling in the Southern Golan captured Butmiye. Another tank force entered and subdued the area at the foot of Mount Hermon, between Banyas and the Lebanese border, together with a Golani brigade and scout units. After this, they went up onto the Golan Heights and defeated Masada. The Syrian deployment collapsed and the Syrian forces were in retreat.

On the same day, a tank and paratroop force from Elad Peled's division went up on the Tuafik posts located south-east of the Sea of Galilee, and from there advanced in a north-easterly direction towards Butmiye. In the afternoon of the same day, paratroop forces from the division were landed in the southern Golan Heights to purge the posts scattered across the sector. At the same, infantry forces were active in purging the area north-east of the Sea of Galilee. Towards night, the IDF already controlled the whole of the Golan Heights and was positioned along the whole line passing from Mount Hermon in the south, around Masada, Quneitra and Butmiye junction and extending to the Yarmuk river bed. A unit from the Golani brigade later arrived on the Hermon mountain and determined seizure by the IDF. On 12 June the cease-fire line was set by UN observers along these milestones. The Six Day War The Six Day War The Six Day War Arguably the most dramatic and emotional event in recent Jewish history is the Six Day War. The backdrop to the event is complicated, but its roots lay in the actions of Egyptian President Gamal Nasser.

In his attempt to achieve the goal of pan-Arabism – i.e. bringing the Arab Middle East under his domination — he ran into many great problems… most of them with the Arabs. They were not willing to become his client-subjects. He had engaged Egypt in a bitter civil war in Yemen, which had the effect of quicksand. Over 50,000 Egyptian troops were entangled in a war they could not win. It was like the United States in Vietnam or the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Egypt’s economy was faltering under the strain. He had mortgaged the entire Egyptian cotton crop to Russia to pay for armaments. Buckling under all this pressure, he sought a shortcut that would take care of all his problems in one fell swoop: war against the State of Israel. Victory would instantly turn him into the hero of the Arab world. A Fool’s Paradise By 1967, world Jewry was rolling along in a fool’s paradise. Israel would always be protected, it assumed; the world would protect it.

That was further fueled by the fact that the United Nations had its peace-keeping force present in the Sinai Peninsula, as well as at the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba to guarantee free passage of shipping. Even though Nasser had violated his word and did not allow any Israel shipping, or even ships sailing to Israel through the Suez Canal, the State of Israel felt it could live with that inconvenience. However, in May Nasser received reports from his Russian advisors that the time to start a war with Israel was propitious. His army would be able to conquer the Israelis handily. He, therefore, decided not to delay any longer. War, he hoped, would solve his country’s problems. The Israelis celebrated their 19th Independence Day in May 1967 blissfully oblivious to what was going to happen in the next three weeks. Pushing the Envelope Nasser suddenly announced that the Egyptian army was going to go on maneuvers in the Sinai, even though this was a violation of the agreement brokered by the United Nations between Israel and Egypt after the Sinai Campaign in 1956. The Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal with great fanfare – and in extremely large numbers. Israel protested. But nothing happened.

Nasser tried to do what Hitler did, when he brazenly entered other territories or countries and waited to see if there were any repercussions. When he saw that neither the United Nations nor anyone took any action, he moved to the second step: preventing shipping reaching Israel via the Gulf of Aqaba. This was in violation of free navigation of the waterways. The United States considered sending one of its own flagships up the Gulf of Aqaba to test the blockade, but for all the good intentions – including soothing remarks from President Johnson — nothing happened. Israel saw a pattern beginning to emerge. The next escalation occurred when Nasser ordered the United Nations peace-keeping troops off of Egyptian territory. He said that they were only there at the suffrage of the Egyptian government that had invited them there in 1957. Now, a decade later, he told them to leave. Incredibly, the General Secretary of the United Nations agreed! He flew to Egypt to speak to Nasser, but instead of defusing the situation he gave the order for his peace-keeping troops to evacuate. Now, nothing stood between Israel and the large Egyptian army in the Sinai moving toward its border.

Arab Alliances Nasser did not want to face Israel alone. He was afraid deep in his heart that Israel would be able to mobilize an army sufficient enough to defend itself against his forces. He, therefore, had a conference with the Syrians in Damascus, who agreed to shell the Israeli positions in the Galilee from the strategic Golan Heights, which they controlled. At the same time, he approached Jordan’s King Hussein. He saw now that Syria and Egypt, his two arch enemies in the Arab world, had made an alliance. On paper, his military analysts showed him that there was a very strong likelihood that Egypt and Syria would win the war. They also convinced him that the world would do nothing diplomatically. Furthermore, he was afraid that once Egypt and Syria were successful, they would come not only against the Israeli part of Palestine, but the Jordanian part of it, too. Therefore, King Hussein joined Nasser. The two archenemies were shown in The New York Times embracing each other in the anticipated victory over the state of Israel and throwing the Jews into the sea. He even went so far as to place his army under the command of an Egyptian general, who would unify the movements of all the Arab armies.

Israel knew now that there would be war. It was not a matter that would go away. Abba Eban, who then was the Israeli foreign minister, traveled the world, stopping at all the capitals, to enlist the good wishes of world leaders – but no one was willing to do anything to stop it. The Specter of Another Holocaust The Jews throughout the world were frightened. Here was the specter of the Holocaust happening all over again, not 25 years later. Synagogues in the United States were packed with Jews, including many who had not been in a synagogue for years. The Israeli army mobilized – and they stood mobilized for almost two weeks. It was both incredibly expensive and emotionally draining. The politicians formed a national unity government. Then, the prime minister, Levi Eshkol, made a speech to the nation, exhorting it to be strong – but he broke down in the middle of the speech! It was the most demoralizing moment. On Monday morning, June 5, 1967, the war began. When word reached America, many Jews did not go to work.

Their worst fears were exacerbated by the fact that, as the Israeli news radio went on blackout during the first 18 hours of the war, the Arabs were broadcasting their glorious victories: They were bombing Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, destroying the enemy with impunity, etc. What really happened was that on Monday morning the Israeli air force had launched a devastating surprise attack which destroyed virtually the entire Arab air force, including those in Egypt, Jordan and Syria — all in under three hours! About 500 Arab planes were destroyed at the loss of less than 40 for the Israelis. The Israelis had flown as low as six feet over the Mediterranean for almost seventy miles at over the speed of sound to avoid radar detection. It was an incredible feat of piloting acumen. Never before had there been such a lopsided battle of air forces. There was still a war to fight, but the tactical advantage had changed immediately. Israel now attacked on the Egyptian front, sending three main tank battle groups into Sinai. The three burst into the Sinai, smashing the Egyptian army and destroying it in three days. Countless trucks, tanks, artillery and other burned out Egyptian vehicles littered the desert when it was over. Over 5,000 Egyptian soldiers surrendered immediately.

The Israelis were at the Suez faster than they were in the Sinai campaign. There was now nothing between them and Cairo. After announcing repeatedly that Egypt was winning the war, Nasser was in a panic, on the verge of losing his country. Jerusalem Recaptured Meanwhile, King Hussein made the error of entering the war based on Nasser’s public announcements. He thrust forward in the expectation of taking Jerusalem. There were a number of pitched battles. One was on Ammunition Hill, which had been a British ammunition fortress protecting East Jerusalem where the Jordanians had set up extensive bunkers and defenses. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Israeli paratroopers captured the hill, despite experiencing terrible casualties in the process. With Ammunition Hill now in their hands, the Jordanians were outflanked and retreated. The Israelis captured the Old City all the way to the Western Wall, the Wailing Wall, the last remnant of the Temple that had last been in Jewish hands almost exactly 1,900 years earlier. The liberation of Jerusalem forced the Jordanian army to vacate the entire West Bank. They were pounded by the Israeli air force across the Jordan River.

Along with the Jordanians, about 100,000 Arabs there also fled, further compounding the Arab refugee problem. One of the memorable images of the time is of King Hussein — unshaven, haggard, tired and beaten – getting on television and announcing his defeat, cursing out the other Arab nations for fooling him. The Golan The Israelis decided that now was the time to settle the score with Syria also. Beginning on Friday morning they attacked, using many of the same troops that fought in the Sinai and Jerusalem. They were now fighting in their third major battle within the course of a week. The Golan was considered an impregnable fortress. It had a triple-layer system of mines, bunkers, artillery and machine guns built into the high ground that they occupied. The Israeli air force was of aid, but could not do it alone because it had to be conquered foot by foot, grenade by grenade. In what was a textbook exhibition of how foot soldiers can dislodge an enemy no matter how strong, the Israelis were able to push the Syrians out of all three lines of defense. They finally captured the peak of Mount Hermon.

It is such a strategic location that it is possible to see every plane landing at Damascus airport 20 miles away from its perch. The entire Golan all fell under Israeli control. It would take them almost a decade to just remove all the mine fields. No One Called The Israelis sustained about 700 dead and 2,000 wounded, but the radiance of victory overshadowed the personal tragedy involved. Suddenly, from the small Jewish state on the verge of annihilation Israel was an “imperial power.” Russia immediately broke relations with Israel. The United Nations voted for a cease fire, which Egypt and Arabs accepted. The Israelis were convinced somehow that now the Arabs would make peace; that they would trade peace for the territory that Israel had acquired. Had the Arabs wanted to in 1967, they certainly could have struck the deal. Politically, every party in Israel would have allowed it. Aside from perhaps East Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall everything was on the table for negotiation. In Moshe Dayan’s famous words, the day after the war was over, “I’m waiting at the phone.” But no one ever called. A whole new viewpoint of Israel opened in the world.

The Jews were enormously proud while many non-Jews had enormous resentment. In the United Nations and other diplomatic arenas a great deal of that resentment spilled over. It became fashionable not to look at Israel favorably. Aware of the change, Golda Meir famously stated that given a choice between the world’s sympathy and Israel’s survival she would always choose Israel’s survival. Be that as it may, rarely has a Jew had an opportunity to feel the emotions that Jews felt then. Jewish history and Jewish destiny converged in a brief moment in time. Unfortunately, it did not last. It is always hard to take the emotion of a momentous event and translate it into action. To this date, the Jewish world has never come back to that level. Nevertheless, in terms of what was achieved at that moment it was one of the high watermarks of the generation. It was an indication of the capabilities and hidden resources of the unity and strength the lies within the Jewish people. Background & Overview - Six-Day War | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet Israel consistently expressed a desire to negotiate with its neighbors.

In an address to the UN General Assembly on October 10, 1960, Foreign Minister Golda Meir challenged Arab leaders to meet with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to negotiate a peace settlement. Nasser answered on October 15, saying that Israel was trying to deceive world opinion, and reiterating that his country would never recognize the Jewish State. (1) The Arabs were equally adamant in their refusal to negotiate a separate settlement for the refugees. As Nasser told the United Arab Republic National Assembly March 26, 1964: Israel and the imperialism around us, which confront us, are two separate things. There have been attempts to separate them, in order to break up the problems and present them in an imaginary light as if the problem of Israel is the problem of the refugees, by the solution of which the problem of Palestine will also be solved and no residue of the problem will remain. The danger of Israel lies in the very existence of Israel as it is in the present and in what she represents. (2) The Palestinian Army In 1963, the Arab League decided to introduce a new weapon in its war against Israel — the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) .

The PLO formally came into being during a 1964 meeting of the first Palestinian Congress. Shortly thereafter, the group began to splinter into various factions. Ultimately, the largest faction, Fatah , would come to dominate the organization, and its leader, Yasser Arafat , would become the PLO chairman and most visible symbol. All the groups adhered to a set of principles laid out in the Palestine National Charter , which called for Israel's destruction. The PLO’s belligerent rhetoric was matched by deeds. Terrorist attacks by the group grew more frequent. In 1965, 35 raids were conducted against Israel. In 1966, the number increased to 41. In just the first four months of 1967, 37 attacks were launched. The targets were always civilians. (3) Most of the attacks involved Palestinian guerillas infiltrating Israel from Jordan , the Gaza Strip , and Lebanon . The orders and logistical support for the attacks were coming, however, from Cairo and Damascus. Egyptian President Nasser’s main objective was to harass the Israelis, but a secondary one was to undermine King Hussein’s regime in Jordan.

King Hussein viewed the PLO as both a direct and indirect threat to his power. Hussein feared that the PLO might try to depose him with Nasser’s help or that the PLO’s attacks on Israel would provoke retaliatory strikes by Israeli forces that could weaken his authority. By the beginning of 1967, Hussein had closed the PLO’s offices in Jerusalem , arrested many of the group’s members, and withdrew recognition of the organization. Nasser and his friends in the region unleashed a torrent of criticism on Hussein for betraying the Arab cause. Hussein would soon have the chance to redeem himself. Terror from the Heights The breakup of the U.A.R. and the resulting political instability only made Syria more hostile toward Israel. Another major cause of conflict was Syria’s resistance to Israel’s creation of a National Water Carrier to take water from the Jordan River to supply the country. The Syrian army used the Golan Heights , which tower 3,000 feet above the Galilee, to shell Israeli farms and villages. Syria’s attacks grew more frequent in 1965 and 1966, forcing children living on kibbutzim in the Huleh Valley to sleep in bomb shelters.

Israel repeatedly protested the Syrian bombardments to the UN Mixed Armistice Commission, which was charged with policing the cease-fire, but the UN did nothing to stop Syria’s aggression — even a mild Security Council resolution expressing “regret” for such incidents was vetoed by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Israel was condemned by the United Nations when it retaliated. While the Syrian military bombardment and terrorist attacks intensified, Nasser’s rhetoric became increasingly bellicose. In 1965, he announced, “We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand; we shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood.” (4) Again, a few months later, Nasser expressed the Arabs’ aspiration: “[el] the full restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people. In other words, we aim at the destruction of the state of Israel. The immediate aim: perfection of Arab military might. The national aim: the eradication of Israel.” (5) Syria’s attacks on Israeli kibbutzim from the Golan Heights finally provoked a retaliatory strike on April 7, 1967. During the attack, Israeli planes shot down six Syrian fighter planes — MiGs supplied by the Soviet Union.

Shortly thereafter, the Soviets — who had been providing military and economic assistance to both Syria and Egypt — gave Damascus false information alleging a massive Israeli military buildup in preparation for an attack. Despite Israeli denials, Syria decided to invoke its defense treaty with Egypt and asked Nasser to come to its aid. Countdown to War On May 15, Israel's Independence Day , Egyptian troops began moving into the Sinai and massing near the Israeli border. By May 18, Syrian troops were prepared for battle along the Golan Heights . Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) , stationed in the Sinai since 1956 as a buffer between Israeli and Egyptian forces after Israel’s withdrawal following the Sinai Campaign , to withdraw on May 16. Without bringing the matter to the attention of the General Assembly (as his predecessor had promised), Secretary-General U Thant complied with the demand. After the withdrawal of the UNEF, the Voice of the Arabs radio station proclaimed on May 18, 1967: As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel.

The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence. (6) An enthusiastic echo was heard May 20 from Syrian Defense Minister Hafez Assad: Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united....I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation. (7) The Blockade On May 22, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping and all ships bound for Eilat . This blockade cut off Israel's only supply route with Asia and stopped the flow of oil from its main supplier, Iran . In 1956 , the United States gave Israel assurances that it recognized the Jewish State's right of access to the Straits of Tiran. In 1957, at the UN, 17 maritime powers declared that Israel had a right to transit the Strait.

Moreover, the blockade violated the Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone, which was adopted by the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea on April 27, 1958. (8) President Johnson expressed the belief that the blockade was illegal and unsuccessfully tried to organize an international flotilla to test it. At the same time, he advised the Israelis not to take any military action. After the war, he acknowledged the closure of the Strait of Tiran was the casus belli (June 19, 1967): If a single act of folly was more responsible for this explosion than any other it was the arbitrary and dangerous announced decision that the Strait of Tiran would be closed. The right of innocent maritime passage must be preserved for all nations. (9) Escalation Nasser was aware of the pressure he was exerting to force Israel’s hand, and challenged Israel to fight almost daily. The day after the blockade was set up, he said defiantly: "The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war." (10) Nasser challenged Israel to fight almost daily. "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.

The Arab people want to fight," he said on May 27. (11) The following day, he added: "We will not accept any...coexistence with Israel...Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel....The war with Israel is in effect since 1948." (12) King Hussein of Jordan signed a defense pact with Egypt on May 30. Nasser then announced: The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel...to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations. (13) President Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq joined in the war of words: "The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948.

Our goal is clear -- to wipe Israel off the map." (14) On June 4, Iraq joined the military alliance with Egypt , Jordan and Syria . The Arab rhetoric was matched by the mobilization of Arab forces. Approximately 465,000 troops, more than 2,800 tanks, and 800 aircraft ringed Israel. (15) By this time, Israeli forces had been on alert for three weeks. The country could not remain fully mobilized indefinitely, nor could it allow its sea lane through the Gulf of Aqaba to be interdicted. Israel decided to preempt the expected Arab attack. To do this successfully, Israel needed the element of surprise. Had it waited for an Arab invasion, Israel would have been at a potentially catastrophic disadvantage. On June 5, Prime Minister Eshkol gave the order to attack Egypt . The U.S. Position The United States tried to prevent the war through negotiations, but it was not able to persuade Nasser or the other Arab states to cease their belligerent statements and actions.

Still, right before the war, Johnson warned: "Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go alone." (16) Then, when the war began, the State Department announced: "Our position is neutral in thought, word and deed." (17) Moreover, while the Arabs were falsely accusing the United States of airlifting supplies to Israel, Johnson imposed an arms embargo on the region (France, Israel's other main arms supplier also embargoed arms to Israel). By contrast, the Soviets were supplying massive amounts of arms to the Arabs. Simultaneously, the armies of Kuwait , Algeria , Saudi Arabia and Iraq were contributing troops and arms to the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian fronts. (18) On June 5, 1967, Israel was indeed alone, but its military commanders had conceived a brilliant war strategy. The entire Israeli Air Force , with the exception of just 12 fighters assigned to defend Israeli air space, took off at 7:14 a.m. with the intent of bombing Egyptian airfields while the Egyptian pilots were eating breakfast. In less than 2 hours, roughly 300 Egyptian aircraft were destroyed.

A few hours later, Israeli fighters attacked the Jordanian and Syrian air forces, as well as one airfield in Iraq. By the end of the first day, nearly the entire Egyptian and Jordanian air forces, and half the Syrians’, had been destroyed on the ground. The battle then moved to the ground, and some of history’s greatest tank battles were fought between Egyptian and Israeli armor in the blast-furnace conditions of the Sinai desert. CLICK ON MAPS TO ENLARGE Jerusalem Is Attacked Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent a message to King Hussein on June 5 saying Israel would not attack Jordan unless he initiated hostilities. When Jordanian radar picked up a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel, and the Egyptians convinced Hussein the planes were theirs, he ordered the shelling of West Jerusalem. It turned out that the planes were Israel’s and were returning from destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground. It took only three days for Israeli forces to defeat the Jordanian legion. On the morning of June 7, the order was given to recapture the Old City . Israeli paratroopers stormed the city and secured it.

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan arrived with Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin to formally mark the Jews’ return to their historic capital and their holiest site. At the Western Wall , the IDF’s chaplain, Rabbi Shlomo Goren , blew a shofar to celebrate the event. A Second Exodus After Jordan launched its attack on June 5, approximately 325,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank fled to other parts of Jordan, primarily to avoid being caught in the cross-fire of a war. (19) A Palestinian refugee who was an administrator in a UNRWA camp in Jericho said Arab politicians had spread rumors in the camp. "They said all the young people would be killed. People heard on the radio that this is not the end, only the beginning, so they think maybe it will be a long war and they want to be in Jordan." (20) Some Palestinians who left preferred to live in an Arab state rather than under Israeli military rule. Members of various PLO factions fled to avoid capture by the Israelis.

Nils-Göran Gussing, the person appointed by the UN Secretary-General to investigate the situation, found that many Arabs also feared they would no longer be able to receive money from family members working abroad. (21) Israeli forces ordered a handful of Palestinians to move for "strategic and security reasons." In some cases, they were allowed to return in a few days, in others; Israel offered to help them resettle elsewhere. (22) The net result, however, was that a new refugee population had been created and the old refugee problem was made worse. The Stunning Victory While most IDF units were fighting the Egyptians and Jordanians, a small, heroic group of soldiers were left to defend the northern border against the Syrians. It was not until the Jordanians and Egyptians were subdued that reinforcements could be sent to the Golan Heights , where Syrian gunners commanding the strategic high ground made it exceedingly difficult and costly for Israeli forces to penetrate. Finally, on June 9, after two days of heavy air bombardment, Israeli forces succeeded in breaking through the Syrian lines. After just six days of fighting, Israeli forces were in a position to march on Cairo, Damascus, and Amman.

By this time, the principal objectives of capturing the Sinai and the Golan Heights had been accomplished, and Israeli political leaders had no desire to fight in the Arab capitals. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had become increasingly alarmed by the Israeli advances and was threatening to intervene. At this point, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk advised the Israelis “in the strongest possible terms” to accept a cease-fire. On June 10, Israel did just that. The victory came at a very high cost. In storming the Golan Heights , Israel suffered 115 dead-roughly the number of Americans killed during Operation Desert Storm. Altogether, Israel lost twice as many men  777 dead and 2,586 wounded-in proportion to her total population as the U.S. lost in eight years of fighting in Vietnam. (23) Also, despite the incredible success of the air campaign, the Israeli Air Force lost 46 of its 200 fighters. (24) The death toll on the Arab side was 15,000 Egyptians, 2,500 Syrians, and 800 Jordanians.

By the end of the war, Israel had conquered enough territory to more than triple the size of the area it controlled, from 8,000 to 26,000 square miles. The victory enabled Israel to unify Jerusalem . Israeli forces had also captured the Sinai, Golan Heights , Gaza Strip and West Bank . Israel now ruled more than three-quarters of a million Palestinians  most of whom were hostile to the government. Nevertheless, more than 9,000 Palestinian families were reunited in 1967. Ultimately, more than 60,000 Palestinians were allowed to return. (25) In November 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242 , which established a formula for Arab-Israeli peace whereby Israel would withdraw from territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace with its neighbors. This resolution has served as the basis for peace negotiations from that time on. Israel's leaders fully expected to negotiate a peace agreement with their neighbors that would involve some territorial compromise. Therefore, instead of annexing the West Bank , a military administration was created. No occupation is pleasant for the inhabitants, but the Israeli authorities did try to minimize the impact on the population.

Don Peretz, a frequent writer on the situation of Arabs in Israel and a sharp critic of the Israeli government, visited the West Bank shortly after the Israeli troops had taken over. He found they were trying to restore normal life and prevent any incidents that might encourage the Arabs to leave their homes. (26) Except for the requirement that school texts in the territories be purged of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic language, the authorities tried not to interfere with the inhabitants. They did provide economic assistance; for example, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were moved from camps to new homes. This stimulated protests from Egypt, which had done nothing for the refugees when it controlled the area. Arabs were given freedom of movement. They were allowed to travel to and from Jordan. In 1972, elections were held in the West Bank . Women and non-landowners, unable to participate under Jordanian rule, were now permitted to vote. East Jerusalem Arabs were given the option of retaining Jordanian citizenship or acquiring Israeli citizenship. They were recognized as residents of united Jerusalem and given the right to vote and run for the city council. Also, Islamic holy places were put in the care of a Muslim Council.

Despite the Temple Mount's significance in Jewish history, Jews were barred from conducting prayers there. Israel's 1967 Miracle - Inside Israel - CBN News - Christian News 24-7 - CBN.com Israel's 1967 Miracle CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief Tuesday, June 05, 2007 Ad Feedback The stage was set for war and Israel's enemies prepared for victory. They remained convinced they could "drive the Jews into the sea." But what was about to transpire would not only stun Israel's enemies, confound military experts but transfix the world. Many believe what happened in the six days following June 4, 1967 was nothing short of a miracle. On June 4, 1967, the infant state of Israel found itself on the brink of annihilation. Israelis still lived with the agonizing memory of the Holocaust. What is the biblical significance of numbers such as 10 and 40? How does all of these relate to the times of the Gentiles being fullfilled? Click play to watch Pat Robertson's teaching of the day on the Six Day War, following this report.

Now the Arab nations surrounding Israel vowed to make the blue Mediterranean run red with the blood of Jews. "We were thinking in terms that the Israelis are going to be thrown to the water," Ret. General Eitan Ben-Eliyahu said. On the morning of June 5, 1967 Ben-Eliyahu flew one of the first missions against Egyptian air fields in the Sinai. "This is a matter of life and death," he said. "This is a matter of Israel is going to be destroyed. This is matter like this is the third chapter of our Independence Day, '56, and now '67." "The people were in panic, people were talking about the imminent destruction of the State of Israel, of a war in which there will be an enormous number of casualties; at least 10,000 people will be killed," Ret. General Shlomo Givas said. Rabbis in Jerusalem anticipated so many deaths they actually designated all of the public parks in Jerusalem as cemeteries. Just before the war, the joke in Israel was: "Last ones out, turn off the lights." But this black humor didn't mask the fear that many Israelis genuinely anticipated a catastrophe. Why?

Israel found itself outnumbered and out-gunned on three fronts, Egypt to the south, Jordan to the west and Syria to the north. The Soviet Union had poured $2 billion worth of arms into the Arab nations. Israel's enemies brought twice as many soldiers, three times as many tanks and four times as many airplanes to the battlefield. But just before the war, Egypt, Israel's main enemy suffered a series of major mistakes and mishaps. "There was this miscommunication between Nasser and his top generals," Channel 2 Military Correspondent Ehud Yaari said. "And everything didn't work to what they thought. And when the war broke, you could see and hear, which we did. We heard them. You could see and hear that the Egyptian high command was not in control." Egypt's high command also dismissed warnings by mid-level Egyptian intelligence officers of an imminent Israeli air attack. The night before the war, Egypt's commander-in-chief, Abd al-Hakim Amer gathered his high command for a party at an air base far away from the front lines. "They were caught by surprise, totally," Yaari said. "I mean some of them tried to get into the air in order to join their units.

They couldn't do it." Two weeks before the war, Egypt replaced all of its commanders in Sinai with officers unfamiliar with the terrain. On the morning of June 5, Jordanian radar detected the Israeli air force taking off. They sent a red alert to Cairo but the decoding officer used the wrong day's code and failed to decipher the vital information. The warning never came. Instead, the Israeli Air Force decimated the Egyptian Air Force on the ground, the key to the outcome of the war. Author Sarah Rigler, who's written about the Six Day War, believes that series of Egyptian mistakes revealed the work of an unseen hand. "You can say, what a lucky coincidence or you can see the Divine Hand," she said. "You can see God arranged all these things to happen the way they did because He wanted the Israeli strike to succeed. He wanted us to win. He wanted us to regain our holy places." To some, the confusion in the Egyptian command just before the war evoked memories of the biblical story of Gideon routing the enemies of Israel. Instead of annihilation, Israel won one of the most decisive victories in military history. Many Orthodox Jews and Christians believe the Jewish nation had witnessed a miracle.

"For evangelical Christians, the Six Day War was a huge moment of seeing God's Hand intervene on behalf of the Jewish People," Joel Rosenberg said. "That's what was so extraordinary, that you had this moment where Arab/Islamic leaders were saying we're going to throw the Jews into the sea and it looked like another holocaust was immanent. Suddenly, in six days, the Jewish people defended themselves, destroyed their enemies, tripled their land; recaptured control of Jerusalem for the first time in 2,000 years and on the seventh day they rested. That just sounded way too Biblical for evangelicals all over the planet and they rejoiced with the Jewish people." "In the immediate aftermath of the war, everyone, both religious and secular alike recognized that this was from God because it was just so implausible," Rigler said. She added, "It was like this is a miracle. Even Moshe Dayan, who was the commander of the Israeli forces and who was a very secular person. He went to visit the Western Wall the day after it was liberated and there's a tradition to put notes to God in the wall. So he put a little note to God in the crevices in the wall.

And of course as soon as he left, the newspaper men in their typical discreet way ran and took the note out and read it. And what did it say? It was a line from Psalms that said; 'This is from God. It's wondrous in our eyes."

Question: Who commanded the Israeli Army during the Six Day War
Answer: Moshe Dayan