What was the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors?

Answer 1

Answer 1 - Listing

There are numerous causes to this conflict and the list below is not exhaustive.

1) "Wipe Israel off the Map" Statements: Arab Nationalists, especially Charismatic Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, were pushing strongly for Israel's elimination and made daily speeches about how the Arab States were going to invade and remove Israel from the map to form a unified Arab State. He began to coordinate military strategy with Syria and Jordan (to a lesser degree) as to how to invade Israel effectively. These threats were made daily and consistently in 1967. Additional troops were added to the Egyptian Army and that army began to be arrayed closer and closer to the Israeli border.

2) Removal of UNEF Forces: As a condition of the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1956, the UN deployed security forces to the Sinai Peninsula to prevent Egypt from massing troops in the Sinai. Nasser evicted the UNEF (the UN security force) from the Sinai Peninsula in contravention of the Armistice for the 1956 Suez Crisis and placed large numbers of Egyptian soldiers and armored divisions on the Israeli-Egyptian border.

3) Arab Military Coordination: Nasser coordinated military strategy quite closely with Syria and Jordan. It was clear to many at the time that these forces would not sit idle for long. A number of Syrian battalions were positioning themselves in the Golan Heights above the Sea of Galilee and Jordanian positions in the West Bank were becoming more entrenched.

4) Closure of Waterways: Egypt, counter to the armistice ending the 1956 War, closed the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping and then proceeded to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, cutting Israel off from trade with Iran which was Israel's greatest ally in the Middle East at the time and primary supplier of petroleum. This had the effect of strangling Israel and is considered by Israel to be the primary causus belli.

5) Best Defense is a Good Offense: Israel realized that its borders were too close to for them to risk an Arab Invasion of Israel before retaliating. Israel would have to fight a pre-emptive war in order to secure the best probability of success in a military engagement. The first act of open warfare was when Israel destroyed 2/3 of the Egyptian Air Force on the tar mac on June 5, 1967.

6) Imperialist Israel: (Written by someone else) It's when Israel wanted to occupy "their" land, and decided to attack their neighboring Arab countries for it.

Answer 2 - Discussion

The Six-Day War had a number of proximate and chronic causes.

Chronic Causes: Israel and the Arab States were only in Armistice for 18 years and during that time Arab Nationalism really developed. One of its cornerstones was Pan-Arab Unity and a non-Arab State (like Israel) that divided Arabs from each other (not to mention the Palestinian Exodus) was a wedge in that dream. Therefore, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser repeatedly threatened to push Israel "into the sea." Israel was also very jumpy in the sense that they had little in the way of international protection (as the United States did not become a strong backer of Israel until after the Six-Day War) and very indefensible borders.

Proximate Causes: Egypt made a number of overt threats to the peace and security of Israel. They closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli Shipping which cut off Israel from Iran (who at that time was ruled by the Shah and in Alliance with Israel) and other South Asian Nations. This severely diminished Israel's ability to procure petroleum. Also the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized their troops to surround Israel and kicked out the UN observers who had been maintaining the Armistice.

Between the fear of a slow death (because of the lack of petroleum) and the fear of a quick death (because of the mobilized armies on its borders) Israel decided that a surprise attack was the best way to deal with these threats. Israel never expected the attack to be the overwhelming success that it was.

The Arab nations wanted to defeat Israel as they had wanted since it's inception.

Answer 2

Answer 1

Israel conducted the Six Day War in 1967. It was one of the most successful and quickly concluded wars in history. In addition to capturing East Jerusalem, Israel gained the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and the West Bank of the Jordan River. From the Israeli POV, the war was necessary to gain these strategic buffer zones for the security of Israel. From the Arab POV, it was a brutal war of aggression. From this contributor's POV, it was something of both. From a military POV, it was a model of strategic and tactical planning, carried out with flawless precision, with many parallels to Germany's swift conquest of Western Continental Europe. For example, the Syrian air force was destroyed almost instantly, as it was with the German destruction of the Dutch air force in 1940.

• In an event similar to the aerial attack on the gunboat USS Panay by the Japanese, the spy ship USS Liberty was "accidentally" attacked by Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats. Although the US was an Israeli ally, it is speculated that Israel feared the US would leak Israeli intentions to the Arabs, so they took the ship out.

• In the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Egypt launched an offensive to compare well with the Six Day War, and Israel took heavy losses to hold the Sinai which was eventually returned to Egypt when the two countries agreed to peaceful coexistence.

Answer 2

That requires a very long, long answer. To make it short and sweet: Following the 1956 Sinai campaign, the UN acted as a buffer between Egypt and Israel in the Sinai. In 1967 Egypt ordered the UN out of the Sinai and the Israelis suspected this was so Egypt could invade. Neither side wanted war and many historians say the Arab states were merely posturing. In May 1967 Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran, cutting off Israeli shipping; Egypt, Jordan, and Syria also signed a military agreement. In June 1967, the Israeli Air-Force launched a preemptive strike on the Egyptian Air-Force. Egypt, Israel, and Syria became engaged in war. Jordan joined a day later by firing on western Jerusalem. Because of Israel's control of the skies, it managed in 6 days to take the Sinai peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Old City of Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. In 1979 the Sinai was returned to Egypt as part of a peace deal. The West Bank (which until 67 was under Jordanian control) is Palestinian territory and well, that's a whole 'nother story.

Answer 3

The 6 day war's very stem was do to Egypt's decision to expel United Nation's troops. It began in 1967. Even though this was the reason of the original beginning of the war it was fought between the Arabs and Israelis because of past Israeli rejection from the Arabs. This was the 3rd major conflict between the two.

Answer 4

The 1967 "Six Day War", Israel versus Egypt, Jordan, Syria; Israel won.

The Six Day war was about the surrounding Arab countries being determined to destroy Israel.

The Six Day war occurred when Israel became aware that the Arab Bloc countries were preparing to invade Israel, and in turn pre-empted them.

Answer 3

In 1967 the then president of Egypt, Gamel Abdel Nasser, who hated the Jews and Israel, blockaded the Straights of Tiran leading to the Gulf of Aquaba. He also ordered the UN observers out of Sinai-which they complied. His goal was to strangle Israel economically, since the Arab countries had tried over and over to destroy her by armed might. Israel launched a pre-emtive strike on June 5th, 1967 sending waves of jets to destroy the airforces of Egypt, and Syria, and then launched an infantry and armor attack against them winning the Sinai and Golan Heights. Israel then fought Jordan and won control of East Jerusalem back from Jordan allowing Jews to worship at the Wailing or Western Wall for the first time since 1947.

Answer 4

The War of Attrition was a war fought between Israel and Egypt from 1967 to 1970.

Following the 1967 Six-Day War, there were no serious diplomatic efforts to resolve the issues at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In September 1967 Arab states formulated the "Three No's" policy, barring peace, recognition or negotiations with Israel. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser believed only military initiative would compel Israel or the international community to force a full Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, and hostilities soon resumed along the Suez Canal.

These initially took the form of limited artillery duels and small scale incursions into Sinai, but by 1969 the Egyptian Army was prepared for larger scaled operations. On March 8, 1969, Nasser proclaimed the official launch of the War of Attrition, characterized by large scale shelling along the Suez Canal, extensive aerial warfare and commando raids. Hostilities continued until August 1970 and ended with a ceasefire, the frontiers remaining the same as when the war began, with no real commitment to serious peace negotiations.

Answer 5

Six Day War.