Six Days of War, 35 years without peace
In 1967 the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq were at war with Israel; the outcome of this struggle would come to shape the conflict in Palestine. Following the war Israel occupied the Golan Heights, Gaza strip, the West Bank and the Sinai Peninsula. With the exception of the Sinai these areas are still under Israeli control and have come to be known collectively as the occupied territories. Israel's unprecedented success against the Arab armies, far from bringing peace and increased security, has resulted in nearly continuous unrest and conflict among the Palestinians; the Israelis continued reliance on force to deal with the Arabs. In the words of one Israeli soldier:
"The root of all this confusion lies in the glory of war, accompanied by the indisputable fact that war can't be a good thing and that nothing can be achieved by it.
No one comes out of a war unscarred. I find it very difficult to accept the idea that it was through the war that we achieved great and wonderful things, things that no one had dreamt of before.
Can you educate in the light of war? Can you establish and build and develop a set of concepts, values and ideas in the light of a war, or in the shadow of a potential war? You can't build yourself on war. Whenever you here the same theme, whenever you see the things that characterize every great war, you're faced by a contradiction that's very difficult to resolve." (Re'uven: Israeli paratrooper reflecting on the Six Days War)
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the origins and impacts of the 1967 Six Day War; and argue that the outcome of this conflict is a direct cause of the...