The Six Day War free essay sample

The Six Day War as it became known was the third conflict between Israel and Arab nations. It was essentially a continuation of the first two conflicts as they were never really resolved. As it is the causes of the Six Day war were the same as earlier, Arab disdain for Israel’s existence. The Six Day war would be caused by this general rule and the fact as hostilities heightened, Egypt would cut off Israel’s shipping routes, cutting supply of oil from Iran. More specifically Egypt has expelled United Nations troops from the Sinai Peninsula and blockaded Israel’s port of Eliat, which by international law was an act of war. These events along with misguided Soviet information and calls from Arab leaders to destroy Israel would lead to the Six Day War. In the spring of 1967, tensions amongst the Arab nations and Israel were on high alert, as terrorist raids against Israel coming from Syria. We will write a custom essay sample on The Six Day War or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Israel grew tired of these raids, as they were aimed at its infrastructure, so in response to the raids by Syrian forces it placed armored tractors in the demilitarized zones, which as the plan goes would wait to be fired upon and hit, then they had cause to fire back. The Israeli plan would go into effect and as a result the hostilities would heighten as Israel would shoot down several Syrian planes, while the Palestinian fighters would plant mines along Israel’s border with Syria, Jordan and Lebanon (Oren 2002). As tensions mounted between Israel and the Arab nations, Soviet meddling would come into play. On May 15, Anwar Sadat, the Speaker of the National Assembly would visit Moscow, where he would be told by the Soviets that Israel had planned to invade Syria during the May 16 through May 22 time frame, all of this would prove to be false. Soviet intelligence cited the fact that Israeli troops parading in western Jerusalem, for Israel’s Independence Day, were doing so without heavy weapons, which they said were being amassed along the northern border with Syria. The reason as it turns out they were devoid of weaponry during their parades is to ease Arab tensions in the area. Sadat would pass this information along to Egypt and President Nasser, who would then parade Egypt’s forces through Cairo along its way to the Sinai Peninsula (Cleveland, 2009). On May 14, evidence that disputed Soviet information of an Israeli troop buildup along its Northern border with Syria would be ignored. Gen. Muhammed Fawzi, would tour the area reportedly rife with Israeli troops, only to find none, These findings would be confirmed by the head of Egyptian intelligence, the CIA and U. S. embassy in Cairo, but would be ignored by Nasser and his buildup of troops would continue (www. sixdaywar. org,2010). Israel would put its troops on alert, but sent its diplomats in to service, trying to avert war, or at least showing that they were not interested in a war. But to no avail as Egyptian and Palestinian forces would triple in the days between May 14 and 16th on the Sinai Peninsula (Oren, 2002). After the troop buildup, Egypt would evict UN Forces that been deployed to try and avert a war between Israel and Egypt. On May 16th presented the United Nations Emergency Force a demand to withdraw from key locations, so UN Secretary General U Thant decided to withdraw all UN forces. The final straw would come on May 22, as Egypt blocked the Strait of Tiran to Israeli shipping, which is an act of war under international law. This decision set of the Arab war, Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would all activate their armies. While the Arab nations were preparing for war, Israel was still trying to appeal for a diplomatic solution and for other nations to become involved (Cleveland, 2009). After the many attempts at diplomacy, most through back channel discussion with the U. S. , Israel voted on June 4, 1967, by a Cabinet vote of 12-2 to go to war, which would begin early the next morning, June, 1967. By its name the war only lasted six days, Israel launched a preemptive strike against the Egyptian army and crippled the Egyptian air force and routed the armies in Gaza and on the Sinai Peninsula. After three days of fierce fighting Israel would also defeat Jordanian forces and would deal a decisive blow to Syria on June 9, Syria had proposed a cease fire on that day but Israel would accept it the next day, as they didn’t want the Syrians remaining in the Golan Heights, where they had attacked Israel for so long and on June 10, 1967 a cease fire was observed by Israel, six days after the war began (Oren, 2002). The immediate aftermath of the war was one of diplomacy, or so Israel would have thought after their resounding defeat of the Arab nations. The rapid defeat of the Arab nations would damage the national pride of the Arab nations and increased the Palestinian refugee problems , as hundreds of thousands would flee the Israeli controlled West Bank area, and would heavily influence the policies of their now new nations. The new borders established by Israel after the war are the reason that the region is still in conflict today.