Israel/Palestine - Six-Day War

1. Israel/Palestine - Six-Day War • following the Suez Crisis Palestinians remained a marginalized population • conditions in Gaza particularly bad; Palestinians in West Bank resisted efforts by Jordan to integrate • Palestinians had viewed Pan-Arabism as a way to resolve their struggle with Israel • under Yasser Arafat’s leadership Fatah came to dominate the Palestinian cause

2. Fatah principles • Palestinians alone responsible for their fate • priority of Palestinian liberation over Arab unity • armed struggle to achieve goal • Fatah part of global anti-imperialist cause

3. Assifa • rivalry between Fatah and PLO - Artafat boycott of PLO meeting in East Jerusalem • some Fatah members attracted to PLO • Fatah battle group Assifa (the Storm) attacked the National Water Carrier Canal in Israel • plan failed, but resulting publicity increased support for Fatah and Arafat • further attacks by Assifa - eleven Israelis killed; provocative attacks prepare way for Six-Day War

4. Path to War • Israeli PM Eskol invited “hawks” Menachem Begin and Moshe Dayan to join his cabinet in 1967 • hawks favored war in order to expand Israeli territory and make it more defensible • Palestinians also favored war to regain their lands • Lebanon and Jordan rejected war; while Nasser publicly advocated war, he privately considered the consequences of defeat

5. Cross-border conflicts • conflicts on the Syrian/Israeli border - water rights; aerial combat • Palestinians carried out raids on Israel from southern Lebanon and Jordan • in reprisal for the killing of Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem the IDF launched amajor attack on the village of Samu in the West Bank • homes, mosque demolished and 50 Jordanian forces, killed or injured • Hussein almost overthrown

6. reflecting Cold War rivalries Israel and its enemies received arms from both the Soviet Union and the West • U.S., (Johnson) West Germany, France provided weapons • Soviet Union supplied Syria • with Soviet backing Egypt and Syria entered defense pact in 1966 • based on false information supplied by the Soviets Nasser prepared for war - UN observers were asked to withdraw from Sinai

7. Six-Day War 1967 • U Thant, UN Secretary General, agreed to withdraw observers • Nasser closed Strait of Tiran • considered an act of war by Israel • waiting period - Hussein agreement with Nasser; Arab nations promised solidarity with Egypt • Israel planned attack

8. advantage Israel - highly trained, highly motivated forces; superior weaponry; surprise attack • Arab countries lacked coordination and motivation - Jordan a reluctant participant • quick victory essential for Israel • June 5, 1967 Israeli’s targeted Egyptian airbases and communication network • 309 of 340 Egyptian aircraft were destroyed • IDF advanced across Sinai to Suez Canal

9. within days Israel now occupied Sinai, Gaza, West Bank - including East Jerusalem • tensions mounted between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. • with the West Bank secured, Israel accepted a ceasefire - Jordan and Egypt had already accepted the ceasefire proposal

10. despite the ceasefire Israel attacked the Golan Heights in Syria • U.S. (Johnson) condemnation of the action • off the coast of Gaza an intelligence-gathering ship, the USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli planes • 205 of crew were killed or wounded • planned by Dayan? Israelis claimed it was all a terrible mistake • Israelis now struck and captured the Golan Heights - 10 June

11. After the war • major loss of forces and equipment on Arab side; Israelis lost only 779 soldiers • Israel had captured Sinai, West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights • captured territories under military occupation • Jerusalem was made Israel’s capital

12. Six-Day War greatly added to the Palestinian refugee problem • some 323,000 new refugees from the occupied territories • war, however, helped to strengthen sense of Palestinian unity • Arafat’s Fatah-dominated PLO policy of aggressive nationalism now held sway - Pan-Arabism had failed • greater international focus on the plight of the Palestinian people

13. Resolution 242 • following war, hawks and doves on both sides • doves willing to exchange land for peace - Israeli PM Eshkol, King Hussein, Nasser • hawks, no compromise attitude - Israel’s Menachem Begin and Syria • Arab summit, September 1967 adopted ‘three-noes’

14. Resolution 242 • British-worded compromise • resolution stated illegality of conquest • Israel must return ‘territories occupied’ - abiguity, all or some? • land for peace basis for resolution of conflict • by 1970 Israel had accepted Resolution

15. Syria strongly against Resolution 242 proposals • Arafat and the Palestinians also rejected the Resolution • all stolen Palestinian land should be returned • Israel’s neighbors would ultimately accept the principle of ‘land for peace’ • some in the Palestinian movement would also accept this principle