The Six-Day War, also known as the end of the Arab-Israeli War, in 1967 was a huge victory for Isreal and the final step to independence for the Jewish people. President Nasser of Egypt and the other Arab nations refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Egypt threatened Israel, and Syria regularly shelled Israeli communities, and conducted terrorist attacks along the Israeli borders. Israel retaliated against the Syrians, shooting down six Syrian fighter planes. On May 15, 1967, Israel Independence Day, Egypt prepared troops to attack Israel. Egypt advised The United Nations to pull out their peacekeeping forces in the Sinai desert. They claimed that with the United Nation’s withdrawal from Sinai, the destruction of Israel would happen once and for all. Egyptian forces in Sinai blockaded Israeli shipping headed for Eilat. This cut off the supply routes to Asia and stopped the oil supply that was importing from Iran. America declared this illigal, but was unable to stop it.
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Israeli troops roll into Gaza after invading Egypt during the
6 Day War. |
At this time, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria all joined an Anti-Israel alliance. Israeli planes attacked Egypt with help from weapons donated from America and France. However, the Soviet Union was giving help to the Anti-Israel alliance. Within six days, Israel broke through Arab enemy lines, and its area was now exceeding 26,000 square miles, as it captured The Old City, Kotel, and unified Jerusalem. This day was delcared Yom Yerushalayim, or a national holiday called Jerusalem Day. Another reason that Israel was victorious was due to empathy and donations from the Jewish world in other countries. After the war, Israel was placed in a position of directly ruling 750,000 Arab Palestinians. Isreal lands raised the possibility of land for peace treaties. Currently, Egypt and Isreal and Jordan and Isreal signed a peace treaty.
