What was the outcome of the Six-Day War of 1967?
1 Answer
It was a total defeat for the Arabs, and it exacerbated the issue of a Palestinian homeland.
Explanation:
The war itself, as the name suggests, was over in 6 days. Fought in June 1967, the Israelis carried out a successful pre-emptive air strike, destroying the neighbouring Arab air forces on the ground.
They then seized Sinai from the Egyptians, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from the Syrians.
This created another wave of Palestinian refugees and the loss of the West Bank made it much harder to foresee where any Palestinian state could be established. This in turn was made worse by the policy of. building Israeli settlements on the West Bank as a succession of Sephardi supported governments gained power. They in turn were supported by groups such as Gush Emunim who saw and interpreted the territory within biblical terms.
Within the UN, Resolution 242 was passed recognising the rights of the Palestinians to a homeland.
The war like so many others, sowed the seeds of future conflict. The Arab states tried to redress the balance by attacking in October 1973, the Yom Kippur War.
However of greater significance was the question of the Palestinians and the conflict this caused within the Arab World itself. The Palestinian presence in Jordan led to a civil war in September 1970 which saw the Jordanian army crush a Palestinian internal attack. From the ashes rose Black September within the Palestinian guerrilla movement.
The Palestinians left Jordan and moved to Lebabon. This heightened tensions and was a significant factor in the civil war in that country throughout the 80's.
