History isn't always a slow burn. Sometimes, it’s a lightning strike. In June 1967, the entire map of the Middle East was torn up and redrawn in less time than it takes to get over a bad flu. The Arab Israeli Six Day War wasn't just a brief military skirmish; it was a geopolitical earthquake whose aftershocks are still rattling windows in Jerusalem, Cairo, and Washington D.C. today. If you look at a map of the region from May 1967 and compare it to one from July, the difference is jarring. Israel went from a tiny, precarious strip of land to a regional power holding territory three times its original size.
It changed everything.
People often treat this war like a simple "David vs. Goliath" story or a pre-ordained victory. It was neither. In the weeks leading up to June 5, the mood in Israel was actually one of profound dread. People were digging mass graves in public parks. They expected a second Holocaust. On the other side, the Arab world was vibrating with a feverish Pan-Arabist energy led by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser. The rhetoric was scorching. Radio Cairo was broadcasting promises to "drive the Zionists into the sea."
Then, in a single morning, the air shifted. Literally.
How the Arab Israeli Six Day War Started Before a Single Tank Moved
You can't talk about the fighting without talking about the "waiting period" or Hammtana. Tensions had been simmering since the 1956 Suez Crisis, but things went off the rails in May 1967. The Soviet Union—either by mistake or through calculated misinformation—told the Egyptians that Israel was massing troops on the Syrian border. They weren't. But Nasser reacted anyway. He kicked out the UN peacekeepers (UNEF) who were acting as a buffer in the Sinai. He then closed the Straits of Tiran.
Closing those straits was a huge deal. It blocked Israel's only access to the Red Sea. In the eyes of the Israeli cabinet, that was a casus belli—an act of war.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol, was hesitant. He wanted a diplomatic fix. He waited for the US to do something, but President Lyndon B. Johnson was bogged down in Vietnam and couldn't get a maritime "regatta" together to break the blockade. While the diplomats talked, the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian armies moved toward the borders. The noose was tightening. By the time Israel decided to strike, it wasn't just about winning; it was about existing.
Operation Focus: The 170 Minutes That Ended the War
On June 5, at 7:45 AM, Israel took a massive gamble. They sent almost their entire air force—leaving only a handful of jets to protect their own skies—staying low over the Mediterranean to avoid Egyptian radar. They didn't target the soldiers. They targeted the runways.
🔗 Read more: Elecciones en Honduras 2025: ¿Quién va ganando realmente según los últimos datos?
It was a masterstroke of precision.
In less than three hours, the Egyptian Air Force, the most powerful in the Arab world, was essentially deleted. The planes were caught like sitting ducks on the tarmac. With the skies clear, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) could move into the Sinai Peninsula with total air superiority. This wasn't a fair fight anymore. Without air cover, the Egyptian tanks were just metal targets in the desert sun.
By the time Jordan and Syria joined the fray later that morning—misled by Egyptian reports that they were winning—the outcome was arguably already decided. But the fighting on the ground was still brutal.
The Battle for Jerusalem and the West Bank
Jordan’s entry into the war is one of history’s great "what ifs." Israel actually sent a message to King Hussein via the UN saying they wouldn't attack Jordan if Jordan stayed out. But Hussein was in a bind. He had signed a defense pact with Nasser and feared a coup if he didn't fight. So, the Jordanian Arab Legion started shelling West Jerusalem.
What followed was some of the most intense urban combat in modern history.
The Battle of Ammunition Hill stands out. It was a hellscape of trenches and bunkers. Israeli paratroopers, not originally trained for this specific mission, fought hand-to-hand against elite Jordanian troops. By June 7, the IDF reached the Old City. The image of secular paratroopers weeping at the Western Wall remains the most iconic photo of the Arab Israeli Six Day War. For the first time in 2,000 years, Jews had sovereign control over their holiest sites.
But this victory created a massive, complicated legacy. Israel now found itself governing over a million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. This is where the modern "occupation" began. It wasn't a planned expansion; it was a chaotic consequence of a war that moved faster than anyone's ability to plan for the "day after."
💡 You might also like: Trump Approval Rating State Map: Why the Red-Blue Divide is Moving
The Golan Heights: Fighting Upward
While the Sinai and the West Bank were falling, the northern front with Syria remained a terrifying problem. Syrian guns on the Golan Heights had been shelling Israeli kibbutzim in the valley below for years. The heights are a natural fortress—a steep, rocky climb that seems impossible to take.
On day five, Israel went for it.
It was a grueling uphill scramble. Soldiers were literally climbing cliffs under heavy fire. By the time a ceasefire was signed on June 10, Israel held the Golan. This gave them a strategic buffer against Syria that they maintain to this day.
Honestly, the sheer scale of the territorial change is hard to wrap your head around.
- Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip taken from Egypt.
- The West Bank and East Jerusalem taken from Jordan.
- The Golan Heights taken from Syria.
Why We Are Still Living in 1967
The Arab Israeli Six Day War didn't end in 1967. It just moved into a different phase. Before this war, the conflict was between states—Israel vs. Egypt, Israel vs. Jordan. After 1967, the Palestinian national movement took center stage. The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) gained massive traction as Palestinians realized the Arab states weren't going to "liberate" them through conventional warfare.
Then there’s the religious shift. For many religious Jews, the "miraculous" victory felt like divine intervention, sparking the modern settlement movement. For the Muslim world, the loss of Al-Aqsa Mosque was a profound trauma that fueled the rise of political Islam.
The UN Security Council Resolution 242 was born out of this conflict, introducing the "land for peace" formula. It’s the basis for every peace negotiation since—the Camp David Accords with Egypt, the treaty with Jordan, and the failed Oslo Accords.
📖 Related: Ukraine War Map May 2025: Why the Frontlines Aren't Moving Like You Think
What Most People Get Wrong
One big misconception is that Israel was a military superpower back then. They weren't. They were a poor country with a ragtag collection of modified French jets and refurbished tanks. They won because of intelligence, better pilot training, and the sheer desperation of a back-to-the-wall scenario.
Another mistake is thinking the Arab armies were incompetent. They weren't. The Jordanian Arab Legion was highly disciplined and fought bravely. The Egyptian command, however, was a disaster. Field Marshal Amer famously suffered a nervous breakdown and gave conflicting orders that led to a panicked retreat in the Sinai, where thousands of Egyptian soldiers died unnecessarily in the heat.
Realities on the Ground Today
If you visit the region today, the 1967 borders (often called the "Green Line") are the ghost that haunts every conversation. When you hear people talk about a "two-state solution," they are talking about the land Israel captured in those six days.
The war also flipped the Cold War script. The US became Israel's primary benefactor after 1967, while the Soviets doubled down on the Arab states to save face. It turned the Middle East into the ultimate chessboard for global superpowers.
How to Understand the Legacy Moving Forward
To truly grasp the impact of the Arab Israeli Six Day War, you have to look past the military maneuvers and see the human shifts. It created a refugee crisis that still hasn't been solved. It gave Israel "strategic depth" but also a permanent security headache.
If you want to dive deeper into this, don't just read the military stats. Look at the primary sources.
- Read the transcripts of the Israeli cabinet meetings from May 1967 to feel the genuine panic.
- Listen to the speeches of Gamal Abdel Nasser to understand the hope and eventual crushing disappointment felt by the Arab street.
- Study the text of Resolution 242, because nearly every headline you see today about the Middle East is secretly an argument about those few paragraphs written in November 1967.
The best way to respect the history is to acknowledge its complexity. There are no "easy" answers here. Every mile of land captured in 1967 comes with a story of a soldier who died for it and a family that was displaced because of it. Understanding that tension is the only way to understand the modern Middle East.
Practical Steps for Further Research
If you’re looking to get a handle on the nuances of the conflict, start by diversifying your sources. Michael Oren's Six Days of War is widely considered the definitive military and diplomatic history from an Israeli-aligned perspective. To balance that, look at the work of Avi Shlaim or Tom Segev, who offer more critical "New Historian" takes on the era. Exploring the memoirs of Anwar Sadat provides a window into how Egypt navigated the humiliation of 1967 to eventually find a path to the 1973 war and subsequent peace. Always cross-reference military maps with demographic data to see how the "Green Line" actually intersects with modern life in the region.