An Overview of the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Middle East

Summarizing the assigned article, "The Mideast: A Century of Conflict," Israel, which had been independent since 1948, was surrounded by Arab states dedicated to its eradication. Egypt, ruled by Gamal Abdel Nasser, had the strongest army in the Arab Middle East, and Syria was governed by the radical Baathist Party, which constantly threatened to push Israel into the sea. The Israelis attacked Egypt first, on June 5, 1967.

In the spring of that year, the Soviet Union led the radical government in Damascus to believe that Israel was planning to invade Syria.

They shared this incorrect information with the Egyptian leader, Nasser, who closed the Gulf of Aqaba to shipping, cutting off Israel's primary oil supplies. Nasser also ordered U.N. peacekeepers to leave the Sinai Peninsula, sending scores of troops into the Sinai. This plan immediately boosted Nasser's importance. Almost overnight he was elevated to god-like status. The sad thing was, Nasser had no idea that Israel would strike back!!

After three weeks of debate, Israel's leaders agreed to attack.

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During the first day of the attack, Israel almost destroyed the Egyptian Air Force. After the sixth day of war, Israel had seized all of the Sinai and Gaza from Egypt, the West Bank and all of Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Seizing Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Old Jerusalem allowed Israelis to visit and worship at the holy sites for the first time in decades.

The war profoundly changed Israel itself. It led to the emergence of a strong mythic movement that claimed the West Bank as part of greater Israel.

In the months after the Six Day War, Palestinian guerilla leader Yassar Arafat organized an insurrection in the West Bank that failed, but it did bring about a change in the outlook of the Palestinian people. This, according to Yezid Sayigh, author of "Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1945-1993," catapulted the general Palestinian public into the arms of guerrilla because they had seen that the people and army they believed in and placed their hopes had been swept aside in a matter of days.

And here came along a group of young men who stood up and said, "We're going to take matters into our own hands. The Palestinians will stand up and fight for themselves. We are going to transform ourselves from being destitute refugees waiting for charity from the U.N. into freedom fighters." Shuster says the central conflict would be waged between the Israelis and the stateless Palestinians for the land they both claimed as their own.