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1967 War

After three weeks of building tension with Egypt, particularly Cairo’s dispatch of 200,000 troops into the Sinai, the removal of U.N. peacekeeping troops, the blockade of Israeli shipping to the port at Eilat, and blistering verbal barrages from Arab leaders threatening Israel’s destruction, Israel pre-emptively struck Egypt on June 5, 1967.

In six days Israel defeated three Arab armies and increased its size threefold without predetermined plans to take the Golan Heights or the West Bank. Its victory included the reunification of Jerusalem, divided in the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli war. Only two decades after the tragedy of the Holocaust, Israelis and Diaspora Jewry rejoiced in Israel’s military success.

But Israel found itself unexpectedly in control over more than 1 million Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Egypt, Syria and Jordan refused postwar Israeli overtures for peace negotiations. In the years after the war, Arab leaders and Palestinian organizations remained virulently hostile to Israel’s existence.

By November 1967, the United Nations and United States defined a framework for negotiations that called for exchanges of land for peace. Israel’s control of Egyptian Sinai and Egypt’s loss of national honor in the smashing defeat of 1967 prompted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to take on Israel in another war in October 1973 and open an American diplomatic door to Israel, which in turn led to the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

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The Key Curated Essentials for the 1967 War

The June 1967 War: How It Changed Jewish, Israeli and Middle Eastern History

The June 1967 Middle East War transformed Israeli, Jewish, and Middle Eastern History. In the span of six weeks, in May and June 1967, Israel, its neighbors and the international community were engulfed with varying emotions including admonition, arrogance, audacity, astonishment, bravado, boasting, daring, euphoria, fears of annihilation, hesitation, humiliation, indecision, miscalculation, pride, procrastination, relief, resignation, self-doubt, self-importance, and tension.

Capturing these moments as well as the prelude and aftermath of the War dominate the contents of The June 1967 War: How It Changed Jewish, Israeli and Middle Eastern History in both the Leader’s Guide and Participant Booklet.

  • Suitable for those with varying knowledge levels. Valuable for those traveling to Israel, for easy use in summer camps, and in adult education, college, and high school settings.
  • The Leader’s Guide − 111 pages; Participant Booklet− 117 pages
  • Adaptable for use in three 75-minute sessions, five 45-minute sessions, or more
Curriculum/Syllabi|Store

Map of Israel After the 1967 War

With its six-day victory in the June 1967 war, Israel added the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria) to the territory under its control. Israelis moved…

Maps|June 1967|Spanish

Prime Minister Eshkol Statement to Knesset at Conclusion of June 1967 War

Two days after the conclusion of the June 1967 War, Eshkol, recounts the series of events that led to war, the war itself and the immediate aftermath. He reaches out to Arab states for peace seeking a path to peace with her belligerent neighbors. A week later, Israel will quietly messages Cairo and Damascus through the US, hat Israel seeks an end to the conflict. No answers are received.

Documents and Sources|June 12, 1967

The Allon Plan, 1967

July 26, 1967: The Alon Plan reflects a response to Israel’s pre-1967 war border vulnerability seeking a future west bank arrangement that is not a strategic/geographic threat to Israel and its coastal plain population centers.

Documents and Sources|July 26, 1967|Spanish