The Six Day War: Forty Years On Page 1 of 6

THE SIX DAY WAR: FORTY YEARS ON

Dear HonestReporting Subscriber:

Forty years have now passed since the "Six Day War"
which resulted in Israeli control over the Sinai Peninsula,
Gaza Strip, West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and Golan
Heights. Some media reports already refer to the fortieth
anniversary of the "occupation."

The goal of this special report is to remind

HonestReporting subscribers of the events of 1967 and
Israel's administration of the disputed territories. We ask
that you PRINT OUT AND PASS ON this special report
to help you respond to some of the bias and
misconceptions that will inevitably flood the international
media over the coming weeks.

How Did the War Begin?

While June 5 marks the day that Israel initiated its military operation, it is
important to note that the immediate Arab threats to wipe out Israel began in the
preceding months. It is also critical to take the causes of the Six Day War into
account before analyzing the resulting status of land taken as a result.
International Law makes a clear distinction between land "occupied" during
a war of aggression and land taken as a result of a defensive war.

This distinction explains why so many enemies of Israel are using this anniversary
to rewrite history and falsely claim that the Six Day War was initiated by Israel in
order to illegally capture land.

Who Initiated Hostilities?

Egypt and Syria Demand War:

"We aim at the destruction of the State of Israel. The

immediate aim: perfection of Arab military might. The
national aim: the eradication of Israel."

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, 1965

"Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse

the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the
Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with its finger on the
trigger, is united....I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to begin a

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battle of annihilation."

Syria’s Defense Minister Hafez Assad (later to be Syria’s President)

Israel Reaches Out for Peace:

"Even as the cannons roar we shall not cease from longing for
peace. Our only desire is to remove from our borders any threat of
sabotage and every danger of aggression, to safeguard our security
and the fullness of our rights."

Israeli Prime Minister Levy Eshkol, June 5, 1967

Israel's Arab neighbors unquestionably made clear their intentions to attack Israel.
Their stated goal had nothing to do with a border dispute, but rather the destruction
of the State of Israel. Yet, Israel's response was always the same: A simple desire
to live in peace.

Prior to the war Israel was the victim of numerous terrorist attacks launched from
Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Continuous Syrian shelling from the Golan
Heights on to Israeli towns and villages further highlighted Arab intentions. (For
more details on these military and terrorist attacks against Israel, see resources
appearing at the end of this report.)

All along the 1948 armistice lines, Arab armies engaged in an enormous military
build-up. Egypt ordered United Nations peacekeepers stationed in the Sinai to
leave. Shortly before the start of the war, Israel was confronted by an Arab force of
some 465,000 troops, over 2,880 tanks and 810 aircraft. The armies of Kuwait,
Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were also contributing troops and arms to the
Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian fronts.

Israel is Attacked and Captures Territory

Egypt Initiates War With Israel: Israel Captures Sinai and Gaza

Egypt chose to further escalate

hostilities. The narrow Straits of
Tiran were closed to Israeli
shipping creating a naval
blockade, preventing Israeli ships
from reaching the port of Eilat -
in violation of international law
and an act of war.

The United States was clear in its

policy. According to U.S.
President Johnson:

If a single act of folly was more responsible for this explosion than any
other it was the arbitrary and dangerous announced decision that the Strait
of Tiran would be closed. The right of innocent maritime passage must be

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preserved for all nations.

Faced with potential annihilation, Israel chose to launch a pre-emptive strike,

destroying the Egyptian and Syrian air forces while still on the ground.

Syria Initiates War With Israel: Israel Captures the Golan Heights

From the start of the war, Syria took part in the fighting with planes and artillery,
continuously shelling Israeli villages near the border and attacking some of them
with infantry and armor. There were no serious Israeli counter attacks until 9 June,
when the Israel Defense Forces, now freed from other fronts, attacked the Syrian
army entrenched on the Golan Heights. In fierce fighting, they stormed the Heights
and occupied the town of Kuneitra on the afternoon of June 10.

Jordan Initiates War With Israel: Israel Captures Jerusalem and the West
Bank

Despite the many terrorist attacks that had emanated from the Jordanian-occupied
West Bank, Israel specifically told King Hussein that Jordan would not be attacked
unless Jordan chose to enter the war. As the fighting raged, Prime Minister Levy
Eshkol sent the following message to King Hussein of Jordan:

We are engaged in defensive fighting on the Egyptian sector, and we shall not
engage ourselves in any action against Jordan, unless Jordan attacks us. Should
Jordan attack Israel, we shall go against her with all our might.

However, upon receiving information (later proving false) that Israel was being
defeated, King Hussein ordered that Israel be attacked. On June 5:

• civilian suburbs of Tel-Aviv were shelled by artillery;

• Israel’s largest military airfield, Ramat David, was shelled;
• Jordanian warplanes attacked the central Israeli towns of Netanya
and Kfar Saba;
• thousands of mortar shells rained down on West Jerusalem hitting
civilian locations indiscriminately, including the Hadassah
Hospital and the Mount Zion Church;
• Israel's parliament building (the Knesset) and the Prime Minister's
office, each in Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem, were targeted;
• 20 Israelis died in these attacks; 1000 were wounded. 900
buildings in West Jerusalem were damaged.

Only after coming under fire and sustaining casualties did the Israeli
military respond, resulting in the re-unification of Jerusalem and control of the
entire West Bank. The record is clear; this acquisition of land was the direct result
of Jordanian, not Israeli military aggression.

One week later, having successfully defended herself, Israel was in control of the
West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights.

The Legal Status of Land Taken in 1967

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1) Israel's Legitimate Claims:

Some parts of the West Bank would have

been part of Israel as defined by the UN
Partition Plan, but were overrun in 1948. There
were Jewish communities such as Kfar Etzion,
not to mention the Old City of Jerusalem,
which fell in the fighting of 1948. Jews were
either killed or expelled from these areas
conquered by invading Arab armies.

The League of Nations Mandate explicitly

recognized the right of Jewish settlement
in all territory allocated to the Jewish national home in the context of the British
Mandate. The British Mandate covered the area that is currently Israel, all the
disputed territories (and even what is now Jordan). These rights under the British
Mandate were preserved by the United Nations, under Article 49 of the UN
Charter.

2) Defensive War:

Military control of the West Bank was clearly the result of a defensive war.
According to Dr. Dore Gold, Director of the Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs:

International jurists generally draw a distinction between

situations of "aggressive conquest" and territorial disputes that
arise after a war of self-defense. Former State Department Legal
Advisor Stephen Schwebel, who later headed the International
Court of Justice in the Hague, wrote in 1970 regarding Israel's
case: "Where the prior holder of territory had seized that territory
unlawfully, the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful
exercise of self-defense has, against that prior holder, better title."

3) Forced Transfer of Civilian Populations:

There are mistaken claims that Israel's control of these territories violates the
Fourth Geneva Convention. The Fourth Geneva Convention was adopted August
12, 1949 by the international community in response to Nazi atrocities during
World War II. It outlaws the resettlement by an occupying power of its own
civilians on territory under its military control, specifically "individual or mass
forcible transfers."

The only forced mass transfers were against Jewish communities in 1948.
After the Six Day War, Israel did not expel a single Arab community from land it
now controlled.

The "Occupying Power" may also not "deport or transfer parts of its own civilian
population" to territories taken in conflict. Israel has never forced Jews to move to
the territories. However, there is no obligation for Israel to prevent voluntary

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settlement by its civilian population.

4) United Nations Security Council Resolution

242

After the war, there were many opinions as to

what a peace agreement should require of the
parties. The view of the Soviet Union and Arab
bloc was that Israel should be forced to withdraw
from all lands taken in the war. However, this
view did not prevail in the United Nations.

According to the American Israel Cooperative

Enterprise:

The most controversial clause in Resolution 242

is the call for the "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied
in the recent conflict." This is linked to the second unambiguous clause calling for
"termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and the recognition that "every
State in the area" has the "right to live in peace within secure and recognized
boundaries free from threats or acts of force."

The resolution does not make Israeli withdrawal a prerequisite for Arab action.
Moreover, it does not specify how much territory Israel is required to give up.
The Security Council did not say Israel must withdraw from "all the" territories
occupied after the Six-Day war. This was quite deliberate. The Soviet delegate
wanted the inclusion of those words and said that their exclusion meant "that part
of these territories can remain in Israeli hands." The Arab states pushed for the
word "all" to be included, but this was rejected. The Arab League then rejected
the entire resolution. Nonetheless, it was approved by the Security Council.

The resolutions clearly call on the Arab states to make peace with Israel. The
principal condition is that Israel withdraw from "territories occupied" in 1967,
which means that Israel must withdraw from some, all, or none of the territories
still occupied. Israel withdrew from 95% of the territories when it gave up the
Sinai and then Gaza. It has already partially, if not wholly, fulfilled its
obligation under 242.

In addition, the Arab reaction to the resolution was not to make peace but
instead the "Three No's" of the Khartoum Conference of August 1967:

• No peace with Israel

• No recognition of Israel
• No negotiation with Israel

Forty Years of Suffering?

Since launching a terror war in 2000, Palestinian living standards have undoubtedly
declined as the Palestinian leadership adopted violence ahead of nation building and
investing in civil society. Contrary to some claims in the media, "occupation" is not the
primary reason for the current plight of the Palestinians. As Dr Mitchell Bard, Director of

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the Jewish Virtual Library points out:

When Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, officials took
measures to improve the conditions that Palestinians had lived under during
Jordan's 19-year occupation of the West Bank, and Egypt's occupation of Gaza.
Universities were opened, Israeli agricultural innovations were shared, modern
conveniences were introduced, and health care was significantly upgraded. More
than 100,000 Palestinians were employed in Israel, and were paid the same wages
as Israeli workers, which stimulated economic growth.

Despite the collapse of the PA economy from the last five years of war, Palestinian
Arabs are still better off than many of their neighbors. The most recent Human
Development Report from the United Nations ranked the PA 102nd in terms of life
expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income out of the 177
countries and territories in the world, placing it in the "medium human
development" category along with most of the other Middle Eastern states (only
the Gulf sheikdoms are ranked "high"). The PA was ranked just 12 places below
Jordan and one behind Iran; it was rated ahead of Syria (#105), Algeria (#108),
Egypt (#120), and Morocco (#125).

Forty Years On

Forty years after a war of survival left it in control of disputed territories, Israel
continues to seek a negotiated peace with both the Palestinians and the Arab world.

Israel had every legal and moral right to defend herself in 1967 and has legitimate
rights within the territory that is under her control today. If you see a media report
that misrepresents the events of 1967, use this primer and the following links to
respond to media bias:

Jewish Virtual Library - http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/1967toc.html

Palestine Facts - http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_sixday_backgd.php
Camera's Six Day War Website - http://www.sixdaywar.org/
UK Six Day War Website - http://www.sixdaywar.co.uk/
British Israel Communications & Research Center (BICOM) -
http://www.bicom.org.uk/six_day_war/

HonestReporting.com

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