The Six Day War and Its Affect on the IDF

Sources

Occupied Territories

BACKGROUND

Method

• The Golan Heights
• The West Bank
• The Gaza Strip
• The Sinai Peninsula

Cohen, A. (1998). Israel and the bomb. New York: Columbia University Press.

Finkelstein, N. (1995). Image and reality of the israel-palestine conflict. London: Verso.

Kurtulus, E.N. (2007). The Notion of a "Pre-emptive War." the Six Day War Revisited. Middle East Journal, 61(2), 220-238.

Oren, M. (2003). Six days of war:june 1967 and the making of the modern middle east. New York: Random House Inc.

Naor, A. (2006) Civil-Military relations and Strategic Goal Setting in the Six Day War. Israel Affairs, 12(3), 395-411.

Rashba, G.L. (2002). Conquering the Unconquerable Heights. Military History, 19(2), 50.

Raz, A. (2012). The bride and the dowry:israel, jordan, and the palestinians in the aftermath of the june 1967 war. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Rodman, D. (2010). The Israeli Air Force in the 1967 and 1973 Wars:revisiting the historical record. Israel Affairs, 16(2), 219-233

For this project I used a mixed methods approach, leaning heavily towards qualitative. My approach was inductive. I formulated my conclusions based on the information and narratives gathered by others and through experts in the field.

Israel Tripled its size

in 6 days

• In the late 1800s and early 1900s large numbers of Jews emmigrated to Palestine
• UN votes to partition Palestine (1947)
• Creation of Israel (1948)
• 1st Arab-Israeli War (1948)
• On June 5, 1967 after weeks of tension, Israel launches a preemptive strike on its Arab neighbors
• By June 10th, the war was over. Israel had dealt a devastating blow to Egypt, Syria and Jordan

The Six Day War

had a Major Impact

on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)

The Six Day War and Its impact on the IDF

3. The idf becomes an occupying force

1. Increases Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program

• Occupation of Gaza, Sinai, Golan Heights, West Bank
• Increase in terrorism
• Cost of Occupation $50 billion
• 1987 1st Intifada
• 2000 2nd Intifada

• Nuclear ambiguity
• Samson Option and Masada Complex
• Israel's nuclear program began in 1948
• From 1948-1967 Israel's main nuclear partner was France
• Dimona
• By 1967 Israel likely had 2 nuclear bombs
• 1968 Israel began full scale weapons development
• 1973 Yom Kippur War

2. Hero worship of the IDF and its leaders

Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq

957 combat aircraft

Israel

• 264,000 soldiers (214,000 were reserves)
• 300 combat aircraft
• 800 tanks

Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq

2504 Tanks

310,000 soldiers

Conventional Weapons

4. Israel Increases weapons development and U.s. becomes israels main supplier of weapons

• Stunning Victory
• IDF leaders become idolized
• Only 2 of Israel's Prime Ministers were not high ranking military leaders
• Invincibility Complex
• Negative Consequences

conclusion

• 1967 France imposes weapons embargo
• Israel is one of top recipients of U.S. foreign aid
• Large percentage of Israeli aid must be spent on U.S. goods and services
• U.S. largest supplier of military aid to Israel
• Israel one of top military exporters
• After Six Day War defense as part of Israeli GNP doubled

The Six Day War was the watershed moment in modern Middle East History, and the war had an immense impact on the Israeli military

Moshe Dayan