1967 Six-Day War
In the 1960's the escalation of Arab terrorist raids across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, persistent Syrian artillery bombardment of agricultural settlements in northern Galilee and massive military build-ups by the neighboring Arab states once again became a major threat to Israel's existence. Nasser announced the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping--a clear-cut violation of the agreement, and it entered into a military alliance with Jordan. Jordanian King Hussein flew to Egypt and signed an agreement placing his forces under overall Egyptian command. Egypt also succeeded in bringing about a close coordination with the Syrian army. In all, the total Arab army on the border with Israel numbered 527,000 soldiers, 3,110 tanks and almost 1,000 jets, which is an awful lot of military to be activated on a certain border by supposedly peaceful countries. Shortly after, Egypt, with strong support of the USSR, ordered UN peacekeeping forces out of the Sinai desert and moved its troops into the area. Nasser ended by taunting Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Chief of Staff: "Let him come, I'm waiting". A couple of days later, speaking to an incited, cheering crowd he added: "Our basic goal is the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight . . . The mining of Sharm El Sheik is a confrontation with Israel". Such events presented Israel with a direct threat to its security. Israel mobilized its army and waited for three weeks hoping for outside help. But just like in 1948 when newly-founded Israel was forced to defend itself alone without any UN or Big Power help, Israel once again stood alone, against a powerful Arab coalition. For the reasons mentioned in the paragraph about the refugees, the United Nations did nothing to re-open the Straits and help Israel in it's attempt to survive, despite vague promises. Israel issued an appeal to Jordan to stay out of the war. Jordan refused and opened a heavy artillery barrage on both west Jerusalem and the Tel-Aviv area which forced Israel to counterattack. So, Israel decided to go into an all-out war alone.
Since Egypt had violated the arrangements agreed upon following the 1956 Sinai Campaign, Israel invoked its right of self-defense, launching a preemptive strike on June 5, 1967 against Egypt in the south, followed by a counterattack against Jordan in the east and the routing of Syrian forces entrenched on the Golan Heights in the north. By June 8th the IDF defeated the Jordanian forces and captured the whole of Judea and Samaria. By the end of fighting on June 11, the IDF overran the whole Sinai peninsula, up to the Suez Canal; took the entire West Bank of the River Jordan; and in the last days, without the benefit of surprise, captured a great part of the Golan Heights, including the dominant Mount Hermon. Previous cease-fire lines were replaced by new ones, with Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai peninsula and the Golan Heights coming under Israel's control. The culminating event was the capture of the Old City of Jerusalem and the re-encounter with the place most revered by Jews, the Western (Wailing) Wall, a site that the Jordanian government forbid Jews to visit. Furthermore, ships going to and from Israel were once again able to pass through the Straits of Tiran and the northern villages were better protected from attacks by terrorists from Lebanon and Syria.
But the most important victory for Israel was the occupation of the Golan Heights. The Heights are only 15 miles wide (overall the Golan Heights are about the size of Queens), they are extremely important strategically because they allow IDF to station its troops behind the mountains, while the invading Syrian forces were left out in the open when the Yom Kippur War of 1973 exploded. In addition, Syria could no longer hide it's arms behind the mountains from the Israeli radar, so Israel is now able to get a warning of war much earlier. Moreover, the Golan Heights are the only thing that separates Syria and Lake Kinneret. Lake Kinneret is the only source of drinking water in Israel and without the Golan Heights, Kinneret would be the first thing Syria occupied in case of war. Israel would not be able to survive without any drinking water, especially during the war when businesses and countries try to abstain from trading with Israel. The Golan Heights were one of the most important reasons why Israel won the Yom Kippur War. Had Syria occupied the Golan Heights in 1973, chances are the Jewish population of Israel would've found itself "in the Mediterranean sea" as Arab leaders promised before every war they launched against Israel.
Judea and Samaria were also extremely important to the security of Israel. The area has many mountains which makes it easy to hide the military force behind the mountains so that radars won't be able to detect them. Should one country decide to invade the other, it would be able to hide before launching an unexpected attack. In addition, prior to Israeli occupation of Judea and Samaria, the Arabic missiles could reach any place in Israel, including all main cities--Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, Jerusalem and Eilat. After the occupation of Judea and Samaria, only Jerusalem and Eilat were left vulnerable to unexpected assaults at the time (but with new weapons, right now Israel is as vulnerable as ever). Therefore, it was essential for Israel to occupy Judea and Samaria to protect itself in future wars.
Israel did not withdrawal to the 1949 armitice lines after the Six-Day War. International guarantees were constantly broken and had proved meaningless in the past, and could not provide the security Israel's civilians needed to live their lives free of terrorist attacks. From 1948 to 1967 Syria and Lebanon destroyed 205 houses in the northern Israel. Many more people were killed by Jordanians and Eyptians. The cease-fire lines of 1967, remained Israel's borders until 1973. Terrorist raids from Egypt ended, and other raids, from Jordan and Syria, greatly diminished, which proved the Israeli need to occupy the land for security reasons.
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