A resolution passed by the government of Israel in early December 2018 regarding a new plan to promote resilience in the “Gaza Envelope” in the coming years follows a long line of resolutions that recognize the unique nature of the ongoing security threat from the Gaza Strip. It reflects an understanding of the significance of civilian resilience in the face of severe disruptions, and in the Israeli case, terror of various kinds. The strong societal resilience displayed in Israel’s southern communities is a success story that should...
The Six Day War, which broke out on the morning of June 5, 1967, was a formative event that changed the face of the State of Israel and, to a large extent, the entire Middle East. Prior to the war, Israel had been under existential threat and in six days, the Israel Defense Forces succeeded in removing the threat by achieving a decisive military victory and positioning Israel as a significant force in the region. This victory was accompanied by new complexities, and fifty years after the war, some of its implications still remain as...
The Six Day War was a formative event in the history of the State of Israel. From the perspective of fifty years, it is clear that many of the lessons to emerge from the war are multi-faceted, and many are fraught with tensions and complexities that deserve close analysis. This essay focuses on the effects of the war and its outcomes on Israel’s geostrategic position in the Middle East, its status with respect to the superpowers, and its national security policies. While there are issues that are as valid today as they were in 1967,...
The Soldiers’ Talk and the Movement for Greater Israel were both born during the period following the Six Day War. Even when examined in their early stages of development, both illustrate the different viewpoints of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that have existed from then until today. In order to support this claim, this essay compares the characteristics of the discourse represented by these two opposing pillars, which originated during the shock of the 1967 victory. This is done by analyzing texts that appeared immediately...
More than just another war, the Six Day War was a major turning point in Israeli history. This essay does not discuss the war’s significance or its particular implications, such as the internal debate in Israel over the political, ideological, and strategic importance of the territories, alternative models of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians, or the ideological activism that developed within the religious Zionist movement after 1967. Rather, it will look at a number of turning points that occurred in the...
This essay examines how the State of Israel has provided for its civilian population in the face of the evolving array of threats to the civilian front (otherwise known as the “home front,” or the “rear”) since the Six Day War. The article presents a three-dimensional strategic paradox that has challenged the State of Israel over the last five decades. The first dimension is that as the traditional threat from the Arab states diminishes, the perceived threat to the population of Israel increases; the second suggests that despite...
The Six Day War, the War of Attrition, and the Yom Kippur War led to a new understanding of deterrence and its place in Israel’s defense policy. Deterrence has been one of the main components in Israel’s defense policy since its independence. The nascent state emerged from the War of Independence understanding that it was only the first stage in the Arab world’s attempts to destroy it. The humiliating defeat of the Arab coalition in the War of Independence and the Arab countries’ recognition of a clear asymmetry between them and...
The period immediately prior to the Six Day War was marked by anxiety over the State of Israel’s ability to survive a war in which it was attacked by the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian militaries, assisted by reinforcements from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and possibly Libya, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. There was a sense of an existential threat to the state, whose narrowest point at the Tulkarm-Netanya line was not more than 14 kilometers wide, and as a result the Israeli leadership attempted repeatedly to avoid the war by...
In mid-May 1967, massive Egyptian forces began entering the Sinai Peninsula, a blatant violation of the understandings reached under the auspices of the US administration after Operation Kadesh. The core of the understandings was that Sinai was to remain a demilitarized zone, in which UN forces would be stationed in order to separate between Israel and Egypt. President Gamal Abdel Nasser went even further than deploying his army in Sinai and at the same time ordered the UN forces to leave Sinai and Gaza. He claimed that Egypt was...
The Six Day War dramatically transformed the State of Israel’s strategic position in the Middle East. From a small country just able to protect itself and maintain its existence despite the dangers from all its neighbors—who enjoyed Soviet support and petroleum wealth—Israel became a regional superpower with undeniable military superiority. The war made it clear to the Arab world, although not always explicitly, that it was not capable of destroying the State of Israel. Even the difficulties Israel encountered in the Yom Kippur War...
The results of the Six Day War substantially changed Israel’s strategic situation. Prior to the war, Israel was a small democracy with Western values. The Israeli economy was in a recession due to the ideological positions of its socialist leadership, which was slow to adapt a modern economy to the rapid growth in the private sector. The country identified as part of the Western world, and its hostile Arab neighbors had not accepted its existence as a Jewish state in the heart of the Arab-Muslim region. Israel was secular in...
The aim of this article is to examine the way that leaders try to shape their society’s cognitive perceptions during war, with the assumption that society will not agree to unconditionally support a protracted war involving high casualties. Recognizing the necessity of large-scale public support of war, decision makers manipulate local public opinion so that it will justify the war and recognize the importance of the war’s objectives and the ostensible achievements that war could provide. This article demonstrates how this was...
