The Six Day War: The Victory that Spurred a Fixed Mindset

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 diplomatic means. When efforts to do so were exhausted, the IDF launched a preemptive air attack (Operation Moked) against Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq and achieved air superiority, which was a decisive factor in the Israeli victory. The spectacular and quick victory led to the expansion of Israel’s borders to the Jordan River, the liberation of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, the removal of the Syrian threat from the Golan Heights and the Egyptian threat from the Sinai Peninsula, and the deployment of the IDF on the banks of the Suez Canal. All this contributed to a sense of exhilaration and even euphoria among Israeli society, the IDF command, and the political leadership. The expanded State of Israel after the war hardly resembled the tiny state prior it.