50 Years Since Israel's Victory in the Six Day War
Israel's 1967 victory squelched intentions to wipe it out and reunited Jerusalem.
By Liberty McArtor Published on June 3, 2017
https://stream.org/israel-50-years-six-day-war/

Sunday will mark 50 years since the beginning of the 1967 Six Day War between Israel and surrounding Arab states. The brief but volatile fighting set the stage for continued tension between Israelis and Palestinians and fierce debates on the world stage....


...The 1967 war was by no means the start of conflict between Jews and Arabs.

The current nation of Israel was formed in 1947 when the United Nations split what had been called British Palestine into separate entities: Israel and Palestine. The British Palestine Mandate was drawn up after World War I. In the wake of the Holocaust, the U.N. resolution was meant to deter further crimes against the Jewish people. Under British administration, however, it failed to secure peace or religious freedom for the Jewish people.

In 1948, Israel solidified the U.N. resolution by declaring independence. Jews had not had a nation of their own for centuries, thanks to superpower occupations from Babylon to Great Britain. But Palestinians weren't happy. They rejected Israel as a nation and wanted to re-occupy all of the territory previously carved out in the British Palestine Mandate.

As Israel declared its independence, surrounding Arabs states declared war. They were soundly defeated by Israel, which took Western Jerusalem, in the ancient city which was first declared the capital of Israel by King David more than 3,000 years ago. It passed through multiple hands throughout subsequent centuries, including Muslim and Christian hands. The U.N. resolution, while granting nation-statehood to Israel, left Jerusalem to neither Israel nor Palestine.

June 5-11, 1967

Even though Israel prevailed in the Arab-Israeli War of the late 1940s, violent tension persisted. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed and continued to oppose Israel as a nation. Tensions climaxed in an "ominous build-up of Arab forces" along Israeli borders.

Egypt and Syria, later joined by Jordan, threatened to wipe Israel out. Egypt halted Israel's ability to trade internationally by blocking its shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

This led Israel to strike preemptively on June 5, 1967. Israeli air raids obliterated the majority of both Egypt's and Syria's air forces. The brutal conquest was over by June 11. That week, Israel secured and occupied the Gaza Strip and Sinai of Egypt, as well as the West Bank of Jordan.

Significantly, Israel also took the parts of Jerusalem that had been occupied by Jordan. For the first time in two millennia, Jews had access to the Western Wall, their holiest site. Today Israel recognizes June 5 as Jerusalem Day.

After the War

In 1978, the U.S. helped Egypt and Israel reach a peace deal in the Camp David Accords. Israel gave Sinai back to Egypt. But Palestinians rejected offers of peace. They still claimed all of the former British Palestine. ...


...The birth of the anti-Israel terrorist group Hamas, Palestinians' claim that east Jerusalem belongs to them, .... David Harris, CEO of Global Jewish Advocacy, argues "the core issue is, and always has been, whether the Palestinians and larger Arab world accept the Jewish people's right to a state of their own."...



...During his campaign, he also promised to finally move the U.S. Embassy from its current spot in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which Israel recognizes as its capital.

U.S. Congress passed a bill in 1995 recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and requiring the embassy to move there. Past presidents have continuously waived the law. It was supposed to be implemented by 1999.

On Thursday Trump announced that he was also waiving the law. "It's a question of when, not if," the White House said. Christian leaders have called for Trump to keep his promise and officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.