The Egyptian 3rd Infantry Division fought hard at Jebel Libni but was completely wiped out by the IDF. Similarly, the 4th Armored Division confronted and delayed Tal’s forces on June 7, but the price was huge losses in tanks, personnel, and equipment. Even so, those Egyptians at least managed to limp across the canal in an orderly fashion. These, however, were isolated, uncoordinated engagements that could not stem the mayhem, and the Israelis captured about 5,000 Egyptian soldiers. According to Israeli historians such as Aryeh Yitzhaki, hundreds of other Arabs, including Palestinian civilians, were executed and dumped into graves, some of which they had to dig themselves, at al-Arish, Gaza, and elsewhere.
Over the battlefield, the remnants of the Egyptian air force flew ground attack sorties and engaged the much superior IAF. Some Egyptians, most notably the MiG-21 pilots of No. 40 Squadron, downed six Israeli jets in dogfights, but Israel shot down 42 UARAF aircraft.
In the confusion, relying on reports by Amer and others, Nasser and his generals informed the Jordanians that the IAF had been destroyed and that Egypt had invaded Israel. This bogus “news” emboldened King Hussein and his Egyptian general, Abdul Munim al-Riyad. Dismissing an Israeli message sent via the United Nations that Israel would not attack if Jordan remained a nonbelligerent, Hussein ordered his army to open fire. He even sent the 60th Armored Brigade to join the Egyptian “attack” in the Sinai.
Hussein and Riyad then ordered the RJAF to hit targets inside Israel. But working from abysmal intelligence, the Jordanian pilots became lost and bombed a beach resort. It was when their Hawker Hunters landed to refuel that Israeli Mirages suddenly screamed out of the sky and destroyed or badly damaged all of them.
Unable to resist taking what they regarded as the prize of prizes, the Israelis now decided to capture the West Bank and Jerusalem, although neither posed an existential threat. Brig. Gen. Elad Peled’s force, consisting of one armored, one mechanized, and one paratroop brigade, was ordered to attack the towns of Janin and Nablus. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Uzi Narkiss planned to overrun Jerusalem in a double envelopment, sending paratroops to strike north of the city, with the 16th Brigade sweeping in to capture the southern section of the Old City as the 10th Mechanized Brigade struck north. Other units were to advance through Latrun against Ramallah, northwest of Jerusalem.
In all these attacks, the Israelis tactically surpassed the Jordanians. The Israeli air force pummeled Jordan’s fortified positions and then thwarted Jordanian attempts to move their forces. Although individual Jordanian units fought ferociously, sometimes to the death, their shooting was generally inaccurate and their communication poor. In part this was because their officers simply fled once they realized all was lost. Although Jordanians were well-entrenched in fortified positions along the many ridges that characterize the terrain, Israelis had overrun all their positions on the outskirts of Jerusalem by June 6, in battles lasting from 20 minutes to several hours.
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For the IDF, the bloodiest part of this mini-campaign was their assault on Jerusalem. Here Jordanian snipers fired accurately and vicious house-to-house fighting ensued. At 2 a.m. the Israeli 55th Paratroop Brigade, supported by Sherman tanks and artillery, assaulted “Ammunition Hill,” a Jordanian strongpoint. Defended by a battalion of the 3rd Brigade, this position was bristling with barbed wire, minefields, bunkers, and trenches. The Israelis attacked head-on, taking many casualties, but managed to enter the trenches, where the fighting was hot and murderous. By morning, Jordanian officers had fled and the Hill had fallen, at the cost of 50 Israelis killed and 150 wounded. Jordan lost 106 dead and some 100 wounded. By June 6, the Old City was virtually surrounded and the Israeli Defense Force was mopping up pockets of resistance. Moreover, Latrun and Janin had been captured, and the Israel Air Force dominated the skies, unopposed.
Attempts by King Hussein and his commanders to rally the army were undermined by exaggerated reports of Israeli troop numbers and Jordanian casualties. Troops panicked in response, and this reaction, combined with the inadequate Jordanian command and control structure, doomed their forces to defeat. In the evening of June 6, realizing that neither the Egyptians nor the Syrians would come to their aid, Hussein and Riyad called for a general retreat. Moments later, they received news that the United Nations had just called for a cease-fire.
Jordan’s leaders rescinded their retreat order but because of the confusion, some troops never received it, others had already been routed, while Israelis who ignored the cease-fire mauled other Jordanians as they attempted to return to their old positions. The West Bank and Jerusalem were lost. Exultant Israeli soldiers began singing old Hebrew songs. “The Old City is ours!” one soldier shouted. “The people are drunk with joy,” wrote an Israeli poet.
On June 8, one of the most controversial events of the war occurred when Israeli warplanes and naval vessels repeatedly attacked USS Liberty, a lightly armed American spy ship sailing in international waters and flying U.S. colors—including a huge U.S. flag—off the shore of al-Arish, right near the fighting. American casualties totaled 34 American sailors killed and 171 injured in a two-hour attack that President Johnson, the CIA’s director Richard Helms, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and other officials believed was an intentional effort to halt U.S. monitoring that might have revealed Israeli executions of prisoners, the impending attack on Syria, or Israel’s nuclear weapons program. If the Liberty had picked up information about Israel’s war tactics and aims, it would have tarnished Israel’s carefully crafted image in Washington, and would have caused strains between the two nations.
Friendly Fire? Israel's attack on the spy ship USS Liberty is a subject of impassioned debate. (Photo: U.S. Naval Historical Center)
Hit by missiles, napalm, machine-gun fire, and a torpedo, the Liberty stayed afloat, thanks to the skill of the surviving crew, but Israelis jammed the ship’s sophisticated communication systems. Israel apologized for what it claimed was a mistake and eventually compensated the victims. In any case, as historian Donald Neff points out, “Israel was now free without fear of U.S. eavesdropping to pursue its final objective in the war: the capture of the Golan Heights.”
That is exactly what happened. After their stunning victories against Egypt and Jordan, Israeli policymakers turned their gaze toward the Golan. Observing the destruction of the Egyptian and Jordanian forces, the Syrians accepted the UN cease-fire at 5:20 p.m. on June 8. Ignoring this, the Israelis shifted troops from the Egyptian and Jordanian fronts, amassing seven brigades—including armor, mechanized infantry, regular infantry, and paratroops—and about 150 aircraft for the invasion. The Syrian army was in no condition to withstand them.
After a massive air attack, the Israeli Defense Force commanded by Brig. Gen. Dan Laner punched into the Syrian lines to the north, defended by the 12th Brigade Group, on the morning of June 9. Freed of duties on the other fronts, Israel’s air force smashed the Syrians with everything it had, its pilots flying more sorties—1,077—than they had against Egypt and Jordan. At 10 a.m. the Israelis entered the rocky terrain, and the Syrians fought hard from defensive positions, but failed to counterattack.
Syrian artillery was inaccurate, allowing Israel’s troops to enter Syrian lines and take out strongholds. The Israeli air force completely dominated the skies. By the end of the day, the IDF had nearly enveloped the Golan from the north and east. With its commanders fleeing their units and panic rippling up through the highest levels of the army, the Syrian army was essentially crippled.
On June 10, Israeli troops cleared up pockets of resistance in the Golan, superbly supported by the IAF. By 9 a.m., Syrian radio reported that the town of al-Qunaytarah had fallen, although the Israelis were miles away, which caused the Syrian army to rush back toward Damascus. Although some of its units fought on until eliminated, most Syrian troops fled, often leaving their equipment behind them. The Golan belonged to Israel by the end of the day. Satisfied that all of its goals had been achieved, Israel accepted the UN cease-fire. The six-day war was over.
In June 1967 the three key players had been playing different games: one of bluff, one of bluster, and one for keeps. The Egyptians and Syrians had played a dangerous game of brinkmanship and propaganda, wholly failing to see that in doing so they played into Israel’s goals of conquest. The Israelis were in no mood to give Nasser another political victory, something that consummate politician should have realized.
“The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches,” Menachem Begin told the New York Times, “do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” The object of war is to win, something the Israelis have always fully understood.
Supported by the people and the government, the Israeli Defense Forces expressed the dynamism of a Western-style, technically advanced democracy eager to acquire territory. Some lands, particularly the Golan Heights, Israel needed to increase its security. Other land it had long coveted. States enjoying legitimacy and well-functioning sociopolitical systems are the most formidable opponents. Large armies with modern equipment are no indication of fighting effectiveness.
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The Israelis suffered 302 personnel dead, 1,453 wounded, and lost about 100 tanks on the Jordanian front. The Jordanian Army, which sustained 6,000 to 7,000 killed and 12,000 to 20,000 wounded, performed the best of the three Arab armies. This, however, was more due to the costly house-to-house fighting and the challenging terrain that confronted the IDF than to superior leadership or the prowess of Jordan’s military.
As with Egypt’s air force, the Egyptian army was virtually destroyed, with 10,000 to 15,000 casualties, the loss of 530 tanks and 80 percent of its ground equipment. In contrast, the Israelis lost 61 tanks while suffering only 1,400 casualties. In the Golan, Israel probably suffered about 750 casualties and lost several tanks, although concise figures are hard to come by; estimates of Syrian losses run around 7,500 killed and wounded, with 86 tanks and 130 artillery pieces knocked out.
These figures are dwarfed, however, by the number of Palestinian refugees produced by the war—some 1.4 million fled their homes to live rough lives in various Arab host nations. About the same number found new homes inside Israel and in the occupied territories by 1973. Never returning to their homes, the number of these displaced Palestinians, according to the United Nations, has now swelled to about 4.7 million.
Victory left Israel controlling major Christian and Muslim holy sites, and it had expanded its land area threefold. Israel’s triumph thrilled its people and was the wonder of much of the world. Life magazine issued a 100-page special edition titled, “Israel’s Swift Victory.”
Other observers, however, were more somber: “The Isolation of Victory” was the headline in The Times of London. Basking in the praise, dismissing the critics, Israel eventually annexed the Golan Heights and made Jerusalem Israel’s capital, fulfilling a dream for many Jews.
But 42 years hence it appears that the Israelis quickly became complacent and arrogant. In their hubris, they did not seize the pivotal moment after their victory to bargain for security, choosing to ignore UN Security Council Resolution 242, which called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories in exchange for peace. Had the Israelis withdrawn promptly or negotiated a security deal, arguably they might have secured their borders and their people while doing much to defuse Arab frustration and their desire for retribution.
Israelis and many historians call this brief conflict the Six-Day War. Other historians prefer a more neutral title such as the 1967 War or the June ’67 War. Most Arabs, however, know it as el nakba, “the catastrophe,” or in Egypt, el naksa, “the setback.” Regardless of what it has been dubbed, the Arab world saw it as a clear debacle. Nasser resigned and, although spontaneous demonstrations brought him back to power, Arab nationalism as a political or military force had been thoroughly discredited.
The June ’67 War fundamentally shifted and embittered Arab-Israeli dynamics, vexing into creation a host of ills that have since spread far beyond the region: the closing of the Suez Canal; the assassination of U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy on the war’s first anniversary by a disturbed young Palestinian, who had been born in Jerusalem; the increased influence of the Soviet Union in the Middle East; the radicalization of both the Israeli settler program and Palestinian efforts to reclaim their lost lands; the War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel in the late 1960s; the 1973 October War; a diplomatic impasse concerning the occupied territories; the refugee problem; the first Lebanon War; ongoing Jewish settlements; and the intifadas (Arabic for “awakening” or “uprising”) that have continually threatened world security.
Three great challenges faced the Middle East in 1967, as they do today: building nations, or rather, re-building them from the artificial states carved by European colonial powers after World War I; satisfying Israel’s need for security; and recognizing and fulfilling Palestinian struggles to create a viable nation-state after their expulsion from Palestine and other lands annexed by Israel.
In all three cases, the 1967 War solved nothing and even made some things notably worse. In fact, Israel’s staunch refusal to give up the West Bank and the Golan Heights, for internal political and security reasons, has played into the hands of radicalized Middle Eastern leaders, who have deftly used this to mobilize the masses against Israel and their allies, especially the United States.
We live in the world created in the summer of 1967. It remains a dangerous place.
http://www.historynet.com/the-six-day-war-sparked-forty-years-of-strife.htm
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