Forty years ago, Israel won one of the most unlikely military victories in history. The Jewish nation's triumph over its Arab neighbors in the Six Day War was a stunning blow from which the world is still reeling. Sadly, four decades have not made Israel more secure, and many Israelis now concede that they are better warriors than peacemakers. But they should not shoulder the blame alone for the continuing violence in that troubled part of the world: Palestinians and other Arabs have been more interested in nurturing grievances than laying a foundation for peace.
It is hard to remember how Israel was seen by the world 40 years ago. The tiny nation was considered a country of victims, survivors of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. They were surrounded by hostile neighbors who had never accepted Israel's right to exist and, armed with the most modern Soviet weapons, vowed to drive them into the sea. Israel's very existence was in doubt.
In the spring of 1967, Egyptian forces mobilized to counter the nonexistent threat of an Israeli preemptive attack and its allies moved troops to forward positions to open second fronts when the fighting began. Fearing annihilation, Israeli forces struck first on June 4, 1967, destroying the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian air forces before they could take flight. Egyptian tank forces were routed in the Sinai desert, and retreated. Shelled by Jordanian artillery, Israeli ground forces seized the old city of Jerusalem, uniting it for the first time since 1948, along with the west bank of the Jordan River. Having secured those two fronts, Israeli forces turned north and took the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau, from Syria.