Fifty years ago this week, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against its neighbors. That surprise attack resulted in a stunning victory that transformed Israel and the Middle East, and both the region and the world continue to deal with its impact. Remarkably, the size of the victory may have created as many problems as it solved.
Israel was carved out of the British Mandate Palestine. While a Jewish state had been created according to the United Nations Partition Plan, Palestinians resident in the territory and neighboring Arab states opposed any division and launched a war against the Israelis in 1948, a conflict that resulted in the death of as many as 1 percent of the Jewish population.
While the state of Israel was born, its survival was precarious. The country had few resources, few allies and was surrounded by better armed and more populous enemies on all sides. At its narrowest point, Israel was just 15 km wide and its cities were in artillery range of its neighbors. Arab governments and the groups that spoke for the Palestinians, particularly the Palestine Liberation Organization, regularly threatened to exterminate the Israelis and drive them into the sea. Israelis faced a truly existential threat.