Six days that changed the Middle East: The '67 Arab-Israeli War | Featured Documentary

[Music] 15th of May 1967 a parade of military might to celebrate 19 years since the founding of the state of Israel but this public display of power took place under a dark [Music] shadow the pre day Egyptian president gal Abdul nasar had ordered his forces to take up positions along the borders with Israel 3 weeks later on the 5th of June 1967 Israel launched an allout war against its Arab [Music] Neighbors after only 6 days of fighting it achieved total Victory defeating the armies of Egypt Jordan and Syria known to Israelis as The Six Day

War Israel's territorial gains would change the map of the Middle East to this day Israeli occupation of these lands is the main bar to peace in this turbulent region these huge territories which the Israeli Army had conquered it completely intoxicated them everybody was intoxicated no one could even think straight but the story of this war is much longer than the six days of fighting its roots lay years earlier two decades before the 5th of June 1967 Tel Aviv the 14th of May 1948 the day that Zionist leader David Boran declared the establishment of the state

of Israel on the day after the Declaration five Arab armies entered Palestine the Lebanese attacked from the north the syrians Iraqis and jordanians from the East but the most serious threat came from the south the Egyptian Army Advanced to the Village of ybaa which is 22 kilm from Tel Aviv we were a very thin line of soldiers who were defending what was practically the last line of defense of T Aviv but the pressure on the israelies was relieved when a un broken truce came into effect the Zionist movement purchased arms on the European black markets

the Arab armies of course enjoyed mainstream supplies from States the French supplied the Lebanese and the syrians the British supplied the Egyptians the jordanians and the Iraqis with a constant stream of arms in 1948 the United Nations imposed an embargo on armed shipments to the Middle East and the British and the French abided by this embargo when the truce ran out the israelies now better armed set out to expel the Arab armies from Palestine by the end of October as Israeli troops Advanced an Egyptian Brigade was encircled at a Palestinian Village called [Music] aluja among

the officers trapped in this pocket was a young major gal Abdul Naser with their armies locked in a stalemate Egyptian and Israeli delegations met on the island of RADS under the sponsorship of the [Music] UN after a month of bargaining they reached an amisus agreement well first of all they had to put an end to the fighting I believe that Egypt wanted to get out of there as much as Israel wanted Ed and the negotiation was mostly about evacuating the fuja pocket Egypt had no territorial uh demands from Israel so it was relatively easy to

reach a ceasefire by the summer of 1949 Lebanon Jordan and Syria had also signed Armistice agreements with Israel the Jewish State now extended over almost the whole of Palestine Arab territory was reduced to just a few small enclaves Eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank were placed under Jordanian control the Gaza Strip was to be administered by Egypt in the midst of defeat gal Abdul nasar conceived a plan that would change the future of Egypt eypt a movement that would be known as the free officers 3 years after the end of the war the free officers

struck in July 1952 they launched audita Egypt's King faruko was dethroned and sent into exile Lieutenant Colonel Gamal Abdul Naser The Mastermind behind what was now called the July Revolution quickly Rose to be the country's de facto [Music] leader in Israel this news aroused Dee rooted fears in kibutz deuker retirement home of Israel's founding Prime Minister David Boran Boran all the time feared that one day a new Kamal atat Turk would rise in the Arab world and uh will unite the entire Arab world against Israel and that fear that apprehension was enhanced when Naser took

power in 1954 in February 195 55 benorian returned to political life this time as defense minister just a week after Boran took up the post 150 Israeli paratroopers led by Major Ariel shiron was sent to attack an Egyptian army base near the city of Gaza 40 Egyptian soldiers were killed and many more injured when Bora came back he decided immediately to show that Israel is not going to give in this time uh from the Egyptian border the provocations and the attacks by infiltrators were on the rise AB [Music] claiming they were Egyptian territorial Waters nasar

closed the Tran Strait at the entrance to the Gulf of akaba to ships sailing to and from the Israeli Port of elat to strengthen his army Nas had sought more weapons from the west but this time to no avail so in a surprise move he turned East Russia's new foreign minister Mr shapoff lost no time in taking a personal part in Middle East Affairs and he was soon engaged in talks with President NASA Egypt signed this huge arms deal with Czechoslovakia which was actually with the Soviet Union Czechoslovakia was supposed to Supply Egypt with 200

uh aircraft tanks th000 Cannon it was something fabulous in November 1955 Boran began a second term as Israel's prime minister at the top of his agenda was how to respond to the growing strength of Egypt now armed to the teeth 8 months later the opportunity came when NASA announced the nationalization of the sez Canal a decision that outraged the British and French the owners of the international Canal company this is a matter of life and death to us all our quarrel is not with Egypt still less with the Arab world it is with Colonel NASA

he has shown that he's not a man who can be trusted to keep an agreement Britain and France were convinced that military intervention would be needed to recapture the canal and bring down the upstart Naser but a pretext was [Music] [Music] needed I welcome you here to all your [Music] effort according to this tripartite secret agreement on the 29th of October 1956 Israeli forces crossed the border into Egypt even though the Israelis were still some distance from the canal Britain and France called for both sides to withdraw when NASA rejected the ultimatum British and French

troops began Landing in Port S at the Mediterranean end of the canal [Music] the United States was not consulted in any way about any phase of these actions nor were we informed of them in advance it is our hope and intent that this matter will be brought before the United Nations General Assembly there with no veto operating the opinion of the world can be brought to bear in our Quest for a just end to this tormenting Problem by the end of December under heavy International pressure the British and French were forced into a humiliating withdrawal

from port s Global attention now shifted to Israel still occupying the hole of the siai and the Gaza [Music] Strip in March 1957 benorian finally ordered the isra iseli Army to withdraw to the pre-war borders however he had secured two major gains the stationing of un troops along the borders with Egypt and Gaza put an end to the Palestinian feda yin's raids inside Israeli territories and Israel was guaranteed free passage of her shipping through the Tran Strait the Sinai campaign gave Israel actually about 10 years of unsigned peace on the Egyptian border between 1957 and

1967 there was a total calm but the fragile peace on the borders masked continuing hostility between Cairo and Tel Aviv in Israel azer vitman the commander of the Air Force was devising a new strategy operation [Music] Focus [Music] this network would soon face its first major test not though at the hands of vman's Air Force but through the bizarre actions of an Israeli Peace activist Ian was commercial pilot and as a gimmick for the elections of 1965 he bought a little airplane painted it white and put the name peace and said if I am elected

to the keset I will fly to [Music] Egypt he was not elected some very small number of people voted for him but by that time he became very serious of this so one one day without any announcement he took off with this plane AB Nan landed in Port Egypt in February 1966 Egyptians treated him very nicely they did not let him into Egypt but they let him fill his tank this Gathering and sent him back natan's flight had revealed the weakness of Egypt's air defenses but Israel still had a major concern the Mig 21 a

high performance supersonic Soviet fighter it formed the backbone of the Arab Air [Music] Forces but it too would soon give up its secrets in August 1966 an Iraqi pilot landed in Israel with his [Music] Mig he had been offered a million us do to defect but it would turn out to be worth every [Music] cent Dan shapira our chief test pilot of the Air Force checked the Aeroplan and we knew all its disadvantages of the mig21 which was the Aeroplane of the war in the enemy hands it was not long before what the Israelis had

learned about the Mig was put to the test an actual combat in April 1967 the border skirmishes with Syria escalated into a fullscale aerial battle we shot down seven aircraft it was such a victory in the Israeli Air Force in the weeks following this battle reports possibly originating with Soviet intelligence began to come in that Israel was massing its Army on the Syrian border an apparent escalation that spurred Naser into action on the 14th of May 1967 he ordered Egyptian troops into Sinai [Music] but nasad also saw an opportunity to try to roll back the

gains Israel had secured following the 1956 [Music] War on the 16th of May Egypt asked the UN to withdraw its peacekeeping troops from [Music] Sinai a week later NASA announced the closing of the Tran Strait to Israeli Shipping News of nasar's actions brought people out onto the streets all across the Arab world Israel's new war cabinet under Levy eshkol took the decision to open hostilities on the 5th of June 1967 the Air Force was given the green light to launch operation Focus the aerial attack it had been rehearsing for years the Israelis had rolled the

dice which would determine the future of their state [Music] Cairo the morning of Monday the 5th of June [Music] 1967 a day that will change the history of the Middle East a plane is waiting to take off towards Sinai Marshall abdulhakim Ahmed Deputy supreme commander of the Egyptian Army Armed Forces is making a morale boosting visit to troops deployed on the borders with Israel for the last 3 weeks but this Egyptian show of strength was put to good use by Israeli media memories of the Holocaust were invoked to persuade Israelis they were facing a threat

to their very existence the Egyptians were the Nazis gamar Thea was never mentioned by name in the Hebrew media at the time he was called the Egyptian Tyrant that was his name in Washington US president Lyndon B Johnson issued a stark warning to whichever side should start the war it was a thinly Veiled Threat to the Egyptian leadership AB in fact Israel though apparently the underdog was far more prepared for war than any of its Arab [Music] opponents Israeli chief of staff itak be toured the front line to meet troops waiting for a green light

under this action of NASA Israel had to mobilize all its forces all its Reserve forces and also to think that we should strike first and the Striking first was in the eyes of Israeli a reaction to what we thought are aggressive action of the Egyptian side [Music] the opening attack would be the much rehearsed operation Focus an aerial strike to destroy the Egyptian Air Force on the [Music] ground in the early hours of the 5th of June 1967 the Israeli Air Force prepared to to deliver the first blow when we wake up in the morning

and came to the briefing room we wrote on the Blackboard the hours which was [Applause] 7:45 200 Israeli Jets took to the air they would arrive over Egyptian airfields at exactly 7:45 a.m. to avoid radar detection they flew first North then West over the Mediterranean turning South the Plaines came in from the north not from the East as the Egyptians had anticipated [Music] [Music] now everything is very easy as you trained many many time before his aircraft were located very easy on the ground and not far from the runways it was not a big problem

to strike them immediately you saw big torches with smoke over all those airfields [Music] lers by midday the Israelis had successfully attacked 18 [Music] airfields the Egyptians had lost 80% of their Air Force more than 300 planes destroyed on the [Music] ground ironically Cairo radio was carrying false reports of the total failure of the enemy's Air Attack with news coming in of Egypt's apparent success Jordan Syria and Iraq now launched their own air strikes in effective though they were those attacks gave the Israelis a pretext to widen the scope scope of the war operation Focus

was extended to cover airfields in Jordan Syria and even a key base in Iraq H3 was the only base from which they could reach Israel and the only base in which we could reach with the last drops of the fuel my third flight that day I attack El maaza Air Base not far from Damascus caught off guard the syrians lost half their aircraft the H3 Airfield in Iraq was put out of action and Jordan's air force was totally destroyed by sunset on the first day of War operation Focus had guaranteed Israel total air superiority in

the Skies over the Middle East the Arab armies would now be fighting with no air support the outcome of the war had been sealed I really think that there is no example in the history of world Aviation of such a total strike and a total attack maybe the only time that you can compare it with B Harbor the attack of the Japanese on pear Harbor which was also a great surprise attack which almost decimated the American Fleet in the Pacific on the ground though Egyptian forces were fairing much better they had succeeded in holding up

the Israeli armored Advance into Sinai yet the Egyptian Deputy Supreme Commander Marshall Amir was about to take a disastrous decision its roots lay in his attempted visit to the front line the day before miraculously the plane was able to return to Cairo but Marshall Amur had been shocked by witnessing Israel's Air Supremacy at [Music] firsthand the next day Amar ordered an immediate withdrawal of Egyptian troops from Sinai an order which led to the total collapse of the Egyptian front the for by the fourth day of the war Israeli troops reached the Eastern Bank of the

Suz canal they had occupied the whole of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza [Music] St the previous day the Israelis had also tasted success on their Eastern Front ending the short-lived War launched by Jordan's King Hussein by 11:00 in the morning the first day virtually after we destroyed the Egyptian Air Force but usin didn't know it at that time on the contrary NASA called him up and said we are winning we're winning do your own share uh he didn't do a big offensive he wasn't unable to do it but he conquered the hill around the

government house it endangered the southern part of Jerusalem his forces were only by now a few hundred yards away from Israeli houses of Israeli citizen [Music] on the afternoon of the first day of the war the Israelis began their assault against the jordanians the battle soon escalated and 2 Days Later the whole of the West Bank and Jerusalem fell to the Israelis [Music] with the war all but over on the Egyptian and Jordanian France and ignoring a un call for a ceasefire Israel's High command now decided to secure its borders with Syria on the fifth

day of War Israeli troops began to climb the Strategic goolan Heights and [Music] but on the sixth day of the war Syria had accepted the UN ceasefire with no advanced warning given to troops fighting on the Goan the broadcast fatally undermined Syrian Army [Music] resistance the man blamed for the Army's collapse was the Minister of Defense a man who would eventually rise to power in Syria ha Al Assad the Israelis pushed on and occupied the whole of the Golan [Music] Heights at the end of the sixth day of fighting and only when it had achieved

all its goals Israel accepted the UN ceasefire the guns fell silent the Arabs had suffered a humiliating [Music] defeat [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] under heavy popular pressure NASA rended his decision to step down from the presidency and attempts to regain the Lost Arab territories [Music] began Israel had tripled its size capturing the Sinai Peninsula the Gaza Strip the West Bank Eastern Jerusalem and the goolan heights there were songs written there were Victory albums there were the huge intoxication of Victory this huge unique miraculous victory of the Israeli Army in that war was the greatest

tragedy in the history of Israel the Israelis basked in an aura of invincibility but their victory was just the start of even greater complications which still plague the Middle East to this day Israel found itself governing and being responsible for a million Palestinians in the newly occupied Gaza Strip West Bank and [Music] Jerusalem I took about 6 months to roam around the newly occupied territories most in the West Bank and Gaza and I came back and I said look there is another people there and they have a national movement so what do we do either

we we conquer them and create a sort of an AP paride state or we have the loaf into predominantly Jewish State called Israel and the West Bank and Gaza should be a base is for future negotiations a recognition of their rights to have a state of their own a viable state of their own in the West Bank and Gaza what Israel chose was and Still Remains the first option in the aftermath of the war Israel declared what it called the unification of Jerusalem the entire holy city was placed under Israeli jurisdiction including Christian and Muslim

holy [Music] sites we are the government and the only government in the area that is to say that we have obligations and privilege and duties there obligation and privilege to maintain M Law and Order and to provide the people with services and with suitable standard of living as a government like every government world its [Music] citizen furthermore and in defiance of international law Israeli settlers began to move into the West Bank the territory they called Judea and Samaria the lands which they wanted to settle in were the core and Heartland of the Jewish people in

biblical times this is where Judaism emerged so it was natural that there would be this Messianic urge to settle those areas even perhaps even clear out Arabs from these areas this didn't happen but Jewish settlements were placed there and this has made things much more complicated for peacemaking here in addition to the West Bank settlements were spreading in the Gaza Strip Sinai and on the Golan Heights and as the Israelis tightened their grip on the occupied territories it became clear they had no intention of returning [Music] them in October 1973 after just 6 years the

Arabs aiming to restore their territories and their dignity would launch Another [Music] War Israel was about to receive a sharp reminder of the vulnerability it thought it had conquered forever in the war of June [Music] 1967 [Music]