Analysis of armed conflicts Mr Cook - The Six-Day War

Résumé du document

Seen as an ineffaceable trauma for Arabs and a poisoned victory for Israel, the Six-Day War has been a strategic moment in the history of the Middle East. Before developing the topic, a brief reminder of the previous Israeli-Arab relations is necessary to better situate and understand what led to the Six-Day War.

To better understand the Arab-Israeli conflict and more especially the 1967 crisis, reminding the origins of the conflict is important. Therefor, we have to go back to August the 29th of 1897 and a congress in Basel in which was advocated for the first time the idea of the creation of a Jewish state. 19 years later, the Sykes-Picot agreement was signed where British and French considered possible sharing a territory in Palestine under an Ottoman control.

A few years later, in 1920, the establishment of a British mandate about Palestine at the United Nations takes place. In the following years the first waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine happen, as well as the first clashes between Jewish and Arab communities appear.

On November the 29th of 1947, the vote of the UN General Assembly provides the establishment in Palestine of two states: an Arab one and a Jewish one, and an international status for the city of Jerusalem.

Extraits

[...] Thus, in six days of war, Israel defeated the first military force of the region and has expanded its territory. On the evening of the sixth day, the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies are all defeated. Egypt lost Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. Syria had been amputated of the Golan Heights and Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel has tripled its land territory Consequences of the war Rarely in the history an event as short as the Six Day War has had an impact that persists for decades. [...]

[...] On June the 8th, the battle of the Sinai ends by Israel's takeover of the Asian side of the Suez Canal. Egyptian and Syrian armies accept the ceasefire; the two main Arab countries are destroyed. On June the 9th, Israel takes control of the Golan Heights. Until this day, the fights on the Syrian-Israeli border had been limited to bombs. But on June the 9th, after he got a telegram that informed him that the Soviets did not intend to intervene, Moshe Dayan decided to launch the Israeli army to conquer the Golan Heights. [...]

[...] CONCLUSION As a conclusion, we can say that a mentioning a constructivist approach of the outbreak of the Six-Day War is necessary. Not mentioning this theoretical approach would be inappropriate. Indeed, it appears that the identities of actors have played a decisive role in the construction of their perceptions and therefore in the decisions and actions that led to the war. The constructivist approach proved a strong desire of the peoples involved in the conflict and enough frustrations and fears from their part in the construction of their identities, what let it be used by the political leaders. [...]

[...] Which country would risk to be invaded or attacked at first? Concerning the Six-Day war, we don't precisely know who began the conflict for real. There were so many incident on the borders, in Syria, Egypt so many moves to prevent an attack Both sides were getting ready for war. They were going further and further in preventing war, that it can sometimes be seen as an aggressive behavior. In May, rumors from Moscow pretended that Israel would attack Syria. [...]

[...] What follows this decision is a conflict between Egypt and Israel. During the conflict France and Great Britain backed Israel militarily for economic reasons since firms of these countries were controlling the canal before Nasser's decision. Israel kept control of the canal after the few days of war but Egypt won back the canal after a UN vote of the Security Council and the convening of the General Assembly, who considered Egypt was on its right to take over its canal. [...]