The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1967–1973

The seven-year period between May 1967, when the crisis that led to the Six Day War erupted, and May 1974, when the Yom Kippur War officially ended, constitutes the most intensive phase in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It saw two high-intensity wars (1967 and 1973), one war of attrition (Israel and Egypt in 1969–1970), and lower-intensity conflicts between Israel and Jordan (summer 1967–September 1970), Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (mostly in Jordan but also in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza), Israel and Lebanon, and between Jordan and the PLO (summer 1970). At the same time, it also saw the beginning of a political process based on the “land for peace” 1967 UN Resolution 242 formula. The 1967 war also triggered significant changes in the Arab world. It delivered the coup de grâce to Nasser’s pan-Arabism, contributed to the rise of radical Islam as an alternative to secular nationalism, and turned the PLO into a major actor in inter-Arab politics. It further set the stage for Lebanon’s reentry into the Arab-Israeli conflict, as it became the launching ground for the Palestinian armed struggle against Israel. This intensity of events, and their legacy, garnered much academic and non-academic attention. Much of it was written by Israelis using newly available Hebrew archival sources. Unfortunately, as is known to any student of the conflict, for various reasons the Arab historical and analytical narratives are scarce. This is especially true with regard to Syria and less so with regard to the Egyptian, the Jordanian, and the Palestinian sides of the conflict. Academic studies of the Soviet military and diplomatic involvement in the conflict are quite numerous, and US activity during this stormy Middle Eastern period is well covered.