10.5: War and Peace

The Six Day War

Almost inexorability, Egypt would be drawn to the issue which united the Arab countries in aversion, Israel. Throughout the 1960’s skirmishes flared between Israel and its Arab neighbors of Syria and Jordan while the Palestinian fedayeen – who had formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO – continued to launch raids on Israeli settlements. With a UN peacekeeping force still stationed on the Egypt-Israel border, the two countries enjoyed relative peace, yet Nasser came under increasing pressure from the Arab press and people to challenge Israel. To modernize the Egyptian military, Egypt had turned to the Soviet Union for equipment, training, and intelligence. In the summer of 1967 the Soviets informed Nasser, incorrectly, that Israel was preparing for an invasion of Syria. In response Nasser ordered the Egyptian army to the border with Israel and demanded UN peacekeeping forces withdraw. Whatever Nasser’s intentions, as the UN forces withdrew war fever swept across the Arab world. Sensing the popular mood Arab leaders, kings and revolutionaries alike, flocked behind Nasser pledging their armies and calling for the elimination of Israel. In Israel a sense of doom filled the small nation as citizens tuned in to hear Voice of the Arabs Radio boast of their imminent destruction and rabbis consecrated public parks to serve as mass graveyards.

With hostile armies massing on its borders, Israel struck first. In a surprise air attack the Israeli Defense Force or IDF totally destroyed the airforces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan on the ground in a matter of hours. With air superiority achieved, for six days the IDF sliced through Arab armies capturing Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights with the Egyptian army routed and thrown into disarray. For Israel the sudden victory established the IDF as a military power, placed Jerusalem under complete Jewish rule for the first time in two millennia, and gave Israel the chance to exchange occupied territory in return for official recognition from the Arab countries: land for peace.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Yom Kippur War, in the Public Domain (Israel seized the Sinai, West Bank, and the Golan Heights during the Six Day War. Eventually Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt and annexed the Golan Heights while in the West Bank Palestinians hold limited self-government as Israel retains military control over much of the territory.)

Across the Arab world propaganda had proclaimed Arab victories and triumphs in the war up until the ceasefire. With stunned disbelief, millions of Arabs heard an exhausted King Hussein of Jordan reveal the defeat and holding back tears say “If we don’t make it, we will die with honor.” The Egyptian army shattered, Nasser gave an emotional speech admitting defeat yet blamed American and British support for the Israeli victory, a lie that would sour Arab-American relations for a generation. Then Nasser shocked listeners by announcing his resignation as president and hours later a crowd of hundreds of thousands appeared chanting outside his home, not to condemn him but to beg him to return to office. Nasser still held the unwavering affection of the Egyptian people, but the Six Day War ended dreams of Pan-Arabism and the hope of a united Arab world in the Middle East. Nasser would die of a heart attack soon after in 1970; yet his most devoted supporters said it was of a broken heart.

Peace

In the aftermath of defeat, Egypt and the other Arab states put aside their past differences and responded to Israel’s offer of land for peace with the Three No’s: no peace with Israel, no recognition, and no negotiations. Minor battles along the borders continued, but behind the frontlines the once heralded leader of Arab progress, Egypt, was in crisis. Even before the Six Day War the Egyptian economy had been in decline. Nationalized industries under appointed military officers were mismanaged and corrupt and the state's tinkering with price controls only stifled Egypt’s ability to compete in the global market. In the years to come this state corruption would firmly embed the Egyptian military class into Egypt’s economic sector. Heavy military expenditure meant rationing of basic foodstuffs. In the face of economic collapse and military humiliation, an Islamic revival swept across the region. As one Egyptian woman noted before the Six Day War she had believed Nasser

“would lead us all to progress. Then the war showed we had been lied to; nothing was the way it had been represented. I started to question everything we were told. I wanted to do something and to find my own way. I prayed more and I tried to see what was expected of me as a Muslim woman. Then I put on the sharia dress.”  

With Nasser gone, his successor President Anwar Sadat relied increasingly on foreign aid from Saudi Arabia to keep Egypt’s economy afloat.  Despite the poor economy, Sadat believed that war with Israel was necessary. In 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel with the stated goal of driving Israel back to its 1967 borders. The war proved a 2½ week slugging match ending in an Israeli victory on the battlefield; strategically, however, Sadat achieved his goal. Egyptian forces fought bravely and restored a sense of Arab pride while renewing in Israel a commitment to the policy of peace for land. From this renewed confidence Sadat achieved what had before been unthinkable, for as Israel returned the Sinai, Egypt in turn became the first Arab country to make peace with and recognize Israel. Peace promoted economic growth and opened a military-ruled Egypt once more to world travelers – tourism became a booming industry of modern Egypt – yet the treaty infuriated the growing Islamic radicals who assassinated Sadat in 1981.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Agreed -- not to use the sword, by Edmund Valtman, Library of Congress, in the Public Domain (Cartoon of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin trying to find peace. Their efforts are complicated by Israel’s pursuit of security and the Palestinian wish for self-determination. This issue remains an unsolved tangle of modern Middle Eastern politics.)

Review Questions

• How did the Six Day War change the Middle East?
• Why did belief in Pan-Arabism decline after the Six Day War?
• Under Sadat, how did Egypt and Israel negotiate peace?