Strategy or chance: Mideast historian reexamines beginning of Six Day War
The 1967 Six Day War, in which Israel gained control of territories now at the center of the Middle East conflict, was the result of poor judgment and a series of misinterpretations on the Israeli and Arab sides, historian and former Israeli official Michael Oren GS '86 said last night in Dodds Auditorium.Oren, author of the bestselling "Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East," addressed the "sequence of miscalculation and misinterpretations" that led Israel to go to war against its Arab neighbors and to triple its size, occupying the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip.Using newly declassified documents, Oren concluded that the war "never should have taken place," but rather happened because Arab politicians made poor decisions about their domestic situations in relation to foreign policy and Israeli leaders were too glib about their military power.Oren, who advised former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and is now director of the Middle East history project at the Shalem Center, said the war was the root of the modern conflict.Just yesterday morning in Jerusalem, a suicide bombing killed 11 people and left at least 49 people wounded.The Six Day War broke out on June 5, 1967, when Israel began a preemptive air attack on Egypt's air force and went on to make quick victories all over the Middle East.Prior to war, Oren said, tensions had been escalating between Israel and the Arab nations surrounding it.Arab states were domestically insecure, Oren said, and Arab leaders thought that they could use an anti-Israel position to consolidate domestic support.A Baathist military regime ruled Syria since 1966, President Nasser led Egypt and King Hussein was in charge of Jordan.Syrian-supported Palestinians and Israelis had been exchanging attacks.