A Call to Arms: The Six Day War to Today

In the tense weeks before the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel seemed to stand on the edge of destruction. On May 22, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran, cutting off Israel’s southern shipping route—an act internationally recognized as a declaration of war. Within days, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan signed military pacts, amassing nearly half a million soldiers, thousands of tanks, and hundreds of warplanes along Israel’s borders. The Soviet Union supplied them with advanced weaponry. France, Israel’s main arms supplier, abruptly imposed an arms embargo. The United States announced it would remain neutral.

 

Inside Israel, the mood was grim. Public parks were dug into mass graves in preparation for the feared casualties. Many braced for what they saw as a possible second Holocaust, G-d forbid. Thousands fled the country.