in 1967 Syria started [a] process that would stir up middle east tensions and unite the Arab states in a war against their hated neighbor Israel But they underestimated the military strength and cunning of the tiny state and up to six days of Fierce [fighting] Israel had destroyed three arab armies and shown that it was a force to be reckoned with It all began with water In the mid 1960s israel began to use the sea of Galilee as a freshwater reservoir for the entire country Transporting water by canal to the NegEv desert Most of the streams which feed the sea of Galilee flow from the Golan Heights which was then in syrian possession? Syria disputed this Exploitation of a shared resource and began to dig a canal which would divert the goal and streams away from the sea of Galilee As soon as the digging started in 1964 the Countdown to war was triggered For 20 years Israel had been on a war footing with its neighbors the United Nations resolution of 1947 which turned a thin slice [of] British control palestine into Jewish and Arab [States] had been rejected out of hand by palestinian arabs and most of the Arab world as the British left in 1948 Seven armies invaded palestine over running the territory meant for the palestinian arabs and attacking the new state of Israel Ever since that war ended in 1949 a state of uneasy truce had existed on Israel's borders between 1948 and 1967 Israel had a problem with defense Because unless you're willing to conduct a first world war style Attritional defense were you you dig a trench and sit in there and and and shoot until everybody's dead Unless you're going to do something like that. You need to be able to defend in depth and the ISraelis had no depth Basically the country was shaped like an hourglass there was an area in the North surrounded by Mountains overlooked by Mount Hermon [9,000] feet high [there] was an area in the south and the negev and it was connected by an arrow Parador now at its narrowest this corridor was only Seven miles wide and so at Jordanian artillery in the Judean Hills could actually drop Shells onto the the coastline of Israel she had a very small population She had a very small landmass no strategic depth But very long borders and she also had a relatively weak economy very narrowly based and this meant that she couldn't find long Attritional war she had to [find] [wars] of maneuver so the Israelis would have to defend at the strategic level by attacking at the operational [level] and preemptive strike became an important part of israeli doctrine because of their strategic situation in 1956 during the suez Crisis Britain and France convinced Israel to go to war with Egypt and for a short period Israel occupied the Vast Sinai Peninsula only the deployment of the [first-ever] un peacekeeping mission returned tensions to their usual simmer in The 1960s as the syrians and the Israelis exchanged border clashes around the Golan [heights] Egyptian president Nasser saw his leadership in the Arab world slipping away He could not allow the syrians to become the main aggressors against the Israelis on the 16th of May 1967 President Nasser ordered the United Nations peacekeeping force out of the sinai Nasser, just wanted him to take maybe some of the peacekeeping force out or maybe ideally who thought would say no that peacekeeping force is going to stay in the interest of international peace [and] security and Nasser could say that the un was bad and the un could say they didn't care and Nasa would have made his show of Force against the Israelis But to some extent to Nasser surprise the whole un peacekeeping Force lock stock and barrel Picks up and [leaves] and suddenly Nasser who has been speaking very belligerently Against the ISraelis who has been saying some pretty? Blood-curdling things about what he's going to do to israel Suddenly, Nasara finds himself with nothing between himself and the ISraelis No, Nasa overlooked the straits of Tiran Israel's access to the gulf of AqaBa With egyptian Forces commanding the straits the israeli port of L at could be cut off from the sea International lawyers knew that this was a frightening development Although the straits of Tiran were within the three-mile limit of Egypt's territorial waters the straits were an international waterway Barring passage to a country shipping was an act of war The Israelis watched with some trepidation as the egyptians built up to war on May the 20th they mobilized their army calling up reserves and bringing the country's economy to a standstill They watched as Nasa Bullied [Jordan's] young King Hussein into joining the Joint Egyptian Syrian Command structure They watched as the syrians dug their canal They watched as Nasa's Forces built up in the sinai Meanwhile the American [Six] fleet went on war alert in the Mediterranean the soviet Black sea fleet began moving through the Dardanelles in response on May the 28th [Nasser] announced we plan to open a general assault on Israel This will be a total war our [bassy] game is the destruction of Israel this firmed up israeli resolve Hawks and doves in the Israeli Cabinet, were united by Nasa's threat And on the 4Th of june a national unity cabinet listened to seven hours of military briefing Then authorized the prime minister to go to war Israeli prime Minister Eshkol told his new Defense, Minister Moshe Dayan To commence hostilities on the 5th of June at oh Seven [Forty-Five] israeli time. Oh 8:45 Cairo time the Israeli Air Force had been doing some routine number crunching They were proud of their quick turnaround time and were interested to see how it would work in a war game The Israeli Air Force could turn an aircraft around in eight minutes That means that from the time the aircraft touched down it could be refueled and rearmed Preflighted and launched again in eight minutes The Israelis could do this eight times a day for each aircraft The question was what if the entire [air] [force] was committed to operations at this tempo? How much damage could it then inflict during one single day? Israeli planners looked at the numbers and looked again Their analysis said that if they operated against the egyptians for one long hard morning They could destroy their entire air force on the ground and still have time left to attack the much smaller Jordanian and syrian Air Force's At oh 800 hours Cairo time on the 5th of June 1967 the egyptian Dawn Patrol took off in a well-organized air force in a time of increasing international tension [what] tends to happen is that air patrols are sent up from dawn and they will overlap throughout the course of the day so that There will be ineffective [a] standing [air] [patrol] up over ones military bases strategic centers Air bases and so on but it's surprising just how often A dawn patrol would go up and then land and there'll be a gap between the dawn patrol and the next [patrol] It's not just the egyptians who make this mistake The Americans for example in the philippines on the 8th of December 1941 lost virtually their entire [Air] [Force] by making Precisely the same mistake B-17s P-40s went up in the morning Landed and while they were being refueled Rearmed Japanese struck now precisely the same thing is going to happen on the 5th of June 1967 At oh 8:45 as if on cue the israeli Dawn Patrol disappeared from the egyptian radar scopes the Egyptian War [Minister] Field Marshal Amaura was in an airborne command post aircraft with his chief of Air staff and a soviet Air commodore Field Marshal Amir watched from the window of his airborne command post as a black cloud Rose over the vast Cairo, West Airfield Nasa had threatened israel with war and the ISraelis had accepted the challenge As [Field-Marshal] Amaz pilot frantically looked for a safe airbase to land his plane [ten] of Egypt's forward Air bases between Cairo and the Israeli Border were destroyed by his rayleigh ground attack aircraft As each pair of israeli planes dropped their bombs they turned [to] dame their cannon and missiles of the egyptian planes [refuelling] on the aprons They made two passes spending no more than seven minutes over their targets Then turned for the 20-minute flight home and a quick eight-minute turnaround As one wave of israeli aircraft were dropping their bombs another was halfway to Target and the next wave was already launching The [egyptian] [Air] [Force] was hammered by wave after wave that day with only three minutes respite between attacks the first [israeli] [mirage] aircraft were assigned to Destroy Egypt's soviet-Built bombers near Cairo the rest pounded fighter bases in the Sinai While bases in the north of Egypt were being pounded Faraway bases and upper Egypt were also not safe These bases which supported Nasa's operations in the yemen were attacked by israeli bombers from the Red Sea First respond us then luxor were attacked by French build wart or bombers the first egyptian planes to succeed in taking off came from her guard in Sinai 20 Mig 21 and MiG-19 fighters charged into the fray at oh nine Thirty Cairo time For opinions were shot down by the Israelis and the rest were forced to break off because of Low fuel states The reuters shock of all for them was discovering that every egyptian airbase within range had been destroyed The fighters all bailed out or crashed as they try to land on Crater runway? Eight more egyptian Mig's became airborne and shot down two israeli, Mr. fighter bombers, but all were destroyed by the guns of iSraeli mirage interceptors by 11:35 Cairo time 250 Egyptian Aircraft had been destroyed a hundred of Egypt's 350 pilots were killed More were injured Israel had lost 19 aircraft [3-2] enemy action Towards noon on the first day of the wall the Israelis turn their attention to Egypt's remaining air bases the syrian Air Force misled by Egyptian Propaganda launched a Sortie against the high for oil Refineries and were destroyed in their entirety by the Israelis The Royal Jordanian Air Force tried to provide close air support for Jordan's forces around Jerusalem, and they were destroyed, too Even elements of the Iraqi Air Force which had been deployed forward for operations against israel were destroyed By noon on the first day of the war israel had absolute air supremacy over israeli-egyptian Jordanian and Syrian Airspace The Israeli Air Force could now be devoted almost exclusively to providing close air support to the ground Forces fighting into Sinai the West Bank and the [Golan] [Heights] Air superiority Was absolutely crucial to the Israelis for many reasons strategically gave them reach. It allowed them to project their Force over vast distances using relatively Few assets Operationally it meant that they could be mobile between the various fronts because [they] had so many enemies surrounding them they knew though very probably have to find one after another after another just as they had to in the 1967 War and this gave them the flexibility to do that at the operational level once Air superiority had been going With the air Frank opened to them they could use aircraft in a close air support role they could actually support the advancing infantry and armor they could interdict the enemy as he reinforced or try to withdraw They could also Transport logistics Using the air [flame] and of course could also importantly drop Airborne forces so that package that air superiority Package gave the Israelis the sort of flexibility that they needed at very many different levels The Egyptian Army had prepared contingency plans for defending the sinai in depth Called Klan car here the plan would allow the ISraelis to Advance. Deep into the sinai where they would be destroyed by egyptian firepower President Nasser told his army to shelve plan car here Instead Nasa ordered his army to concentrate forward along the israeli border to prepare for an invasion of Israel The Egyptian Army wants to defend the sinai peninsula because Cairo is very close but Once this plan has been developed by the egyptian general staff Nasser changes his mind because of his bellicose rhetoric Nasser has to Abandon the idea of using his army to defend Cairo to defend the sinai against an israeli attack and instead He has to go along With his bellicose rhetoric and position his army to attack The new Egyptian plan was to begin with a surprise air attack on the israeli Air force To achieve local air superiority over the negev desert Then while the 20th palestinian liberation army division of the egyptian army attacked the Israelis from the Gaza strip The Egyptian 4th armored division would cut across southern Israel linking up with a cracked Jordanian 60th armored Brigade to cut off the israeli Red Sea port town of Eilat the egyptian six motor rifle division with a powerful egyptian 1st armored division in support would take a lat and Consolidate the Egyptian Hold over Southern Israel the Egyptian armies redeployment really put the Armed forces in A position of great difficulty they weren't expecting it and they weren't Flexible and the redeployment sent them to ground. They didn't know particularly well and hadn't necessarily Trained for it meant that the Organization that was so relatively strong whilst in egypt when put on a new piece of ground all of a sudden showed a lack of cohesion sort of lack of cohesion that the Israeli armed forces knew they had to try and target and exploit when it came to battle They go into Sinai they dig in to defend the sinai. They're told Abandon Your field fortifications move to a new position to attack the ISraelis now dig in The Egyptian Soldier cannot be bothered to dig in again. He's not well motivated he's not well, led he's not being well-treated and Yet another pointless movement in the [sinai] just further demoralizes the [Egyptian] Soldier and That means that when the Israelis come they're attacking not a dug in enemy prepared to attack They're attacking Egyptian soldiers who are not prepared [to] [fight] at all? The Israeli concept of Operations was first to break through the thick skin of the forward egyptian units Next they would exploit Westward to cross the sinai on its three main East-West Routes heading along the coast and towards the passes through the mountains at the western Edge of the peninsula During the exploitation phase they would engage and destroy the egyptian reserve formations The fiercest fighting came during the initial breakthrough on june the 5th the first day of the war Because the egyptian army had been concentrated forward for an attack into israel. It was hard to penetrate at [Abu] a gala the egyptians had a prepared defensive position blocking the Central route through the sinai The position Had been prepared according to soviet doctrine belts of Trenches were anchored on the Ride by Rocky crevices [and] hills and on the left by shifting sand Dunes to their front were Minefields covered by machineguns in the trenches and artillery to the rear a Few miles away [an] armored strike Force stood ready to counter-Attack [Brigadier] Ariel Sharon sent his tanks by a roundabout route to block the egyptian armor He sent his paras by helicopter to assault the egyptian artillery shooting the gunners [in] their pits His tanks and guns waited in front of the egyptian defenses as his infantry moved through the shifting sand dunes on the egyptians left when they had word that the egyptian artillery had been silenced the israeli tanks and guns Fired on the left edge of the egyptian trenches as the fire shifted the israeli infantry poured into the trenches Lighting colored flares to Mark their progress Israeli tankers and [Gunners] used these moving beacons to shift fire israeli sappers moved across the Minefields clearing paths for the Israeli armored During the furious progress of the battle for the Trenches, Brigadier Yaffe radioed chiron Asking to move forward through the a below gala position Sharon's mission was to allow yaffe to move forward into the sinai so he agreed [to] one of the most dangerous operations in war Passing towards the enemy through friendly forces who were already fighting? even before the [egyptian] Trenches had been secured The leading elements of yah, fees division were moving along the road past a [blue] gala and crossed the sinai because the egyptian Army had been Concentrated so far forward once the ISraelis burst through the battle of the sinai turned into a pursuit once the ISraelis are through The Egyptian Forward Deployed forces once they're through the forces who are prepared to invade [Israel] the ISraelis have a much easier time of Exploiting onwards because the egyptians are on the back foot from the time the [Israelis] get through the forward egyptian defenses The egyptians are always reacting to what the ISraelis are doing the ISraelis had a fairly comprehensive intelligence picture of egyptian Deployments They've been able to pick this up from a combination of human intelligence and signals intelligence and some reconnaissance patrols And in essence they knew that a gap had opened up between the palestinian Xx division Which is based in Gaza and the egyptian 7th division. Which was based [two] to the west of Gaza There was a place called [Rafa] junction, and [they] knew that if they struck North and [rother] junction They would be actually driving along the bound between the Egyptian Seventh and the Palestinian twenty of divisions they knew their objective than they could get behind the egyptians and Destroy their cohesion and then destroy the egyptians actually institute in the sinai itself and what it shows us [is] splendid Israeli military doctrine they knew what objects as they could achieve they had the All Arms corporation with which to achieve that they got the initial preemptive strike then they had the speed and momentum to carry them through and they get to the suez canal in just 100 hours and he's got to go down as one of the remarkable Maneuver Warfare Victories in the 20th century [15,000] egyptians were killed or wounded in four days of fighting 5,000 soldiers were captured along with [500] of their officers [80] [percent] of Egypt's military Hardware had been captured including hundreds of [tanks] and hundreds of guns Israel had lost 300 killed and over [a] thousand wounded It took four days of the six-day war for the Israelis [to] overrun the egyptian army in the sinai By the 8th of june the egyptians were ready to accept a ceasefire The task Force set to drive to the Southern tip of the sinai were not needed Israeli sailors came ashore at Sharm al-sheikh to Raise the Israeli Flag over the straits of Tiran Israel expected to fight Egypt and syria possibly Jordan plus forces from elsewhere in the Arab world [but] [they] did not have the combat power to fight two or even three enemies at the same time They therefore pursued Napoleon's strategy of the central position When fighting a more powerful enemy Napoleon said put yourself between the enemy armies and fight them one at a time While the ISraelis were fighting egypt they defended against Jordan and Syria When they saw that the battles in the sinai were going well late on the 5th of june they threw their reserves into battle on the central front around Jerusalem The Jordanian Army with some egyptian support had six infantry brigades defending the West bank three in Samaria to the North Two in Jerusalem and one in the Judean Hills South of Bethlehem another [Brigade] was in reserve near Jericho two armored Brigades made up Jordan striking Force 40 Brigade in the Jordan [Valley] and 60 [Brigade] ready to link up with egyptian forces in the south When the egyptian attack across the negEv desert was checkmated by the Israeli attack 60 Brigade was free to operate against the Israelis around Jerusalem The Israelis faced Jordan with a very large Jerusalem Brigade a reserve infantry Brigade around Lod airport and a reserve infantry Brigade near Netanya at his rails narrowest point one division could be borrowed from Forces facing Syria in the north This was enough to defend against the small, but well-trained Royal Jordanian, Army But not enough to attack Only when Jordan was committed to the war and once egypt was no longer a threat Could the general staff release its operational reserve to the battle against [Joy] the attacking Force against Jordan would be [ten] mechanized Brigade under the Brilliant [Colonel], [Ori] Benari the [German-born] father of the ISraeli Armored Corps The cigar-Chomping ben-Ari was called up as a reservist to command the armoured thrust against Jerusalem With him with a reserve paratroops of 55 para brigade prepared for a combat job in [Egypt], but no longer required [ben-Ari] moved his mechanized Force through the rough hills to the north of Jerusalem cutting the West bank in half by the morning of the 6th of June at The same time the Israeli Brigade at Lod airport moved up to the old British Fortress at Latrun and took it from Egyptian commandos King Hussein encouraged by his allies launched an air attack against the Israelis one may look at King is saying we must remember the geopolitics of Jordans position Jordan was in control of the what was going to become the West Bank and Jordan was deeply suspicious of both syrian motivations and egyptian motivations and in order to keep the Jordanians fighting and in order to keep the Jordanians attacking the Israelis Nasser lies Through his teeth to King Hussein Nasa to his very best to convince king as sane that the israeli Air Force while they had actually Delta a severe blow to Egypt had in fact themselves been shot out of the [sky] in very large numbers Nasa says to her saying that 70% of the Israeli Air [Force] a very strong asset that the enemy have had been destroyed and so the pressure was on for vote for king [Asain] to get involved in fact if you look at the Geopolitics of the situation it is almost impossible To imagine a situation in which Jordan would not have become involved the israeli Air Force its missions in Egypt and Syria completed turn their attention to Jordan and destroyed the Royal Jordanian Air Force King Hussein ordered his 60th armored brigade to move up from the Judean hills to oppose Banaras mechanized Force as They moved out they were destroyed from the air by israeli close support missions The Israeli Powers Unpack their drop bags put desert operations out of their minds and drove to the Jerusalem area They wrapped around Jerusalem from the North and East surrounding the Old City for 19 years the Jordanians have been building defences around the old city of Jerusalem to Stop the Israelis from attacking between ramallah and the Old City And it was very much like a an old first world war system of Defense's it was made up of pre-survey killing zones of trenches of Mutually supporting buildings some several Stories high with cellars That were connected by trenches barbed wires mine Anti-tank anti-personnel mines [in-between] and it was a very very difficult system to overcome but of course in the battle for ammunition hill that's exactly what the Israelis do some people suggest the ISraelis should have bypassed it and certainly in the sinai where you've got miles and miles of territory to work with they might well have But in order to maintain the momentum of the advance the israeli [fifty-five] peres Brigade has got to put in an attack on ammunition hill they have got to be [prepared] to take a lot of casualties from from close infighting in order to get around the Northern perimeter of Jerusalem the [fighting] started at about two o'clock in the morning on the 6th of June and it went on without intermission but for four hours It wasn't until dawn was breaking on the 6th of june that that ammunition hill was under israeli control It is an epoch in the history of the Idf the israeli defense force It's also an epoch in the [history] of the Jordanian Army both sides came out with military honors Just about equal While the fight for Jerusalem raged a divisional task group and a major general elad [peled] was detached from the forces facing Syria and sent into the hills of Samaria Slowly a Brigade fought their way against well-prepared Jordanian defenses through [Jeannine] through Fierce fighting at Kappa Tia towards nablus Another brigade came around the east towards nablus where they were welcomed by the citizens who took them for Jordanians Jordanian Army Elements trying to reinforce in Samaria and Jerusalem were pounded by israeli Air Force Battlefield air interdiction missions on the night of the 6th and 7th of June the Jordanian Governor of Jerusalem saw that reinforcements would not arrive, and he began to withdraw his [troops] from the city At 8:30 local time on the 7th of june the reserve powers of Israeli 55 Brigade Began their attack two battalions climbed the Ridge of the Mount of olives near Augusta Victoria hospital and Moved along the Ridge to the Kidron Valley while a third battalion moved along the walls of the old City [the] [Third] Battalion Led by Brigade commander colonel motta gur Moved through the City Walls at since Stevens gate and spread through the narrow alleys of the old city By 10 o'clock in the morning of the 7th of June the old City was secure Forces of the Jerusalem Brigade moved [Southward] [through] Bethlehem and Hebron to the Judean Hills been Ari's 10th Brigade moved Northwards through the Jordan Valley the ISraelis had lost 550 killed and 2,500 wounded Jordan had lost 6,000 soldiers killed or missing half the populated part of the hashemite Kingdom had been lost King Hussein betrayed by False Egyptian intelligence and empty promises of syrian support Accepted a ceasefire at 8 o'clock in the evening of the third day of the six-day war Syria had started this war Egypt had attacked to show they were fiercer than syria Egypt and Syria Had Bullied King Hussein into attacking [-] The Israelis had defeated the egyptian army [in] four days and the Royal Jordanian Army in three days as Things were going badly for Jordan and Egypt eight syrian Brigades sat out the war on the Golan heights The Villagers of Northern Israel protested that the frowning Massif of the Golan heights Was making it easy for syrian artillery to Target their farms For years the syrians had made life miserable for them attacking them as they worked During the six-day war two israeli Civilians were killed by Syrian artillery and 16 were wounded Guerrillas sponsored by Damascus had been operating in Northern Israel attacking Israeli in freh Structure Targets After egypt accepted a ceasefire on the 8th of june the israeli minister of defense approved an attack on the Golan [heights] The Golan Heights rise about 620 meters above the sea of Galilee It is a great huge plateau flat on top covered with huge volcanic basalt Boulders cut deeply by Ravines and canyons and it looms over the [lower] Galilee in Israel when you stand on the brow of the [Golan] [heights] overlooking the [sea] of [Galilee] and overlooking the lower Galilee itself You can see everything it is also if you like a barrier bit more than a speed bump But certainly not mountainous between two opposing States So the state that actually holds the heights has a very great strategic [advanced] advantage The ISraelis can use it as a [Launchpad]? Towards Syria and Damascus The syrians if they take and hold it can use it to bombard nor and Israel gallon All indeed to attack at a point where israel has very little strategic depth So the Golan [Heights] has very great strategic importance to both sides and as a result of that Both sides very much focus on it The massive Plateau of the Golan Heights is bordered by the steep yarmouk canyon to the south the bluffs overlooking the sea of Galilee to the Southwest and the comparatively Shallow Valley of the Jordan River to the West The Southern part of the heights are cut by a series of deep canyons which make it nearly impossible to operate tanks of the One Good Road The syrian Army defended the heights with three groups of brigades The 35th group of Brigades had two regular infantry Brigade groups forward had an infantry Brigade group and a mechanized Brigade group in reserve this divisional task group defended the rough Canyon Country of the Southern Golan the 12th group of Brigades defended the Northern Sector of the heights with a regular and a reservists infantry Brigade grouped forward and reservists infantry and an Armored Brigade [group] in reserve Mixed in with these brigades were five battalions of Syria's Republican guard The infantry Brigades were in concrete bunkers and well dug in they were fresh well supplied and ready for an iSraeli attack The forty second group of Brigades formed a mechanized strike Force it had one armored Brigade group to regular mechanized Brigade groups and two [reservists] infantry Brigade groups This strike Force was in reserve along the axis from Damascus to [Kenitra] City The ISraelis had to find places where [that] plateaus slopes were too steep [for] the syrians to have fortified them but still shallow enough to Operate tanks and [half-tracks] on The Israelis Committed to divisional. Task groups to the Golan heights one [under] [reserve] Brigadier Don [Laner] would approach from the North with one armored Brigade and the Elite [Golani] infantry Brigade The other would attack up the Harsh southern slopes of the heights This group consisted of Brigades which had been fighting around Jerusalem? Which would have to redeploy to the Golan while [Lana's] task group fought in the north They would be supported by the israeli Air Force who bombed and rocketed syrian positions on the Golan heights? for two days before the attacks went in Lana's Armored Brigade group under colonel Albert [Mandler] waded into Concentrated syrian artillery fire as it advanced up the slopes of the Northern Golan On its flank with a young conscripts of the Golani Brigade who cleared syrian defensive positions at tel fire? Tell fire was a well defended position with Minefields and barbed wire covering all approaches There was no room for clever maneuver here the ISraelis had to charge in dismounted attacks The first attack got at the fortifications with only three men left standing in The second assault [Golani] soldiers threw themselves over wire obstacles to create human bridges for their comrades to cross The Brigade reconnaissance force and supporting armored joined in the attack and by 6 o'clock in the evening of the 9th of June Tell faha had been taken By the end of the first day the Northern Edge of the heights had been taken by the Israelis during the night of the 9th and 10th of June Albert Mandela's tanks Moved Towards [quneitra] City as They fought elements of 55 reserve Para brigade and mechanized forces were moving northwards from the now quiet Jordanian front to join in the fight On that night [of] complex maneuver the syrian regime quietly withdrew their main mechanized striking Force the forty second group of Brigades closer to Damascus Israeli high come on knew that it would have to recycle assets From [one] front to another especially if there was an Arab alliance Which will mean perhaps taking the first [foremost] military power egypt and then actually going to say? Jordan and then the Golan Heights and the syrians or even ari the commander of The Brigade Calls all of the drivers in the brigade Into into one room a few hundred men sitting there in the room and he says gentlemen we need to go up to the Golan heights and We need to be there by 4:00 o'clock tomorrow morning And he gave them all a grid reference. They said this is the endpoint of our movement between here [and] there that are going to be military police trying to exercise traffic control there are going to be logisticians who want Signatures and paperwork in return for fuel. I don't care how you get from here to there just be there by 4 o'clock tomorrow morning, and all the drivers go out get into their vehicles and because the Israelis are prepared to operate in the Chaos of the battlefield the entire Brigade was able to pick [up] and move to this grid reference without without getting lost without getting crossed up with other other forces without running out of out of diesel and petrol on the way and the entire Brigade is able to be where it has to be the following morning Because [of] the Israelis willingness to cope with the Chaos the battlefield rather than try to impose order on the Chaos Elements of two Brigade groups crossed into the central goal an early in the morning of the 10th of June after lunch a quickly assembled israeli divisional task group Again an attack from the south at the steep bluffs and [leapfrogging] across the difficult country Beyond Syrian opposition was faltering as Damascus withdrew Brigade [group] after brigade group from the fight Syria could afford to lose the Golan heights, but it could not afford to lose its army On the night of the 10th of June Syria and Israel agreed to a ceasefire [2,500] syrian Soldiers had been killed five thousand had been wounded and 591 taken Prisoner The Israelis had lost a hundred and twenty seven killed and six hundred wounded during the fighting After the six-day war israel at last head defense in depth Israel had territory territory with which it could could trade It could trade for for peace it could trade for for recognition They had for the first time in the history created buffer zones around there an initial state In fact that the sinai was occupied by the ISraelis was seen as something that was extraordinary now perhaps they didn't have enough forces to actually occupied in the way that it needed to be occupied perhaps it led to complacency but between 1967 and 1973 The sinai was an absolutely crucial buffer zone they also taken the Golan heights from the syrians an absolutely central Strategic point that allowed the Israelis all Sorts of Advantages in Northern Israel, and then of [course] They'd also taken the West bank an area of great religious strategic and operational sensitivity But Israel also had a huge problems Israel had occupied the the West Bank and the West Bank had a substantial palestinian population now this was going to create all [sorts] of difficulties because not only [would] the international community not recognize Israeli annexation of the West Bank But within israeli society itself there were elements who are arguing that this territory this west bank territory Was in fact part of the story Israel and therefore should be settled by Israelis Israelis with their long tradition of of settling settling israel by by Building building Israeli settlements begin building settlements in the Golan Heights in the West Bank and in the Sinai and For certainly for political and religious reasons one can understand why they're building settlements on the West [bank] Because that is that part of the biblical [land] of Israel As as as I suppose the Golan was as well But they build settlements in the sinai which means that they need to defend the sinai it is no longer really part of their Strategic Depth likewise they build settlements on the Golan heights Which then have to be defended and which reduce their strategic depth yet again to nearly nil the Israelis Gained depth on a map, but they ruin the depth by building settlements in it Before the war Israel had been subjected to an egyptian blockade of the straits of Tiran [she] also suffered syrian artillery attacks and threats to water supply Jordanian barbed wire had divided Jerusalem denying Israelis access to the Old City In six days the Israelis had conducted a strategic defense by attacking Egypt Jordan and Syria in turn The United Nations resolutions, which ended the war called on the ISraelis to give up some of its territory and return for peace More than ten years later and after a disastrous war israel returned the sinai peninsula to egypt in exchange for a peace treaty More than 20 years later israel and Jordan also agreed an open peace treaty Even so more than 30 years later Israelis. Do not feel any more secure than they did before the [war] of June 1967 you
