Analysis Of The Six Day War, June 1967

By Major Charles B. Long USAF

This paper examines the Six Day War, the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1967, for the purposes of highlighting applications/violations of the principles of war outlined in AFM 1-1. This material will be incorporated into an AGSC block of instruction studying the principles of war as used in famous historical battles. This paper is divided into three separate sections. The first section reviews the background of the Arab-Israeli problem and highlights some of the major events leading up to the war. This section also presents a battle synopsis of the conflict including visual depictions of the battle progress. The second section provides an analysis of the use (or misuse) of the principles of war by each side—Arab and Israeli. The final section provides some discussion questions, with supporting rationale, in a guided discussion format for possible use in a seminar environment. The non-standard format for this project is at the request of ACSC/EDCJ to assist in building this particular block of instruction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tannenberg Publishing
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781782899808

Major Charles B. Long USAF

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PREFACE

This paper examines the Six Day War, the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1967, for the purposes of highlighting applications/violations of the principles of war outlined in AFM 1-1. This material will be incorporated into an AGSC block of instruction studying the principles of war as used in famous historical battles. This paper is divided into three separate sections. The first section reviews the background of the Arab-Israeli problem and highlights some of the major events leading up to the war. This section also presents a battle synopsis of the conflict including visual depictions of the battle progress. The second section provides an analysis of the use (or misuse) of the principles of war by each side—Arab and Israeli. The final section provides some discussion questions, with supporting rationale, in a guided discussion format for possible use in a seminar environment. The non-standard format for this project is at the request of ACSC/EDCJ to assist in building this particular block of instruction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Major Charles B. Long graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and was also a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program. Major Long then received his Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of’ South Carolina in 1969 through an Air Force Institute of Technology sponsored educational delay program.

Air Force assignments have included a tour at Ellsworth AFB SD, as a non-appropriated funds financial management officer; three years at Gunter AFS AL, as an operations officer with an Air Force recruiting detachment; a tour at Goose Bay IAP, Labrador, as the wing special services officer; four years at the US Air Force Academy, as the Chief, Cadet Personnel Services aid Assistant Director of Protocol; a tour at RAF Upper Heyford, United Kingdom, as Chief, Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR); and most recently two years at Headquarters, United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) as a member of the USAFE Inspector General Team. Major Long has completed Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, and the National Defense University’s National Security Management Course.

CHAPTER ONE — THE WAR

BACKGROUND AND ESCALATION

"The Promised Land. Promised to whom?

The Jew, who came first? Or the Arab, who was there last?

These cousins of the Semitic peoples would say, the both,

that the land is the pledge of their God. But which God: Jehovah

or Allah? What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

But man had, this to the Jew, that to the Arab. (1:5)"

The Arab-Israeli antagonism is deeply rooted in ancient rival claims to the area of Palestine. (22:321) Although its political boundaries have changed often, Palestine’s geographical area has historically been regarded as the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River and between Egypt and Syria. During the twenty centuries since the Romans expelled the Jews from Palestine in 135 A.D., the land has been under the successive rule of Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Turks, and Great Britain. Spurred by the Zionist movement and anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, Jews began to return to Palestine in large numbers during the late 18th and early 19th centuries so that by the time of British occupation in 1918 their numbers totaled about 70,000 compared with 630,000 Arabs. (8:1-2) Throughout World War I Zionist leaders negotiated with the British for a Jewish homeland in Palestine resulting in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which stated that Britain,. . .viewed with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.. .(4:8) The Arabs’ historic claims to Palestine are based on their presence in the country since it first came under Moslem rule in approximately 600 A.D. (8:3)

The antagonism between Jew and Arab began