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How the Six Day War Safeguarded Israel as the Middle East's Democratic Anchor

(Newsweek) Michael B. Oren - At dawn on June 5, 1967, hundreds of Egyptian jets penetrated Israeli airspace. Israeli pilots scrambled, but too late; their planes were destroyed on the ground. Elsewhere, in Jerusalem, Jordanian troops surrounded the western half of the city, cutting off its Jewish population. Six days later, the war was over. Much of the Jewish state lay in ruins and untold numbers of its population - uniformed and civilian - were dead. The international community, meanwhile, remained passive. Fortunately, it was Israel's air force that destroyed Egypt's and Israeli troops that captured the Sinai Peninsula. Jordan and Syria did attack Israel but were quickly driven back. Today, An Israel strengthened strategically and economically by the war serves as a democratic, pro-American anchor in a still-chaotic Middle East. The war's positive results did not, however, include a resolution of Israel's dispute with the Palestinians. Their leaders continue to deny the legitimacy and permanence of the Jewish state - the very cause of the Six-Day War. Yet they, too, can benefit from the opportunities for Palestinian self-determination created in 1967. By acknowledging the reasons for the war and its outcome, they can relinquish alternative realities and reach a genuine peace.
2017-06-07 00:00:00
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