1967 War
Israel launched a preemptive attack against Egypt onJune 6, 1967, destroying the Egyptian air force and crippling Egypt militarily. Egypt
called onJordan and Syria tojoin in fighting on the basis of the 1950 Treaty of Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation of the Arab League, which commit contracting states to consider any act of armed aggression made against any one or more of the members or their armed forces to be directed against all the members.
4Yet, the military coordination between the Egyptians and the Jordanians started before Israel attacked. On May 30, King Hussein flew to Cairo and signed a mutual defense pact with President Nasser. An Egyptian general, ‘Abd al-Mun’im Riad, was appointed overall commander of the Jordanian army. The war engulfed Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan—though Israel secretly urged Jordan not to be drawn into the war.BetweenJune 6 and 12, the Security Council passed multiple resoÂlutions calling for an immediate cease-fire. Israel did not stop its offensive until it had secured all of its military objectives. At the end of fighting, it controlled the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and, arguably the most important acquisition of all, East Jerusalem. This was an extraordinary victory for Israel, and a devastating defeat for the Arabs, who were deeply humiliated by their twin losses of territory and perceived military power. Admittedly, the Israeli cabinet proposed on June 19 a peace deal based on a return to the 1967 borders with Syria and Egypt (the West bank and Jerusalem were left out of the initiative), but Israel never actively pursued these ideas. Its policy, especially in the wake of the Arab League’s Khartoum Summit of October 1967, was to let the Arabs take the initiative towards peace.
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