The 1967 Arab-Israeli War

Between June 5 and June 10, 1967, Israel and an Arab coalition of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan fought a war that Israelis call the Six Day War, and that Arabs generally call the June War. By war’s end, Israel had captured territories on all three fronts: the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt; the Golan Heights from Syria; and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. And with those territories hundreds of thousands of people, primarily Palestinians (today numbering millions), came under Israeli control.

In this episode, five Brookings scholars share their insights and expertise on a range of current policy issues that have roots in the conflict. These include how the war changed both Israel and its Arab neighbors; the transformation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the rise of political Islam as an alternative to Arab secular nationalism, particularly in Egypt; regional repercussions and peace deals; and the role of US diplomacy.

On the 50th anniversary of the 1967 War, our experts look back as they look forward to grapple with these issues and how the conflict’s legacies continue to resonate today. This episode is part of a larger effort by the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings to offer perspectives on the war’s anniversary, to ask what can be learned from it, and how these lessons inform our understanding about the current turmoil in the region.