Six Days War Thesis Statement

Introduction/ Thesis Statement In 1973 the Arab countries of Egypt and Syria, who were still upset over their humiliating defeat by in Israeli forces during the Six Day War in 1967 planned a military attack on Israel. While their intent was not to destroy the country of Israel, they did want to weaken Israel's power and reclaim the lands that they had lost during the Six Days War. The lands that the Arabs wished to reclaim were the Suez Peninsula and Golan Heights. Israel had stated that they would be willing to return the majority of the lands to both Egypt and Syria keeping for themselves the strategic strongholds of the area. The nations of Syria and Egypt refused Israel’s demands and instead implemented the three no’s. The hostilities between the Arab
Egypt was suffering an economic decline and the reforms that Sadat wanted to put into place would not be popular with the people. Sadat realized that if he wanted the reforms to have a chance he needed to reinvigorate Egyptian nationalism by defeating the Israeli’s, boosting the countries self-esteem and his popularity. Jordan’s King Hussein did not want to lose any more territory as the country had during the Six Days War. He had already lost over half of Jordan’s population, when he lost the West Bank. During this time Sadat was endorsing the claim of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the West Bank and Gaza and had promised Yasser Arafat that he would be given control of them if they won (cite). Iraq and Syria did not get along and Iraq refused to join the first attack. Lebanon was too unstable and their army was too small, so they were not expected to join. Sadat got more than one hundred states to support him and his upcoming war. These included members of the Arab League, Organization of African Unity and Non- Alignment Movement (cite) along with Britain and France, who sided with the Arabs on the United Nations Security Council.