From 1948 to 1967 Syria regularly shelled Israel's Kinneret fishing boats and harassed the settlements in the Huleh Valley. In l964 Jordan and Syria planned to divert the waters of the Jordan River so Israel would lose her water supply. Israel warned that this act would not be tolerated and, after a number of raids, the work of water diversion ceased.
In April l967 Syria increased her shelling of Israel's border villages. Israel attacked with planes. Syria responded and, in the air battle, Syria lost six planes. Early in May the Soviet Union, which was actively supporting Syria, strongly urged Egypt to join Syria in a united war against Israel.
On May 17 Nasser ordered the United Nations Emergency Force to leave Sinai. U Thant, secretary-general of the U.N., acceded without objection. This action was a complete betrayal of the conditions the U.N. had accepted in l956, when Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt.
On May 20 Nasser concentrated almost 100,000 troops and 1,000 tanks at Israel's border. On May 22 he closed the Gulf of Eilat to Israel ships. On May 30 King Hussein of Jordan signed a pact pledging his army's support to Egypt. Iraq signed a similar agreement. Israel faced an Arab force of 200,000 men, 2,000 tanks, and almost 700 fighter planes and bombers. The Western countries did nothing.
On June 5, l967, Israel's air force flew in low under Arab radar screens and attacked the air forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and the planes of Iraq. In less than three hours, Israel destroyed 391 Arab planes on the ground and wiped out another 60 planes in air combat. Israel lost 19 planes.
With the control of the skies, Israel attacked the Sinai with fast-moving tank troops. Egypt was again outflanked, surrounded, and routed. Bombed from the air, Egypt's tank forces were overwhelmed. In one of the biggest tank battles in history, Egypt lost more than 800 tanks. By June 8 Israel had control of the entire Sinai all the way to the Suez Canal.
Despite Israel's warnings, Jordan joined in the attack by shelling Jerusalem and the suburbs of Tel Aviv. On June 5 Israel responded by pushing the Jordanians back south of Jerusalem and along the main road leading to Jerusalem. On June 6 Latrun was taken.
Israel then attacked the major Jordanian fortifications northeast of Jerusalem. Despite heavy casualties, Israel took Ammunition Hill, Jordan's major defense post in the Jerusalem area. The rest of the West Bank fell when Jordanian tanks on their way from Jericho were destroyed by Israel's air force.
On June 9 the Israel air force shelled Syria's gun positions on the Golan Heights. Suffering heavy losses, Israel's troops engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat, eventually taking all of the Golan Heights on June 10. Their success was due largely to the heroic work of Eli Cohen, Israel's most famous spy.
June 7, l967, was one of the most important days in Israel's history. Breaking through St. Stephen's Gate, Israeli troops entered the Old City of Jerusalem. Arabs used the al-Aqsa Mosque as a sniping post. Israeli soldiers took great care not to fire at any religious shrine, and as a result there were high Israeli casualties. At 10:15 a.m., the Israeli flag was raised over the Temple Mount and the Kotel. For the first time since l948, Jews could touch the Western Wall. Jerusalem was reunited.
The consequences of the Six Day War were extraordinary. For the first time, Israel had defensible boundaries along every one of her borders. The West Bank now separated Israel and Jordan. The Golan Heights were in Israel's hands. The Sinai separated Israel and Egypt. Most important, Jerusalem, the soul of the Jewish people, was again in Jewish hands.
In addition, the brilliance and total success of the operation ignited world Jewry. Hundreds of thousands of American Jews became emotionally involved with Israel. Tourism escalated. Money poured in via UJA and Israel Bonds. Israel's accomplishment became a source of pride and Jewish identification for previously unaffiliated and apathetic Jews.
It is clear that Israel had planned a unified Jerusalem for a long time. In less than 72 hours the Old City was linked to the New City with water lines, electric lines, and bus lines. All streets had signs in both Arabic and Hebrew. On June 28 the final barries were knocked down and a special "day of reunification" was celebrated.
Jordan had systematically destroyed every building in the Jewish Quarter including all of the synagogues. Israel began rebuilding, determined to make the Quarter look as similar to the original as possible. Today, all of the synagogues have been rebuilt except for the Churva. This synagogue is memorialized by an arch of stone in the middle of the Jewish Quarter.
Mayor Teddy Kollek did everything possible to minimize tension and frustration between the Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem. All shrines were open to all peoples for the first time since 1948. The Muslim Waqf was given official control over the Temple Mount.
