From Bluff to Dispute to Disastrous War
Unfortunately for Nasser, what might have been intended as bluff seemed all too real from Israel’s perspective. Moreover, the Israelis, who actually were prepared for war, had long been itching for an excuse to cut Nasser down to size. So on June 5th, 1967, they launched preemptive air strikes that destroyed ninety percent of Egypt’s air force on the ground, and put paid to Syria’s planes as well. Then, with aerial supremacy secured, the Israelis launched ground attacks. They routed the Egyptians and seized Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula within three days, and defeated the Jordanians and seized Jerusalem and the West Bank within two.
Egypt and Jordan accepted a UN ceasefire but the Syrians unwisely did not. So the Israelis attacked Syria on June 9th, and captured the Golan Heights within a day. Syria accepted a cease fire the next day. The defeat was humiliatingly lopsided: about 24,000 Arabs killed vs 800 Israelis, with similarly disproportionate rates for wounded and equipment losses. Nasser’s prestige in the Arab world, which he had sought to burnish with warlike rhetoric and demonstrations short of war, took a severe hit from which it never recovered.
