The Six-Day War

Israeli soldiers at the Western Wall. June 10, 1967

It was the beginning of summer 1967. And Israel was once again facing a potential attack from neighboring countries.

Israel had already been attacked twice by its neighbors in the less than twenty years of its existence. The first occurred the day after becoming a nation in 1948, and the second took place in 1956. For Israel, each one was a war for survival. They won both.

A decade of relative peace came after the 1956 war, though even that was arguably superficial. Israel's neighbors continued rejecting the country's existence—"The Zionist Entity," they often called it. And there was still much terrorism for Israel to contend with. Between January 1965 and May 1967, Israel experienced "113 terrorist actions or attempts," from Syria alone.