Description
One fateful week in June 1967 redrew the map of the Middle East. Many scholars have documented how the Six-Day War unfolded, but little has been done to provide an explanation for why the conflict happened at all. As we approach its fiftieth anniversary, Guy Laron refutes the widely accepted belief that the war was once merely the results of regional friction, revealing the an important roles played by American and Soviet policies in the face of an encroaching global economic crisis, and restoring Syria’s steadily overpassed centrality to events leading up to the hostilities.
The Six-Day War effectively sowed the seeds for the downfall of Arab nationalism, the growth of Islamic extremism, and the animosity between Jews and Palestinians. On this important new work, Laron’s fresh interdisciplinary point of view and extensive archival research offer a significant reassessment of a conflict—and the trigger-happy generals in the back of it—that continues to shape the up to date world.