Why 3 Arab Nations Lost the Six-Day War Against Israel (Documentary)

In just six days in 1967 Israel managed to decisively defeat Egypt, Jordan and Syria in the Six Day War. In the process they expand the territory they control with the Golan Heights, Sinai, the West Bank and Gaza.

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Cardboard, Ken Brownfield, David Garfinkle, Raymond Martin, Konstantin Bredyuk, Lisa Anderson, Brad Durbin, Jeremy K Jones, Murray Godfrey, John Ozment, Stephen Parker, Mavrides, Kristina Colburn, Stefan Jackowski, Cardboard, William Kincade, William Wallace, Daniel L Garza, Chris Daley, Malcolm Swan, Christoph Wolf, Simen Røste, Jim F Barlow, Taylor Allen, Adam Smith, James Giliberto, Albert B. Knapp MD, Tobias Wildenblanck, Richard L Benkin, Marco Kuhnert, Matt Barnes, Ramon Rijkhoek, Jan, Scott Deederly, gsporie, Kekoa, Bruce G. Hearns, Hans Broberg, Fogeltje

» SOURCES
Oren, Michael, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East, (Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2002)
Israeli Ministry of Defense, The Six Day War, (Jerusalem: Israeli Ministry of Defense, 1971)
Laron, Guy, The Six-Day War : the breaking of the Middle East, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017)
Mutawi, Samir, Jordan in the 1967 War, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Pollack, Kenneth, “Air Power in the Six-Day War”, Journal of Strategic Studies, 28:3, (2007)
James, Laura, “Nasser and His Enemies: Foreign policy making in Egypt on the eve of the Six Day War”, The Middle East Review of International Affairs, 9:2, (2005)
Gilbert, Martin, The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, (New York: Routledge, 2010)

»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Michael Adato, Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller
Editing: Philipp Appelt
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Research by: Michael Adato
Fact checking: Jesse Alexander, Mark Newton, Florian Wittig
Executive Producer: Florian Wittig

Channel Design: Simon Buckmaster

Contains licensed material by getty images, AP and Reuters
Maps: MapTiler/OpenStreetMap Contributors & GEOlayers3
Music Library: Epidemic Sound
All rights reserved - Real Time History GmbH 2024

[BonsterBar]

Realities of war. When you lose a war, you lose resources and land.

[joselitogonzales]

They attack, they lose, they play victim 😅

[itayil]

This is the simplest way to define Quality vs Quantity

[SomeoneFromBeijing]

I've read several books about this war. The authors had different opinions, but my main takeaway is that the Arab Cold War was the main cause. Arab leaders were pushing each other to war while knowing that none of them had the strength to actually win. Their main goal was always to gain more domestic popular support and to become the leader of the Arab World. The distrust and lack of coordination basically declared their defeat before the first salvo was fired.

[karlandersson]

This comment section is going to be interesting.
The actual comment section: "This comment section is going to be interesting"

[yakinthebox]

Remember guys, Egyptians said they humiliated Israel in this war.

[Emcee_Squared]

Egypt didn’t want Gaza back when they got the Sinai back 😩

[hannahskipper]

That shows the difference between going in with a plan and just going in mad.

[_jpg]

Ain't no way this comment section could become controversial at all...right?

[tyguy]

Arab nations: "we will crush Israel."
Israel: "Don't try it... we will mess you up"
Arab nations: "ha! impossible. you will break before the might our our combi- WTF?!"
Israel: "Warned you..."

*spongebob "a few years later" card*

Arab nations: "we will crush Israel!"
Israel: "..."

[ronsutton]

Imagine being an Israeli soldier back then and taking back your ancestral holy city...simply incredible.

[shaider]

From this video I was surprised by the amount of info Israeli intelligence got to ensure that the six day war was a success. An Israeli officer posing as a former SS officer for intel purposes has to be peak dedication.

[jangulherme]

Despite this lesson, they still insist on poking the bear and then crying foul when they're getting their butts kicked

[Christiand]

Arab Nations- * Consistently try to eradicate Israel since 1948 *
Israel- * Consistently keep the Arab Nations from eradicating them *
Arab Nations to the international community- "SEE?!?!?! YOU SEE WHAT WE'RE DEALING WITH?!?!?! AREN'T YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING?!?!?!"

[graceneilitz]

For everyone stating that Israel got stuff from the United States, I want to point out that the Arab states got supplies from the Soviet Union.

And that the Soviet Union also had fighter pilots in the war, directly having military personnel involved in the fighting.

[HeWishesForTheClothesOfHeaven]

When Muslims conquered the territory Palestine in 634 A.D.:

"Ha! We have taken this land from Rome by the sword, and it is ours!"

After Arab states lost the 1948 and 1967 wars that they instigated:

"No fair, guys! You gotta give it back to us! We call take-backs!"

[Nate_the_Nobody]

Imagine grouping up three to one against a nation a fraction your size just for that little nation to say "bet" and cause boss music to start playing

[MtiuliBichi]

One thing that I noticed in the Arab-Israeli wars is how easily Arabs gave up, especially in the 1948, 1953 and 1967 wars.

[imperiald]

Just from the comments u can see why the Israeli win and the arabs lose. When the Israelis lose, they study and learn from their mistakes so they don't repeat them. When arab armies lose they deny they lost or make up excuses. If they ever actual accepted their loses and study how they screwed up, they would be much more effective. It's like the Einstein quote - 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

[Archeangelous]

One overlooked reason for the Israeli success is this, a common mistake made by many European armies: no one in the IDF leadership said the fighting would be over by Christmas. 🤣