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Abstract
Following the end of the Suez Campaign of 1956, Israel devoted itself to the enhancement of its air power. As the Israeli air force's power and fighting capabilities grew, the national army chiefs pressed the government to utilize Israel's superior air power to put an end to the Syrian-instigated border incidents-incidents which had been taking place with increasing and worrying frequency. On 13 November 1964, Israel launched an air strike against Syria, raising the Arab-Israeli conflict onto a new and far more dangerous plane. Air power was soon established as a key element of Israel's security policy. The air strike of 7 April 1967, when 130 Israeli aircraft attacked targets deep inside Syria's air space, and in the course of which Israeli jets shot down six Syrian MIGs, marked the onset of a period of rapid deterioration in Arab-Israeli affairs and served as a prelude to the Six Day War.
ON 5 June 1967, Israel launched a surprise air attack on the airfields of both Egypt and Syria, signalling the outbreak of the Six Day War. Within two hours, the air forces of the two Arab countries lay in ruins, and the war's outcome was, in essence, decided. It ended as it had begun, in a spectacular Israeli victory and devastating Arab defeat. Today it is widely accepted that information passed on to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser by the Soviet Union on 13 May, to the effect that Israel was concentrating troops along its northern border in preparation for a large-scale offensive against Syria, sparked off the chain of events culminating in the 5 June air attack. On 14 May, Nasser ordered Egyptian forces back into the Sinai Peninsula, in order, or so he claimed, to deter Israel from attacking his Syrian ally. His decision set the region spinning on a downward spiral that ended less than a month later in the Six Day War.
Yet, it is difficult to single out any one action or event in the period leading up to 5 June, and hold it exclusively responsible for Israel's rapidly deteriorating relations with its Arab neighbours, ultimately to the point of war. The Six Day War was the cumulative result of a complex range of circumstances and developments. At...