How the Six-Day War reshaped Israeli politics

Ian Black on the 50th anniversary of a turning point in the Middle East

The World Today
5 minute READ

On June 28, 1967, Major-General Yitzhak Rabin, chief-of-staff of the Israel Defence Forces, received the thanks of a grateful nation for an extraordinary victory. Three weeks earlier Rabin had overseen the triumph of what was already being called the Six-Day War – with its echoes of the biblical six days of creation – defeating three Arab armies and tripling the size of the territory controlled by the Jewish state. Speaking at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate, Rabin lavished praise on the moral and spiritual strength of the army he led.

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