1967 the six-day war: much of today's conflict between Israel and the Palestinians stems from a war 40 years ago that lasted less than a week.

Even by Middle East standards, the spring of 1967 was a tense time. Israel was periodical]y being attacked by Palestinian guerrillas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, territories controlled by Egypt and Jordan respectively, and Syrian troops were lobbing artillery tire from the Golan Heights.

In April, Israel retaliated by downing six of Syria's Soviet-made fighter planes. After the Soviet Union spread rumors that Israel was planning to attack Syria, the Egyptian army mobilized 100,000 troops and 1,000 tanks in the Sinai Peninsula. The following month, Egypt's President, Gamel Abdel Nasser, whose stated goal was the destruction of Israel, ordered United Nations observers to leave the area. He also blockaded the Strait of Tiran, cutting off Israel's access to the Red Sea, a vital shipping route.

With war appearing inevitable, Israel decided to strike first. On the morning of June 5--while most Egyptian pilots were eating breakfast and their commanders were stuck in rush-hour traffic--the Israeli Air Force destroyed more than 300 of Egypt's 340 combat planes, most before they had a chance to leave the ground. Israeli troops then swept into Gaza and Sinai, as Jordan, with backup from Iraq, began shelling the Israeli sector of Jerusalem. Syria then attacked from the north.

NEW MAP

By June 7, Israel had captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City, home to many sacred sites in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. By the fourth day, June 8, with the Egyptians in retreat, Israeli forces had reached the Suez Canal. Two days later, after Israel captured the Golan Heights, Israel and Syria declared a cease-fire.

In six days--actually, a little less--Israel more than tripled the amount of land under its control, rewriting the map of the Middle East.

While the war demonstrated Israel's military superiority in the region, it settled nothing: Even in the face of a humiliating defeat, Arab leaders remained committed to Israel's destruction. And Israel's occupation of areas with a Palestinian population at the time of about three-quarters of a mi]lion led to new woes on both sides, most of which remain unresolved 40 years later.

ARAFAT & THE P.L.O.

Indeed, even before the war ended, as the Israeli government debated trying to capture the West Bank town of Hebron, another city with a rich biblical history, Israel's Prime Minister asked his "Have you already thought about how we can live with so many Arabs?"

The answer would soon become clear enough. A few months after the war ended, a West Bank revolt led by Palestinian guerrilla leader Yasir Arafat failed, but would nonetheless have a lasting impact. According to Yezid Sayigh, a historian at King's College in London, the revolt "catapulted the general Palestinian public into the arms of the guerrillas because they'd seen that the people they'd hinged their hopes on--the Arab leaders and the armies they'd believed in--had been swept aside in a matter of days."

Two years after the war, Arafat's Fatah movement took control of the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.), a group founded by Arab leaders to represent Palestinian interests. With Arafat as chairman, the P.L.O. waged a decades-long guerrilla war against Israel.

In the last four decades, attempts to bring peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors have in some cases succeeded, but hope has often given way to more violence.

In November 1967, the U.N. endorsed Resolution 242, a "land for peace" formula that has so far been only partly fulfilled: Israel would withdraw from the territories it captured in return for diplomatic recognition from its Arab neighbors and secure borders.

YOM KIPPUR WAR 

Six years later, in 1973, Egypt and Syria launched surprise attacks on Israel on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, pushing into Sinai and the Golan Heights. By the time the three-week-long conflict was over, Israel had largely repelled the attacks, though with the U.S. mediating after the war, Israel agreed to return part of the Sinai and the Golan Heights to Egypt and Syria.

Overall, the war restored some of the Arab pride that had been so badly wounded in 1967, arguably enabling some of the peace efforts in the decades that followed.

In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat astonished the world by announcing that he was ready to go to Jerusalem and meet with Israel's leaders. A year after Sadat's trip to Israel, U.S. President Jimmy Carter brought Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, where the three men broke a 30-year stalemate in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

EGYPT & JORDAN

The Camp David Accords led to a formal peace treaty in 1979 between Israel and Egypt: Israel returned the rest of the Sinai, and Egypt became the first Arab state to recognize Israel. (Other Arab states denounced the treaty, and Sadat was assassinated in Cairo in 1981, as he reviewed a parade commemorating the 1973 war.)

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but Israel and the Palestinians have remained, in essence, at war. Thousands have died on both sides in two Palestinian uprisings, or intifadas, in Israeli military campaigns in the occupied territories, and in suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis.

Israel wants the Palestinians to renounce terrorism and genuinely accept its existence, while the Palestinians seek statehood, a capital in Jerusalem, and the right of Palestinian refugees displaced by the 1948 war to return to Israel.

"Each people believes that justice is totally on its own side," David Shaham, executive director of the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, wrote in The Times some years ago. "Each nurtures its own sufferings and grievances and remains almost completely oblivious to that of the other."

In 2000 at Camp David, President Bill Clinton brought the two sides to the brink of an agreement: Israel would return to its pre-1967 borders, with adjustments, and the Palestinians would get an independent state with a capital in East Jerusalem, in return for the Palestinians' destroying all terrorist groups. But Arafat, to the consternation of Clinton and even Arafat's Arab allies, walked away from the negotiations.

According to Leslie Gelb, a former State Department official, Camp David's failure demonstrates the difficulties of bringing the two sides together.

"Israelis said if the Palestinians won't buy this great deal, they don't want peace," Gelb says. "The Palestinians said this was an Israeli trick. The result is what we've seen all these years."

Within months of the collapse of the Camp David talks, a second, more violent intifada began. Militants carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, and Israel responded with a harsh military crackdown.

THE U.S. ROLE

In the last few years, Israel has been trying to unilaterally "disengage" from the Palestinians. It began construction of a controversial security barrier to keep suicide bombers from entering Israel, and in 2005, shuttered its settlements in Gaza and withdrew its forces, leaving all of Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority. In the West Bank, different areas remain under Israeli, Palestinian, of joint control.

In 2006, Hamas, a radical fundamentalist group that calls for Israel's destruction, won a majority in the Palestinian parliament, leading the U.S. and other nations to cut off most aid to the Palestinians and refuse to deal with Hamas members of the government.

Most Middle East experts believe that Israel and the Palestinians will eventually reach agreement, but only when moderates on both sides have gained the upper hand over extremists.

Gelb predicts that a final settlement "will be close to the Camp David terms on almost all issues."

Until then, "it's important for the U.S. to keep the negotiating flame lit, and for the moderates on each side to keep connections and avoid despair.

"But conservatively," Gelb says, "it will be years before the two sides are in a position to make a final settlement."

KEY DATES: THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

* 1947-49

PARTITION AND WAR

In November 1947, the U.N. votes to partition British-controlled Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Arab leaders reject the partition, and when Israel declares independence in May 1948, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon declare war. Israel defeats the combined Arab armies and enlarges its territory.

1956

THE SUEZ WAR

After Egypt nationalizes the British- and French-controlled Suez Canal, a vital trade route for oil, Israel, Britain, and France attack. They quickly capture the canal and the Sinai Peninsula. But President Eisenhower opposes the attack, and the U.S. and the U.N. impose a cease-fire and a withdrawal from the Sinai.

1967

SIX-DAY WAR 

Israel launches a surprise attack after Egypt expels U.N. peacekeepers and mobilizes its army. Syria, Jordan, and Iraq join the fighting, but Israel decimates the Arab forces, and captures East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza and Sinai from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

* 1973

YOM KIPPUR WAR

On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. After initial gains by Egypt and Syria, Israel repels both armies and a cease-fire is declared. Israel later withdraws from parts of the Sinai and the Golan Heights.

* 1979

ISRAEL AND EGYPT PEACE TREATY

After Egyptian President Sadat's surprise visit to Jerusalem, U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokers peace between Egypt and Israel. Egypt becomes the first Arab nation to recognize Israel and Israel withdraws from the rest of Sinai. Sadat is assassinated in 1981.

1987-90

FIRST INTIFADA 

Angered by Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, Patestinians begin an uprising. Early on, the uprising is largely stone-throwing youths attacking Israeli soldiers; in 1989, the first suicide attack occurs in Israel.

1993-94

OSLO ACCORDS AND PEACE WITH JORDAN

After secret negotiations in Norway produce the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel turns over control, of parts of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians as a first step toward statehood. Led by Yasir Arafat, Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist. The following year, Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.

2000-05

SECOND INTIFADA 

After a failed attempt by President Clinton in 2000 to negotiate a final settlement between the Palestinians and Israel. at Camp David, a second, more violent uprising begins. Dozens of suicide bombings in Israel. and an Israeli crackdown in Gaza and the West Bank leave more than 1,000 Israelis and more than 4,000 Palestinians dead.

2005-06

ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL/ HAMAS VICTORY

Israel acts to "disengage" from the Pallestinians, evacuating 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 in the West Bank and pulling all troops from Gaza. In January 2006, the Islamic militant group Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, wins Palestinian legislative elections. The U.S. and many other countries cut off aid to the Palestinians.

2006

LEBANON WAR 

The militant group Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon and is backed by Iran and Syria, fires rockets into civilian areas of Israel and kidnaps two Israeli soldiers. Israel responds with air strikes and a ground invasion. A month of fighting leaves more than 1,500 people dead and more than a million displaced.

LESSON PLAN 4: WORLD HISTORY

1967: THE SIX-DAY WAR

BACKGROUND

Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, and its capture of the Gaza Strip and West Bank (along with the Golan Heights and Sinai) set the stage for Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Peace efforts over the years, with the U.S. and other countries as mediators, have come close to succeeding, but the violence has continued.

CRITICAL THINKING 1

* Direct students' attention to the time line and the U.N. creation of the Jewish state on land claimed by Palestinians.

* Do students know what led the U.N to the partition plan? (The Holocaust hastened the migration of European Jews to what was then British-controlled Palestine, and prompted the U.N. to partition the territory into Arab and Jewish states.) What might the U.N. have done to avoid Arabs' rejection of the partition?

CRITICAL THINKING 2

* Refer to David Shaham's observation about neither side being willing to recognize the legitimacy of the other. Use this as a prompt for discussion of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute. If Shaham is correct, is there any hope for a true Israeli-Palestinian peace?

* Why might Israelis and Palestinians be "almost completely oblivious" to the sufferings and grievances of the other side?

DISCUSSION QUESTION

* If students were mediators, what two or three ideas would they advance to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace?

FAST FACT

* In 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall said in a speech to the U.N. that the U.S. was reluctant to support a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. But the U.S. recognized Israel within hours of its 1948 declaration of independence.

WEB WATCH

www.trumanlibrary.org/ Harry S. Truman Library provides brief document on the U.S. recognition of Israel. First, go to "Online Documents." Next, scroll down to "Recognition of the State of Israel."

QUIZ 3 WORLD HISTORY

1967: THE SIX-DAY WAR

1. Briefly describe Israel's justification for launching the 1967 Six-Day War. --

2. The modern nation of Israel came about as a result of

a a war between Arabs and Jews.

b diplomatic recognition of the country by the U.S. and countries in Western Europe.

c a U.N. vote in 1947 to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

d the migration of European Jews to the region that became Israel.

3. In 1956, these two European countries joined Israel in an attack against Egypt after it seized control of the Suez Canal.

a Britain and France.

b France and Germany.

c Britain and Italy.

d Belgium and Spain.

4. In 1978, U.S. President--hosted a conference at which Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin negotiated an agreement that ted to a peace treaty.

5. Under the terms of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, Israel returned the Sinai and

a Egypt reopened the Suez Canal.

b Egypt granted recognition to Israel.

c promised to work for a Palestinian state.

d the U.S. promised aid to both countries.

6. One example of Israel's effort to "disengage" from the Palestinians was the 2005

a release of more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

b refusal to recognize the Palestinians as an independent country.

c decision to stop teaching Arabic in Israeli schools.

d withdrawal from Gaza.

QUIZ 3

1. War appeared inevitable, so Israel struck first. [Similar wording is acceptable.]

2. [c] a U.N. vote in 1947 to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

3. [a] Britain and France.

4. Jimmy Carter

5. [b] Egypt granted recognition to Israel.

6. [d] withdrawal from Gaza.

IN-DEPTH QUESTIONS

1. The U.S. and Israel have long been allies. Explain why you believe--or do not believe--that the U.S. should send troops to the region if Israel's existence is threatened in some future Arab-Israeli war.

2. Based on what you read in the article, do you think Israel. and the Palestinians will ever reach a peace agreement? Why or why not?

1967: THE SIX-DAY WAR

6. The U.N. partitioned this in     What is Palestine?
1947.

7. Israel destroyed more than       What is Egypt?
300 of this country's warplanes.

8. "Old City" captured by Israel    What is Jerusalem?
in Six-Day War.

9. Territory occupied by Israel,    What is the West Bank?
west of the Jordan River.

10. Israeli air strikes hit         What is Lebanon?
this Arab nation in 2006.

Sam Roberts is urban affairs correspondent for The New York Times.