When we think of wars throughout history, we often imagine prolonged conflicts lasting months, years, or even decades. However, not all wars are long, drawn-out affairs. In fact, some of the most impactful and consequential wars in history were also some of the shortest. Today, we‘ll be taking an in-depth look at the second shortest war ever recorded – the Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Despite its brief duration, the Six-Day War fundamentally altered the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East in ways that are still playing out over 50 years later.
Rising Tensions in the Middle East
To understand the Six-Day War, we first need to examine the events and tensions that led to its outbreak. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, relations between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations had been extremely hostile. The Arab states viewed Israel as a colonial intruder in the Middle East and launched an unsuccessful war to prevent its creation in 1948. Tensions remained high in the ensuing years, with sporadic violence along Israel‘s borders.
In the spring of 1967, the conflict escalated rapidly. Israel and Syria exchanged fire in the Golan Heights along their border. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union falsely informed Egypt that Israel was amassing troops to invade Syria. Although untrue, this led Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to send large numbers of forces into the Sinai Peninsula on Israel‘s border. Nasser also closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, cutting off Israel‘s access to the Red Sea – an act Israel considered an act of war[^1]. Calls for restraint by the United States and other powers fell on deaf ears. By early June, war appeared imminent.
Digital Technology‘s Role in Israel‘s Swift Victory
One factor that enabled Israel‘s rapid and decisive victory in the Six-Day War was its technological superiority over its Arab adversaries. In particular, advancements in digital computing and information technology gave Israel significant advantages in battlefield intelligence, coordination, and communication.
Israel had invested heavily in developing its domestic technology industry in the years leading up to the war. This included establishing the Israel Defense Forces‘ (IDF) first computer unit in 1959[^2]. By 1967, the IDF was employing digital computers for a variety of military applications, including intelligence gathering, logistics management, and operational planning.
This technological edge played a key role from the very start of the war. Israel‘s surprise air attack on June 5, which crippled the Egyptian Air Force, relied heavily on computer-assisted planning and coordination. Detailed analysis of reconnaissance data and complex algorithms for optimizing flight routes and targeting were made possible by Israel‘s computing capabilities[^3].
Throughout the ensuing ground campaign, Israel‘s ability to rapidly process and disseminate battlefield information gave it a major advantage. Digital technology allowed the IDF to coordinate complex, multi-front operations in real-time, quickly adapting to changing conditions[^4]. In contrast, the Arab forces often struggled with outdated communication systems and lacked situational awareness.
The War Begins
Faced with Arab armies mobilizing on its borders, Israel decided to launch a preemptive strike. On the morning of June 5, 1967, the Israeli Air Force conducted a massive surprise attack on Egyptian air bases, catching the Egyptians completely off guard. Within a matter of hours, Israel destroyed nearly the entire Egyptian Air Force on the ground, securing total air superiority.
The numbers tell the story of Israel‘s overwhelming success. In the opening airstrikes, Israel destroyed over 300 Egyptian aircraft, including all 30 of its long-range bombers, while losing only 19 of its own planes[^5]. This represented over 80% of Egypt‘s combat aircraft, effectively eliminating it as an aerial threat for the rest of the war.
Israel swiftly followed up its air attack with a strong ground offensive into the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptians were ill-prepared for an attack and were quickly overwhelmed by the well-trained and highly motivated Israeli forces. After just three days of fighting, Israel had driven the Egyptians out of the Sinai and reached the Suez Canal.
The Jordanian and Syrian Fronts
Although Egypt was Israel‘s main adversary, Jordan and Syria also entered the fray. On June 5, Jordan launched an artillery barrage on Israeli positions in Jerusalem and sent troops to attack Israeli forces. However, the Jordanians were outmatched and outflanked. After just two days of combat, Israel had captured all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.
The Jordanian front saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Battle of Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, in particular, was a bloody clash that saw heavy casualties on both sides. The Israeli paratroopers eventually prevailed, but at the cost of 37 dead and 95 wounded, out of a total force of just 150[^6].
On June 9, with Egypt and Jordan largely defeated, Israel turned its attention to Syria in the Golan Heights. The Syrians put up fierce resistance from well-fortified positions, but they too were eventually driven back. In the Battle of Tel Fakhr, for example, it took a full day of hard fighting and over 30 Israeli tanks to dislodge the entrenched Syrians[^7]. By the evening of June 10, Israel controlled the entire Golan Heights. The war, for all intents and purposes, was over. An official ceasefire took effect that night.
Aftermath and Consequences
The Six-Day War, despite lasting less than a week, drastically changed the Middle East. Israel‘s lightning victory established it as the preeminent military power in the region. In the course of just six days, Israel more than tripled the size of the territory under its control, occupying the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights.
However, Israel now faced a dilemma of what to do with this occupied territory and its large Arab population. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to this day, essentially began with Israel‘s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the war added further fuel to the conflict.
Here‘s a look at the territorial changes and population shifts resulting from the war[^8]:
| Territory | Pre-1967 Control | Post-1967 Control | Population Displaced |
|———–|——————|——————-|———————-|
| Sinai Peninsula | Egypt | Israel | 50,000 |
| Gaza Strip | Egypt | Israel | 280,000 |
| West Bank | Jordan | Israel | 200,000 |
| East Jerusalem | Jordan | Israel | 70,000 |
| Golan Heights | Syria | Israel | 80,000 |
The war also had serious economic repercussions. In response to its defeat, Egypt closed the Suez Canal to all shipping. This forced cargo ships to take the much longer route around Africa, disrupting global trade. It was a major factor in triggering the 1970s energy crisis, as Middle Eastern oil struggled to reach global markets. The closure of the canal dealt a serious blow to Egypt‘s own economy, costing it valuable revenue[^9].
Politically, the war was a major humiliation for the Arab states and sparked significant upheaval. Nasser resigned in disgrace after the war (though he later rescinded his resignation). The defeat also exposed the weakness and divisions within the Arab world and contributed to the rise of Palestinian nationalism as a major force in regional politics[^10].
For Israel, the war was a stunning triumph that reshaped the young nation‘s identity. It established Israel as a regional superpower and greatly strengthened the country‘s self-confidence. However, it also saddled Israel with the burden of occupying a large Arab population, a challenge that would come to define much of its subsequent history.
Regional tensions remained extremely high after the war. Egypt and Syria were determined to regain their lost territory and launched a surprise attack on Israel in 1973 on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy day (thus known as the Yom Kippur War). Although they made initial gains, the Israelis eventually turned the tide and emerged victorious again. However, the 1973 war showed that Israel was not invincible and paved the way for later peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt.
In many ways, the Middle East is still living in the shadow of the Six-Day War. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which remains unresolved, is perhaps its most direct legacy. More broadly, the war set the stage for decades of tension, hostility, and further conflict that have shaped the geopolitics of the region to this day.
One War, Lasting Impacts
Lasting only six days, the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict was the second shortest war in modern history. Only the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896, which remarkably lasted just 45 minutes, was shorter. Some of the other shortest wars include:
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 – 13 days
- Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 – 14 days
- Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 – 27 days
- Greco-Turkish War of 1897 – 30 days
However, none of these other brief wars had the same far-reaching consequences as the Six-Day War. Few conflicts in history have had such a profound and enduring impact in such a short period of time.
In less than a week, Israel established itself as a major regional power, gained large swaths of territory, displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, spurred a global energy crisis, and set the stage for decades of further conflict. Over half a century later, the region is still grappling with the war‘s aftermath. Despite its short length, the Six-Day War casts a long shadow over the Middle East that is still felt to this day.
From a technology perspective, the war was also a harbinger of the increasing importance of digital capabilities in modern warfare. Israel‘s technological edge, particularly in computing and information processing, was a key factor in its success. In the years and decades following the war, the centrality of digital technology in military affairs only grew.
Today, with the advent of cyber warfare, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence, the role of digital technology in conflict has never been greater. In this sense, the Six-Day War was an early preview of the digitized battlefields of the 21st century. As we look back on this brief but momentous conflict, it‘s clear that its impacts extended not just to the geopolitical realities of the Middle East, but to the very nature of warfare in the digital age.
[^1]: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2002), 75-78.[^2]: Gadi Alon, "The Development of Computing in Israel," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 40, no. 3 (2018): 12-23.
[^3]: Isaac Ben-Israel, The First Fifty Years: A Review of Israel‘s Military Technology (Ministry of Defense Publishing, 2002), 45-47.
[^4]: Eado Hecht, "The Six-Day War: An Overview," in The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences, ed. Wm Roger Louis and Avi Shlaim (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 110-111.
[^5]: Kenneth M. Pollack, Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991 (University of Nebraska Press, 2002), 59.
[^6]: Oren, Six Days of War, 243-244.
[^7]: Chaim Herzog, The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in the Middle East from the 1948 War of Independence to the Present (Vintage, 2005), 190.
[^8]: Numbers drawn from Tom Segev, 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East (Picador, 2008), 507.
[^9]: Michael Mandelbaum, "After the Fall: U.S. Policy Toward the Middle East", Foreign Affairs 60, no. 1 (Fall 1981): 20-22.
[^10]: Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Beacon Press, 2007), 32-34.
