Middle East Review of International Affairs

Volume 9, Number 2, June 2005

 

It Would Surely Be the Second: Lebanon, Israel and the Arab-Israeli War of 1967
by Sean Foley ^*

 

Abstract

This essay will discuss how three factors shattered this seemingly permanent settlement. First, the military balance following the Six-Day War ended the role of Syria and Egypt as bases for attacks on Israel and, eventually, the intention that these states would deliver a victory over Israel for the Palestinians. Second, Israel's total victory over Arab armies empowered the Palestinians to take direct command of their struggle to eradicate Israel, and to use Lebanon, which already housed 110,000 Palestinian refugees from the Galilee, as a base for direct attack of Israeli territory. Third, the Palestinians' use of Lebanese territory to attack Israel, combined with Israel's retaliation, strained Lebanon's already fragile political institutions to the point of collapse and postponed any hope of a peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon for years.

Full Text (PDF, 12 pages, 69.0 KB)

Note *: Sean Foley is a Royden B. Davis Fellow at Georgetown and will be an Assistant Professor of History at DePauw University starting in August 2005.