(1967)
In mid-May 1967, Egypt proclaimed a state of emergency, mobilized its army, and moved troops across the Sinai Peninsula toward the border with Israel. President Gamal Abdul Nasser requested the removal of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) from much of the Egypt-Israel frontier, and United Nations secretary general U Thant immediately complied. The UNEF positions were then manned by contingents of the Egyptian armed forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Egyptian and Israeli forces faced each other with no buffer, and Nasser announced that the Strait of Tiran would be closed to Israeli shipping and strategic cargoes bound for Israel's port of Eilat (in explicit violation of the commitment to keep the strait open to Israel made by the Eisenhower administration upon Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula after the Sinai War of 1956). Israel regarded these actions as a casus belli, illegal, and aggressive.
On 30 May 1967, Jordan entered into a defense pact with Syria and Egypt, and Iraqi troops were stationed along the Israel-Jordan front. In response to the failure of the international community to take any tangible action to support its position in the developing crisis, Israel decided to act on its own. It created a "wall to wall" domestic political coalition (excluding the Communists) in a Government of National Unity, and Moshe Dayan became the defense minister. On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against the Egyptian air force and bases in Sinai and Egypt proper. The war was broadened after Jordan and Syria joined in the conflict, initiating their participation by respectively shelling Israeli positions in Jerusalem and from the Golan Heights. Israel decisively defeated Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and their allies and in six days radically transformed the strategic landscape of the Middle East: Israel was in control of territories stretching from the Golan Heights in the north to Sharm el-Sheikh in the Sinai Peninsula and from the Suez Canal to the Jordan River. The territories included the Sinai Peninsula; the Gaza Strip; the West Bank, referred to by Israel as Judea and Samaria; the Golan Heights; and East Jerusalem, including the holy old city.
Historical Dictionary of Israel. Bernard Reich David H. Goldberg. Edited by Jon Woronoff..