Staff Yitzhak RABIN approved preemptive Israeli strikes at Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Iraqi airfields on June 5, 1967. By the evening of June 6, Israel had destroyed the combat effectiveness of the major Arab air forces, destroying more than 400 planes and losing only 26 of its own. Israel also swept into Sinai, reaching the Suez Canal and occupying most of the peninsula in less than four days. King HUSSEIN of Jordon rejected an offer of neutrality and opened fire on Israeli forces in Jerusalem on June 5. But a lightning Israeli campaign placed all of Arab Jerusalem and the Jordanian West Bank in Israeli hands by June 8. As the war ended on the Jordanian and Egyptian fronts, Israel opened an attack on Syria in the north. In a little more than two days of fierce fighting, Syrian forces were driven from the Golan Heights, from which they had shelled Jewish settlements across the border. The Six-Day War ended on June 10 when the UN negotiated cease-fire agreements on all fronts. The Six-Day War increased severalfold the area under Israel's control. Through the occupation of Sinai, Gaza, Arab Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Golan Heights, Israel shortened its land frontiers with Egypt and Jordan, removed the most heavily populated Jewish areas from direct Arab artillery range, and temporarily increased its strategic advantages. OCTOBER WAR (1973) Israel was the dominant military power in the region for the next six years. Led by Golda MEIR from 1969, it was generally satisfied with the status quo, but Arab impatience mounted. Between 1967 and 1973, Arab leaders repeatedly warned that they would not accept continued Israeli occupation of the lands lost in 1967. After Anwar al-SADAT succeeded Nasser as president of Egypt in 1970, threats about "the year of decision" were more frequent, as was periodic massing of troops along the Suez Canal. Egyptian and Syrian forces underwent massive rearmament with the most sophisticated Soviet equipme...
