Of course we all know that Israel's defeat at the hands of the Arab Coalition in Six Days spelt the downfall of the Zionist state, but what if Israel had somehow managed to defeat the Arabs?
DBWI: Israel wins Six Day War
- Thread starter TheBrunswickian
- Start date
I think that this war would have meant very little by then the State of Israel was doomed as it had been ever since the rise of Nasserism and the Suez Crisis all that would have happened would be that Israel's destruction would have been delayed.
I wouldn't go that far. If Israelis hadn't botched their preemptive strike, they still may have won. And if the Arabs lost comprehensively, Israel may have had achieved defensible borders. I think that was their objective, any way? I mean look at the Sinai, Golan and Jordan river... Hard to overcome really.
Yes but also let's not underestimate the strength of Nasserism during this time period.
I wouldn't go that far - they were outnumbered on all sides, remember - but with the Arab's bad coordination, Israel would definitely have fought them to a standstill and armistice. Once it was clear neither side was going anywhere, they'd surely have normalised relations by the 1990s or so.
As it is, we've had decades of Islamic and Pan-Arab terrorism, Israeli diaspora terrorism, trashed relations between East and West... Then again, if you were Eshkol, wouldn't you have pushed the button rather than risk Holocaust II? Shit was inevitable with both nuclear weapons and this much sectarian/ethnic hate. And we've only learned that about one of those things
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Orville_third
Banned
I'd think the entry of India and the USA in on the Arab side pretty much sealed things, even if both nations were rather shocked at what happened to Israel after the Arab armies went in.
And after the ethnic cleansing, both nations (And much of the world) turn they backs on the Arabs, and even gave suppies to the Jews still alive.
America supporting the new Arab Republic was idiotic. "Oh crap, the Commies might do it first, we better help bolster up the guys out for blood for losing two cities! Oh no, those guys are attacking again now they've guessed Israel has no more working nukes and the Irgun* are setting off bombs in Washington!" Only positive outcome that had was the Warsaw Pact sending evacuation convoys (and that still meant hundreds of thousands ended up living in the USSR et al after some of them had tried to leave)
* OOC: New group, old name ala Provisional IRA
* OOC: New group, old name ala Provisional IRA
Don't you remember? The US sunk their own ships!
The Israelis claimed it was an accident, but LBJ didn't buy that excuse as we all know; and things snowballed from there.
Through the UN kicked out the Arab states after they drove out all of the Jews and killed millions; but the UAR still is an important player to this day.
And Johnson paid for that in 1968, and everyone who looked like they'd backed supporting the UAR. You'd never have got Reagan without that.
(Paid for it the other way too)
(Paid for it the other way too)
The UAR is falling apart. After Nasser death, the UAR had never been the same. And you got Iran to think about now a days.
Merging Egypt and Syria was a bad idea the first time round and it was a necessary idea in the short term after the capitals went, but trying to keep it going and with Palestine as Ireland to the UAR's Britain has been dumber than a Bay movie. Right now they're going with "we'll protect you from Islamists!" to their people and they can't even do that, as Aleppo showed last week.
And attacks from both Jewish and Palestinian groups are on the rise.
After the fall of the USSR, a lot of them left for the former Warsaw nations and such.
The UAR embassy in London is a bloody fortress. I remember the mortar attack in 1991 and it didn't seem to surprise anyone.