During the early months of 1966, there were escalating activities against Israel. More and more Israeli civilians were killed in attacks coming from the Syrian and Jordanian borders. The Syrians, from atop the Golan Heights, shelled Israeli towns indiscriminately.
On May 15, 1967, Egyptian forces moved into the Sinai. Ironically, Egypt's move was in reaction to false Soviet information passed to Syria according to which Israel had mobilized forces on her border with Syria in preparation for an invasion of Syria.
On May 18, Egypt expelled the U.N. Peacekeeping forces from Israel's borders. On the 22nd, the Egyptians closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. On the 25th, encouraged by Egypt - Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia moved their troops to Israel's borders. Two days later, on the 26th of May, President Nasser of Egypt declared, "Our basic goal is the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight.... The mining of Sharm El Sheik is a confrontation with Israel".
Modeled after the November 1966 Egyptian-Syrian "defence" pact, other pacts were signed by Egypt with Jordan and Iraq on May 30th and June 4th, thereby completing the encirclement of Israel.
The buildup started because of false Soviet intelligence. But once the buildup started - Field Marshal Amer Abdel Hakim and his military advisers were pressuring Nasser, along with the entire Arab world which had become electrified. It snowballed into a "destroy Israel" campaign with the Arab states all joining together in the United Arab Command.
Caught up in Arab enthusiasm for military action and encouraged by the lack of response to the closure of the Straits, Egyptian Field Marshal Amer planned for initiating an attack on Israel in late May. He told one of his generals that "This time we will be the ones to start the war." This was counter to Nasser's strategy of pushing Israel to start the war.
6 Days War: Crucial quotes
On 25 May 1967, Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban landed in Washington to see if the U.S. would force the opening of the Straits of Tiran, and to request an official statement from the United States that an attack on Israel would be viewed as an attack on the United States. The U.S. would not.
Eshkol was still looking for a way to avoid war - he sent Meir Amit of the Israeli Intelligence Agency to see the head of the CIA in Washington - to see once again if the U.S. Navy would force the opening of the Straits of Tiran - but the U.S. would not.
With diplomatic options exhausted, focus turned to the new Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan. On June 4, Eshkol convened a critical cabinet meeting, but Dayan took charge. The cabinet voted, 12 ministers were for a pre-emptive strike and only 2 were against. Dayan wrote the official text of the decision. It reads: "It is therefore decided to launch a military strike, aimed at liberating Israel from encirclement, and to prevent an impending assault by the United Arab Command."
Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were involved in the fighting. They were aided by Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria. Israel captured the Sinai peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.
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