Swift sword

June 5 marks the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War of 1967. This was an outstanding event in Jewish, Middle Eastern and world history.
Much of the comment about this anniversary, especially in Israel and Europe, focuses on the negative consequences of the war, namely the "occupation of Arab Lands." The fact that they were not "Arab Lands," but parts of Palestine that had been promised to the Jewish State by the former sovereign, the British Mandate, has been conveniently overlooked.
But, instead of accepting this predominantly negative, politically correct aspect of the War, let us focus on the lessons of the War and what its results portended, first for Jewish history. Before the war there was a long build up when the Arabs were demonstrating and calling for the blood of the Israelis. It appeared that the destruction of the State was imminent and that the Jews of Israel would be massacred. It is difficult for those not living then to understand the feeling of dread that swept through the Jewish communities of the world when a second Holocaust was widely expected. The Jews of Israel were outnumbered 10:1 and in Cairo millions of Egyptians daily swirled thru the streets confidently anticipating victory. It is clear that had they succeeded, Jewish soldiers would have been dragged thru the streets of every Arab capital and Israel and its citizens would have been totally destroyed. So the sudden, unexpected and glorious victory was a release from the foreseen doom of another Jewish genocide. A kind of exultation gripped the Jewish and Israeli world, we had not only survived, this time we had triumphed! Never let that be forgotten!
For the Middle East, the Israeli victory in this war was a watershed. Before the war the Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq) confidently expected to be able to destroy the State of Israel and take over its land, not for the Palestinians but for themselves. When they finally realized the extent of their defeat, it finally dawned on them that Israel is here to stay and that they needed to rethink their basic assumptions. This defeat lead to the overthrow of Nasserite pan-Arabism and of the Arab countries making war on Israel (the 1973 war was their final attempt) and lead to the "war by other means" that is terrorism and anti-Israel PR that we currently face. Although both of these are upsetting and serious, they cannot by themselves gain the aims of the Arabs and reverse the results of their defeat and so the results of the Six Day War still permanently affect the Middle East.
For the world, the Six Day War marked the transition from the traditional view of war that "might makes right." Now a small country showed that it is quality not quantity that counts. Outnumbered and surrounded as they were the Jews used modern tactics and completely out-classed and out-maneuvered the Arabs. After this the idea that a large country can dictate terms to smaller countries has gone, and this is reflected in the breakdown of the Soviet Union into 15 smaller countries and the inability of the US to have its way in Iraq.
There is no doubt that the Six Day War was an existential threat to Israel that was overcome. Now the possibility of an Iranian nuclear capability is another potential existential threat. If Israel can once again rise to the occasion and show its mettle as the "swift sword" that the IDF was in 1967, then we will have nothing to fear.