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How did Israel come to occupy the West Bank?

Published on June 21, 2018 by Mark

King Hussein of Jordan attacked Israel first from the West bank because Egypt had falsely told him that Israel had been effectively destroyed and Egypt was offensively attacking Israel.

The following are exceprts from “Hussein of Jordan: My “War” with Israel,” As told to and with additional material by Vick Vance and Pierre Lauer, 1969.

“It was at this point that we received a telephone call at Air Force Headquarters from U.N. General Odd Bull. It was a little after 11 AM.
The Norwegian General informed me that the Israeli Prime Minister had addressed an appeal to Jordan. Mr. Eshkol had summarily announced that the Israeli offensive had started that morning, Monday, June 5, with operations directed against the United Arab Republic, and then he added: “If you don’t intervene, you will suffer no consequences.”
By this time we were already fighting in Jerusalem and our planes had just taken off to bomb Israeli air bases. So I answered Odd Bull: “They started the battle. Well, they are receiving our reply by air.””

Events leading to the Six Day War (1967)

The road to war was paved by the growing tension in the area since 1963 over the issue of exploiting the waters of the Jordan River and the Kineret Lake. This led to an escalation of military clashes initiated by Syria, and to an increase of Palestinian terror attacks against Israel encouraged by Arab states, particularly Syria.

The immediate causes for the war included a series of escalating steps taken by the Arabs: the concluding of a Syrian-Egyptian military pact to which Jordan and Iraq later joined, the expulsion of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) from the Sinai Peninsula and the concentration of Egyptian forces there, and finally the closure by Egypt of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, constituting a casus belli for Israel.

When Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon moved their forces toward the Israeli border, Israel mobilized its reserve forces, and launched a diplomatic campaign to win international support to end the Egyptian blockade of Israeli shipping through the Straits of Tiran.

When this failed, and in reaction to Arab threats of wiping Israel out, the war began with an Israeli pre-emptive aerial strike on 5 June 1967. It ended on 10 June 1967 with Israel’s victory.

Events leading to the Six Day War

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Filed Under: West Bank Briefing Book Tagged With: FAQs, West Bank

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