I use to wonder how the Arab Armies could collapse so quickly, then roughly 20 years ago I worked with the Egyptian military. I now understand why.

One Egyptian general famously said: "Israel won, because Israel prepared for war. While we the Egyptians prepared for parades through the streets of Cairo".

Arabs: "The UN is protecting Israel" Israel: "You fools, the UN is protecting you!"

As Abba Eban once said..." The arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. "

Motivation is the key, defeated Arab armies could always withdraw. Israeli troops could not, for them it was truly victory or death.

Perhaps it's because I've never fully understood conflicts with Isreal, but I never understood the international condemnation of Israel for turning a defensive war into an offensive one. When you strip away the complexities of the situation, it essentially boils down to the international community being upset at Israel for being really bad at losing. "We wanted to wipe you off the map completely, but now we are upset at you for taking land from us after initially defending the land we were going to take from you upon completely exterminating you". Generally the way war has worked over human history is if you provoke a war, and then lose, those losses are just something you kind of have to deal with. I do understand that the counter-argument is that Israel was never supposed to be there in the first place. Now that they are though, if you continue to lose to them after provoking a new stage of war with them, you can't really be upset about the land losses you've incurred in a failed war..

"All the Arab forces now surround Israel" Israel: "so"?

Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq: We have you outnumbered 4 to 1 Israel: I like those odds

We were learning about this war in school the other day when the janitor walked into the class, he is an old guy and after talking to him for a bit he told us that he actually fought in the six day war and was a part of the 55th parachute brigade, he is a very interesting person and it was fascinating to get the story from one of the soldiers directly!

That wasn't a war. The was a one sided ass kicking

when you think about the fact that jordan and egypt held the gaza strip and the west bank for 19 years but never thought of giving those areas to the palestinians (as they considered for them as part of "palestine"), it shows another angle of this conflict. it makes you wonder if they (and basicly the entire arab world) realy wanted to have a palestinian state or maybe the palestinians were and still are nothing but pawns and tools for them in order to continue their conquest campaign from the seventh century. in my opinion, the arabs wanted the land for themselves, the palestinian cause is just an excuse to take over Israel.

all of my grandparents fought in the war, so did my grand grand father, everyone I know who was born between 1940-1949 in my family has fought in that war.

You've certainly been expanding your number of channels and subjects, Simon, and all of them seem good. I think this one and Decoding the Unknown are my favorites of your newer channels. I've been watching for several years, and recently got my brother hooked on your shows, as well.

My dad was in the army and stationed in Germany at the time, working in intelligence. He remembers looking at documents stating how the top brass in our military thought for sure Israel was going to be overrun

What you might have pointed out is that the UN proposed both a Jewish and Arab homeland. The Jews accepted the proposal and the Arabs refused instead embarking on an attempt to destroy all the Jews in the former mandate. Most of the so-called displaced Palestinians were settled within Israel until Arafat ordered them to leave whence they went on a grand tour of the Middle East and North Africa causing trouble everywhere and being told to leave even by their most loyal supporters including Jordan, Egypt an Libya. Now, with increasing peace treaties between Israel and actual Arab nations rather than invented ones, I wonder how many wish they had ignored Arafat, stayed, and enjoyed the rights and opportunities they could have had within Israel

I would really like Simon to take a crack at the Sri Lankan Civil War. It's fascinating to me how it was a war that began in the late 80s and it only ended back in 2009. 2000s was a time of great musical hits, video game releases, movies and a boost in technology in the western world all the while Sri Lanka was fighting a bloody civil war that ended only 13 years ago. Just like the Second Congo War. It was a bloody war that wasn't televised, talked about or even mentioned in the Western World.

Quite an impressive and overwhelming victory for the Israeli’s. Moshe Dayan was such a boss.

Behold the power of preparation and good planning.

1:00 - Chapter 1 - Build up 7:50 - Chapter 2 - Operation focus 8:50 - Chapter 3 - Egyptian front 12:10 - Chapter 4 - Jordanian front 15:55 - Chapter 5 - Syrian front 18:55 - Chapter 6 - Israeli success

1:35 CORRECTION. The British DID NOT OPEN UP IMMIGRATION to Jews. The gates of Palestine remained closed for the duration of the war, stranding hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe, many of whom became victims of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” After the war, the British refused to allow the survivors of the Nazi nightmare to find sanctuary in Palestine. On June 6, 1946, President Truman urged the British government to relieve the suffering of the Jews confined to displaced persons camps in Europe by immediately accepting 100,000 Jewish immigrants. Britain’s foreign minister Ernest Bevin replied sarcastically that the United States wanted displaced Jews to immigrate to Palestine “because they did not want too many of them in New York.” "American Presidents and the Middle Eas"t, (NC: Duke University Press, 1990), p. 23.

Few inaccuracies: 1. No arab population was displaced from it's lands by Jewish refugees prior the war of 48' 2. Jewish population existed, lived and owned lands in the region, no different then the arab population. 3. Arabs in the region didn't identify them self as "palestinians" and the region was a british mandatory palestina - not an independent suveraighn political entity of any sort. 4. Arab population that lived in the area had no right to all the lands in the region in the borders created by the winning powers of ww1 in san remo conference in 1920. 5. The partition plan was land ownership based with no population or land swaps required.

Me too. I was 19, and we'll remember Dayan and his eye patch and engaging demeanor.

If I was an Isreali...I would be proud of my country's performance in this war. Huge respect to the most effective trained soldiers on Earth.

Nice video, saw this requested in the comments a while back, glad to see that Simon and team take suggestions from their audience 🙏🙏🙏

one small correction though, for the beginning: when the ottoman empire collaped, Jews were a large minority in the region, with a plurality in some cities and even majority in some towns. while many Arab tribes lived in the region, there was a large immigration to the region of Arabs, as the development brought by the British and Jews created many new jobs. the constant migration is why so many "Palestinian" tribes carry names of places in Egypt, Syria, etc. the mandate was also established for the formation of a Jewish state, however three quarters of it's territory were given to the Arabs to form the kingdom of Jordan.

There's a book about this war that is really good. It's quite detailed but so well written that you're hanging on the edge of your seat, even through the political scenes; "Six Days of War" is the title. I can't remember the author, but I'm sure it can't be too difficult to track down on the interweb

I was in the 7th grade when this war happened I knew nothing of reasons for the war . When i looked at the map and saw the size of Israel and their army , and looked at the size of the forces allied against them, I didn't think Israel had a chance . Boy was I surprised

1:32 I know it was a politically sensitive area but, shamefully, the British only allowed a maximum of 5,000 Jewish refugees per year leading up to the beginning of WW2. After WW2 around 12, 000 Jewish refugees per year moved to Israel leading up to 1948. The existing Jewish population in the Palestine mandate in 1939 was 450, 000 (roughly a 1/3rd of the entire population). These people had been emigrating to Israel in fits and starts since the latter part of the 19th century. So it's a myth that it was Jewish refugees of the Holocaust who created the State of Israel. The main contribution the Holocaust played in the establishment of Israel was to influence the UN to endorse the partition plan. (I applaud you for tackling this war as any topic related to Israel generally attracts a plethora of vitriol)

The sheer ignorance of Nasser when he said “our holy land”. Without Judaism there’d be no Christianity, no Islam.

2:00 It would have been only fair to mention that the Mandate for Palestine included what is Jordan today. In 1921, Britain decided to split up the Mandate and give 73% of it to the Arabs, leaving the rest as part of the original Mandate to establish a Jewish state. The map you are showing is the UNs attempts to split the the remaining areas up even more. Despite this, it is important to note that the Jewish leadership in Palestine agreed to this, if only to establish a Jewish state no matter how small. The Arabs however rejected it out of hand, demanding 100% of the land.

a point on the 1956 conflict - Israel had to contend with constant state-backed terrorism coming from Egypt and Jordan + the Tiran straights were closed for Israeli shipping before that conflict as well (actually, Egypt restricted Israeli shipping through the straights for years before, but a complete shutdown took place a bit before October 1956)

Incredible how brain power, diligence and resilience can overcome overwhelming but barbaric power

It basically went like this: Arab Nations: “We outnumber you 4 to 1!” Israel: “I like those odds”

This video is longer than the actual war

The UN Security Forces: "You fools, I was holding them back"

Now you can do a program on the next war of that area, the '73 campaign....great tank battles. Then do the '76 Entebbe raid.

Rest In Peace to those that passed away.

I'm at 1:17, and there's an inaccuracy. "displaced many arab populations living there at the time": That is incorrect. The lands on which Jewish settlements, cities, and villages were established (until 1948) were not occupied but were paid for in full. They were purchased by Jews from Effendis and Arab landowners. It’s worth noting that the latter often took advantage of the refugees' predicament and demanded sums higher than market prices. No arab land was encouched on until the arab attempted to annihilate the Jews in 1948. 2:21: "The establishments of israel drove away large populations of arab-palestinians." Once again, there's no mention of the true reason for this, being the the 8(!) Arab armies trying to annihilate the Jewish settlement.

How such a small country smacked several other countries like they were a child throwing a temper tantrum is awesome! Conquest is a humanity, to the victor goes the spoils, they have no argument because they did the same thing 100’s of years before.

Thank you WaroGraphics Team. I appreciate the effort!

There is an old joke about this. Why was it called the Six Day War? Because the Arabs couldn’t run away any faster.

I’d love to see a video about the Tajikistan Civil War. Those post-Soviet conflicts are always interesting.

The Six-Day War is the definition of I'm not locked in here with you you're locked in here with me

RIP To the 776-983 Israeli soldiers, 9,800-15,000 Egyptian (UAR) soldiers, 1,000-2,500 Syrian soldiers, 696-700 Jordanian soldiers, 20 Israeli civilians, 15 UN peacekeepers, 34 US Navy, marine, and personnel, and 17 Soviet marines who were killed in the Six-Day War

I would recommend following up with the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when we were invaded on the most solemn Jewish holiday and which the country was not at all prepared for. Israel just barely survived and it leaves a profound mark on Israelis of my parents generation to this day. I’m sandwiched between those traumatized from the 2006 Invasion of Lebanon and those just younger than me who served in Su Kaitan (2014).

In 1948, Palestinians were not exiled...they were instructed to leave by their own leaders and the leaders of the Arab nations and promised that they would soon return with the victorious Arab armies. Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion originally asked the Arabs in Israel to stay and not participate in war...they ignored him.

there were plenty of jews in israel long before WW2. also the mandate for "palestine" also included jordan which constitutes about 80% "palestinians" today. those arabs who were in the jewish part of the land and did not fight against israel now constitute 20% of israel's population. many of those arabs who were "displaced" chose to flee before the war at the behest of their own leadership which stated they could return soon after they murder all the jews.

Just imagine, How a tiny nation was able to defeat those giants. Today I believe Israel is much well equipped. You will be playing with fire. Long live Israel.

Israeli military embodies the sentiment, "Never again." The Six Day Way embodies that embodiment.

This war was the prototype for the First Gulf War. And The Yom Kippur War showed the grit of the IDF, despite the Syrians and Egyptians learning nany lessons from the Six Day War.

Can't wait to watch your take on the Lebanese Civil war; definitely sure this will be a feature one day.

I really appreciate the honesty and the neutrality in this video but would love to see the continuation of the story with the 1973 Kippur war.

"Counterstrike! Counterstrike!" Oh, sorry. Thought I was clicking on a Sabaton concert.

If you could do a video on the Bangladesh liberation war, Simon, it would be much appreciated.

the shortened build-up you explain is very one-sided. Jewish immigration into the levant increased steadily from the middle of the 19th century, and so did arab immigration into the area. I wouldn't deny there was a lot of displacement of arabic population during the 1947-1949 war, some of which deliberate and some not. but there was no displacement beforehand. however, a displacement of jewish people leaving in arab states was of similar magnitude. the fact that we absorbed these refugess happily while arab nations stuck their refugees in camps and never ket them out properly should be held against the single jewish state in the world.

This video needs some more visuals showing the positions and the changing battlemap.

Bunch of Jews defeated Allah 😂😂😂

This is why I laugh my ass off whenever smoothbrains say shit like "frEe pAleStiNe!"

I love Israel so much, it’s insane! I admire their resilience, positive attitude, rich culture, ingenuity, and kind-heartedness. All nations should look up to Israel. Israel and its people is a true light for the rest of the world 😍

Moshe Dayan looks like a fucking legendary general

This war is the definition of SSS tier strategy. It's why Israel is so respected. If every country trained like this, there be no war.

Egypt: GET OUT OF THE WAY BRO ILL GO SAVAGE ON HIS ASS UN: ok sure, you're the boss Egypt: ey yoo I was just playing, come back!

I salute and admire the martial discipline of the Israelis, that the Ukrainians take Israel as an example because it is thanks to the Spartan discipline of the Israelis that they were able to defeat armies larger than theirs.

Israel was outnumbered and still whooped arab ass. Lol no wonder the palestinians are so angry all the time

Egypt, Jordan & Syria: It's three on one, we can take him! Israel: Oh hey, a unfair fight... Oh well, not my fault they didn't bring enough dudes.

It's almost as if the israelis earned their land.

You guys should do one on the Battle of Saipan .

My grandfathers and grandmothers survived the holocaust, came to israel and fought every war to make the statement “never again” a reality. I’m proud of them and my country 🇮🇱💪🏻

It's nice to learn that Arabs had their fair share of contribution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The media in my country usually does not talk about that.

Nassar had threatened Israel with war and on June 5th the Israelis accepted the challenge

As an American, I stand with Israel. That is THEIR land. And they have the right to exist. The jews called that part of the world home long before the Arabs... also Israel's neighbors constantly call for its destruction and do all in their power to hinder Israel's development. Thankfully the Israelis are very smart and capable and rarely lose. I wish the US was more devoted to our Israeli ally.

This shows Allah is not with the Arab countries

The Iran Iraq War would be interesting to cover.

That’s a very pro Arab opening

Israel: we're not trapped here with you four, YOU FOUR are stuck with US.

This is a real special operation for only 6 days. Professionally done. Russia should learn what a special operation is from this.

Lesson learned: Don't mess with the Israelis 🇮🇱

That was the definition of badass and conviction right there.

you forgot important fact, Jews were kicked from arabs states also around 1950's, around 600k-800k arab-jews, the deportation was not 1-sided!

We need a Gamal Abdel Nasser biographics episode!

There is a reason why it's taught how they pulled this victory

Yea, that arab state the British created is called Jordan not palistine.

If I was in Israel's position, I wouldn't give back any land either.

Don't forget that there were always Jews living in Israel, and the vast majority of Jews, including refugees, immigrated to Israel and bought the land they lived on legally.

Good video 👍

Interestingly, Dayan gave the chance of success in the war on June 04 at a mere 50-50. Israel was actually worried about how the war would progress. But that story would require another video!

I'm just about old enough to remember hearing about the six day war on radio and tv news. I was 8, almost 9 years old at the time, so could not understand the reasons for the conflict. By coincidence, we had been learning about that part of the world at school at the time in a religious {Christian] context. The teacher called the land Judaea [which is what it was called in New Testament times] although she mentioned that the names Palestine and Israel referred to the same region. I also remember the Yom Kippur War in 1973, by which time I was a teenager. I visited the Holy Land in 1982 and 1999.

Can’t wait for the Yom Kippur War segment!

And crying to this day How they got spanked

Israel: “you’re locked in here with me”

Simon, you failed to mention the thousand and thousand of Jews who were forced out Arab countries, that by far exceeded the Arabs that had to leave Israel.

Can we have a video on the New Zealand Wars? It’s one of those conflicts that we’re aware of, but don’t know much about it.

My dad was stationed at Langley Air Force base in 1967. And he was placed on alert. Just in case of the war didn't Israel's way. The United States was going to go and help out. And I was in my mother's belly at the time. And what my father told me is. It took the focus of the Vietnam War. To the Middle East. Mr. Dyan a tough but cool Under Fire leader. Who became later prime minister of Israel

For a channel called warographics there sure are not any graphics and a lot of a bald guy's head in this video.

You forgot to mention that Israel offered to give back the Sinai peninsula a few days after the war finished, but never got the chance to bring the offer to the Arabs because of the 3 "No"s

This might be the best textbook example of sometimes numbers do not help you win Wars

Isreal - "You want some? You got some."

How about a couple of videos on Grant’s campaigns in the west, Vicksburg and Chattanooga

A few comments, if you please: 1. Before '48 no Arab population have been displaced. The Jews bought land where they could - where it was both sod in the first place, and where they could afford it - as the Arabs were really gouging the prices. As a result, the Jews more or less settled where the Arabs were least interested. 2. The establishment of Israel did not drive away large populations of Arab Palestinians. The invasion of Israel by the combined armies of 7 Arab states - along with expeditionary forces from various other Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries, with the local Arabs fleeing to get out of their way, as well as the war of terror and atrocities against the Jews started by the local Arabs against the Jews back in 1947, leading to fears of retaliations which lead to the Arabs fleeing, is what drove those populations off. 3. The State of Israel did expel some Arabs, mostly Arabs who lived in key strategic positions whose villages served as bases for attacks on the Jews, and whos populations were particularly hateful and cruel and murderous and barbaric. Even then, more often than not, since it was the State of Israel which expelled them, the State of Israel also went to the effort to resettle them elsewhere - in Israeli territory. The ones who have left on their on their own accord, however, Israel simply barred from returning on the grounds that they were enemy aliens. Over the following decades, hundreds of thousands were nevertheless allowed to return. 4. Also they were not Arab Palestinian. Not back then. The Jews, before the founding of Israel were regard as Palestinian Jews, and even though its an anti-Semitic name, they went along with that, as they had plenty of experience with anti-Semitism. Th Arabs, on the other way, very much did not regard themselves as Palestinians at all and wouldn't be caught deadening referred to as such. The Arab Fellahs in Jordan were the first to refer to themselves as such; they wanted to distinguish themselves from the Bedouins, and their allies, the newly-come Hashemites, and their kingdom of Jordan, and refused to be known as Jordanians, so, since Jordan (Transjordan, back in the day) represented about 75% of the territory of the British Later, in 1960, the KJB would adopt that name and apply it to Arabs in or from west of the Jordan river. 5. "A majority of which" aren't "still exiled from their home today". "A majority of which" long since have died from old age. Only roughly 35,000 refugees (according to the UN's universal definition for refugees) were still alive 5 years ago. 6. As part of the 1956 ceasefire agreement, Egypt committed to not block Israeli shipping through the Red sea and the Straights of Tiran, ad the US committed to guaranty Israel's freedom of shipping there. A commitment which Egypt broke, and a commitment the US forgot about - when the Israelis complained to the US, they White House had no idea what they were talking about, they couldn't find the written records and actually had to look former president Eisenhower in his regiment and ask him about it. When he concurred, the US decided to creatively interpret it as meaning the freedom of shipping to Israel - by other flag operators, not by Israeli shipping. Only they were unable to do even that and told Israel they were on their own. By the way, Israel has, in turn, committed to all sort of things in the ceasefire, too, including not flying reconnaissance over Egyptian territory. Which is why Israel built up its eInt and especially SigInt beyond proportions, paving the way to today's "Startup Nation". But anyway, that seriously hurt Israel's intelligence gathering operations on Egypt before over the decade before the war, which is one reason Israel was caught by surprise in the first place. 7. You mention inaccurate intelligence delivered by the Soviets. Only it wasn't intelligence, nor was it inaccurate. It was an outright lie, told deliberately. This comes within the greater geopolitical context of the Cold War, which you've kind of ignored. You see, when Khrushchev came to power, he realized his navy really really sucked. The strategic arm of his air-force wasn't much better off. The US navy, on the other hand, as large and strong and most alarmingly, going nuclear. And the USAF strategic command was an absolute nightmare. What to do? How to deter the West? Well, first he bluffed with launching the Sputnik to space, making the Americans fear the Soviets could launce missiles that would reach America, at a moment's notice - they couldn't, not back then, they could only barely reach Western Europe required about 24 hours to set up for launch - and then garrisoned the missiles he did have - with a much shorter range, right next door to America, in Cuba. When the Americans found out about it, it precipitated the Cuban Missiles Crisis In the end, Khrushchev had to back off. He folded and removed the missiles from Cuba. Publicly humiliating the USSR in the process. Sure he got some concessions in return in the US pulling its short-rage missiles from Turkey in exchange, but that was done in secret, and this was a public humiliation. Also, he lost in his strategic gamble. The US still had long-range missiles, and especially those scary nuclear-tipped submarine launched ICBMS. And He had nothing. He couldn't do it in the north - the water was frozen most of the time. And the Baltic sea was full of European NATO-members' navies to contend with. Couldn't do it in the far east - it was way too far from Russia and the USSR's industrial base and population centers needed to build, run and maintain such a force. Also the Pacific is very big, it'll require a very large navy that would alarm the US and may bring about a new crisis. So he decided to do it in the south. He had the Black Sea mostly to himself, with convenient bases in the Ukraine, near its industrial base and large population, and mostly surrounded by USSR and Warsaw Pact territories. And more importantly, it lead to the Mediterranean Sea - a strategically important body of water, where the Red Navy could threaten both Western Europe and the US Sixth Fleet - including its strategic nuclear deterrence mission threatening the USSR. And bordering any number of countries friendly to the USSR. The Soviets built up such a force, but now they needed to get him out from the Black Sea and into the Mediterranean - without causing a major backfiring reaction from the US and NATO. Also, they wanted basing rights in Egypt, but Egyptian president Nasser refused them. So they lied and told Nasser Israel was planning to wage war on Syria as part of the War Over Water, has amassed its forces and was ready and poised to strike. This way, the Soviets hoped to cause a crisis with somebody else as their stalking dog instead of them being in the focus and drawing all the fire. They could use it as a prefix to invade the Mediterranean Sea with their new naval force, They also hoped to scare Nasser into requesting Soviet protection, thus necessitating Egypt providing the Red Navy with basing rights on its sores. And it worked! The crisis began, the US moved its 6th fleet to the Med. Sea astern basin, and since thy moved their naval forces there, the USSR moved its own 40-ship large force into the same area also, without the US saying a word about it. And once it was there, it stayed. This supposedly Ad-Hoc force was quickly formed as the Soviet 5th Mediterranean Flotilla, and it's there still today. Also, after the war, the Egyptian armed forces were in shambles, and Nasser went to Moscow, hat in hand, and asked the USSR to provide him with a new army. The Soviets agreed, but demanded - and received - basing rights on Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Continues in next comment...

SIX DAYS OF FIRE, ONE DAY OF REST!