Editing History of Israel (section)

===1963–1969: Eshkol===
{{Further|Six-Day War}}
{{See also-text|[[Eleventh government of Israel|Eleventh]]|[[Twelfth government of Israel|Twelfth]]|[[Thirteenth government of Israel|Thirteenth]] governments of Israel}}
In 1963 [[Yigael Yadin]] began excavating [[Masada]]. In 1964, Egypt, Jordan and Syria developed a unified military command. Israel completed work on a [[National Water Carrier of Israel|national water carrier]], a huge engineering project designed to transfer Israel's allocation of the [[Jordan river]]'s waters towards the south of the country in realization of Ben-Gurion's dream of mass Jewish settlement of the [[Negev]] desert. The Arabs responded by trying to divert the headwaters of the Jordan, leading to growing [[War over Water (Jordan river)|conflict]] between Israel and Syria.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_periods3.html |title=The Disaster of 1967 |access-date=12 January 2013 |archive-date=11 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711165058/http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/his_periods3.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ben-Gurion quit Mapai to form the new party [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]], he was joined by [[Shimon Peres]] and [[Moshe Dayan]]. Begin's [[Herut]] party joined with the Liberals to form [[Gahal]]. Mapai and Labour united for the [[1965 Israeli legislative election|1965 elections]], winning 45 seats and maintaining [[Levi Eshkol]] as Prime Minister. Ben-Gurion's Rafi party received 10 seats, Gahal got 26 seats becoming the second largest party.

Until 1966, Israel's principal arms supplier was [[France]], however in 1966, following the withdrawal from [[Algeria]], [[Politics of grandeur|Charles de Gaulle]] announced France would cease supplying Israel with arms (and refused to refund money paid for 50 warplanes).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hnn.us/articles/751.html |title=When Did the U.S. and Israel Become Allies? (Hint: Trick Question) |last=Cristol |first=Jay |date=9 July 2002 |work=History News Network |publisher=George Mason University |access-date=5 December 2012 |archive-date=28 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028092430/http://hnn.us/articles/751.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On 5 February 1966, the United States announced that it was taking over the former French and West German obligations, to maintain military "stabilization" in the Middle East. Included in the military hardware would be over 200 [[M48 Patton|M48 tanks]]. In May of that year the US also agreed to provide [[A-4 Skyhawk]] tactical aircraft to Israel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/tanks/magach/Patton_Tanks_in_Israeli_Service.htm|title=Patton Tanks in Israeli Service|website=www.israeli-weapons.com|access-date=24 September 2017|archive-date=9 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809154251/http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/vehicles/tanks/magach/Patton_Tanks_in_Israeli_Service.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Herring |first=George C. |title=The American Century and Beyond: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1893–2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9VKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA447 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |page=447 |isbn=978-0190212476 |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=1 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101103342/https://books.google.com/books?id=E9VKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA447 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Aloni |first=Shlomo |title=Israeli A-4 Skyhawk Units in Combat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXKHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT8 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2013 |page=8 |isbn=978-1849081290 |access-date=4 April 2018 |archive-date=7 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107110513/https://books.google.com/books?id=pXKHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT8 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1966 security restrictions placed on [[Arab-Israelis]] were eased and efforts made to integrate them into Israeli life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lustick |first=Ian |title=Arabs in the Jewish State: Israel's control of a national minority |year=1980 |page=123 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=0292703473}}</ref>

In 1966, [[Television in Israel|black-and-white TV]] broadcasts began. On 15 May 1967, the first public performance of [[Naomi Shemer]]'s classic song "[[Jerusalem of Gold]]" took place and over the next few weeks it dominated the Israeli airwaves. Two days later Syria, Egypt and Jordan amassed troops along the Israeli borders, and Egypt closed the [[Straits of Tiran]] to Israeli shipping. Nasser demanded that the [[United Nations Emergency Force|UNEF]] leave Sinai, threatening escalation to a full war. Egyptian radio broadcasts talked of a coming genocide.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1627015,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070603194639/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1627015,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 June 2007 |title=In the Shadow of the Six-Day War |last=Mcgirk |first=Tim |date=31 May 2007 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=4 December 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sixdaywar.co.uk/timeline.htm |title=Six Day War Comprehensive Timeline |access-date=4 December 2012 |archive-date=25 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825061450/http://www.sixdaywar.co.uk/timeline.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tbsjournal.com/James.html |title=Whose Voice? Nasser, the Arabs, and 'Sawt al-Arab' Radio |last=James |first=Laura M. |year=2006 |publisher=Transnational Broadcasting Studies |access-date=4 December 2012 |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716194101/http://www.tbsjournal.com/James.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On 26 May [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]] declared, "''The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel''".<ref name="Mutawi2002p95">{{cite book|author=Samir A. Mutawi|title=Jordan in the 1967 War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9bBJusRJIMC&pg=PA94|date=18 July 2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-52858-0|page=95|quote="On 26 May he declared, "The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel"|access-date=29 October 2015|archive-date=6 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906091253/https://books.google.com/books?id=g9bBJusRJIMC&pg=PA94|url-status=live}}</ref> Israel considered the [[Straits of Tiran]] closure a [[Casus belli]]. Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq signed defence pacts and Iraqi troops began deploying to Jordan, Syria and Egypt.<ref>''The Times'' (London), 1 June 1967.{{full citation needed|date=September 2022}}</ref> Algeria also announced that it would send troops to Egypt. Between 1963 and 1967 [[Egypt and weapons of mass destruction|Egyptian troops had tested chemical weapons]] on Yemenite civilians as part of an [[North Yemen Civil War|Egyptian intervention in support of rebels]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://wcfia.harvard.edu/publications/forgotten-gas-attacks-yemen-haunt-syria-crisis|title=Forgotten Gas Attacks in Yemen Haunt Syria Crisis|year=2013|access-date=5 August 2017|archive-date=5 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805181024/https://wcfia.harvard.edu/publications/forgotten-gas-attacks-yemen-haunt-syria-crisis|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Chief of staff Yitzhak Rabin, Gen. Rehavam Zeevi (R) And Gen. Narkis in the old city of Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Gen. [[Uzi Narkiss]], Defense Minister [[Moshe Dayan]], Chief of staff [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and Gen. [[Rehavam Ze'evi]] in the [[Old City (Jerusalem)|Old City of Jerusalem]], 7 June 1967]]

On the morning before Dayan was sworn in, 5 June 1967, the Israeli air force launched [[Operation Focus]], a series of pre-emptive attacks in which it pre-emptively attacked the Egyptian air force, kicking off the [[Six-Day War]], and then, later the same day, struck the air forces of Jordan and Syria. By 11 June the Arab forces were routed and all parties had accepted the cease-fire called for by UN Security Council Resolutions 235 and 236. Israel gained control of the [[Sinai Peninsula]], the [[Gaza Strip]], the [[Golan Heights]], and the formerly Jordanian-controlled [[West Bank]] of the [[Jordan River]]. [[East Jerusalem]] was [[Jerusalem Law|annexed]] by Israel.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lustick |first1=Ian S. |title=Has Israel Annexed East Jerusalem? |journal=Middle East Policy |date=January 1997 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=34–45 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-4967.1997.tb00247.x }}</ref>

The result of the 29 August [[1967 Arab League summit]] was the [[Khartoum Resolution]], which according to Abd al Azim Ramadan, left only one option – a war with Israel.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meital |first1=Yoram |title=The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy after the 1967 War: A Reexamination |journal=Middle East Journal |date=2000 |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=64–82 |jstor=4329432}}</ref>

In 1968 [[Moshe Levinger]] led a group of [[Religious Zionist]]s who created the first [[Israeli settlement|Jewish settlement]], a town near Hebron called [[Kiryat Arba]]. There were no other religious settlements until after 1974. Ben-Gurion's [[Rafi (political party)|Rafi]] party merged with the Labour-Mapai alliance. Ben-Gurion remained outside as an independent. In 1968, compulsory education was extended until the age of 16 for all citizens (it had been 14) and the government embarked on an extensive program of [[Social integration|integration]] in education. In the major cities children from mainly [[Sephardi]]/[[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi]] neighbourhoods were [[bus]]ed to newly established [[middle school]]s in better areas. The system remained in place until after 2000.

In March 1968, Israeli forces attacked the Palestinian militia, [[Fatah]], at its [[Battle of Karameh|base in the Jordanian town of Karameh]]. The attack was in response to land mines placed on Israeli roads. The Israelis retreated after destroying the camp, however the Israelis sustained unexpectedly high casualties and the attack was not viewed as a success. Despite heavy casualties, the Palestinians claimed victory, while Fatah and the [[PLO]] (of which it formed part) became famous across the Arab world. In early 1969, fighting broke out between Egypt and Israel along the Suez Canal. In retaliation for repeated Egyptian shelling of Israeli positions along the Suez Canal, Israeli planes made deep strikes into Egypt in the 1969–1970 "[[War of Attrition]]".