Michael Oren, author of “Six Days of War,” an
account of the 1967 war in Israel, spoke on campus last week. The
Daily Bruin sat down with him to discuss the details of his
book.
*** Daily Bruin: What is your book about and how accessible
is it to people without an extensive background in Middle Eastern
history?
Michael Oren: The book is about what we call the Six Day War and
what the Arabs call the June War ““ a pivotal event in the
making of the modern Middle East in which Israel captured the West
Bank, Gaza and the eastern part of Jerusalem. The book was intended
to be accessible to non-historians.
DB: Regarding the scholarship that went into this book, people
are so incredibly emotional about this issue. How do you try to
deal with that and remain dispassionate?
MO: I have really strong political opinions, and I’m
outspoken about them, but in trying to understand a historical
event it doesn’t help me to indulge my opinions and my
prejudices; I have to try to rise above them. They are the greatest
obstacle you face as a historian. On literally every page of this
book I asked myself, “Am I being objective? Am I trying to
see this from all angles?”
DB: How does the 1976 war compare to the 1973 war in terms
of importance?
MO: I think the 1973 war was very important to Israelis and
Egyptians, but you can’t compare it to the impact of the 1967
war. On the Arab side, the 1967 war brought to the fore the
Palestinian issue ““ people came to realize that there
wasn’t going to be a conventional military solution. And a
year after the war you have the emergence of the Palestinian
Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat becoming a dominant
factor in Arab politics. The 1967 war also dealt a death knoll to
secular Arab nationalism, and created a vacuum in the Arab world
that was eventually filled by Islamists and religious extremism. On
the Israeli side, it created a strategic alliance with the United
States that didn’t exist before.
DB: Before the 1967 war began, were there Israeli plans for
taking over the West Bank?
MO: Israel had contingency plans for doing all sorts of things
… but they were really left in the drawer. Israel didn’t
want to open up other fronts in the war, especially with Jordan
because they had a very powerful army at the time and Israel had a
very long border with Jordan. So they did everything possible to
avoid a war with Jordan. But after Israel attacked Egypt, Jordan
attacked Israel and Syria attacked Israel. In the process of
striking back, Israel conquered a lot of territory. It’s very
important to note that Israel’s plan for dealing with Egypt
was a very limited strike ““ a 48-hour strike ““ and none
of the subsequent phases of the war ““ the capture of the
Sinai, the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, Jerusalem … all
those were unforeseen and unanticipated. DB: Now Israel has
control over the West Bank ““ is the West Bank still
militarily significant?
MO: The military significance of these territories has gone way
down, which is not to say they are negligible, but it has gone way
down. But in the 1960s and 1970s, Israel’s biggest fear was
600,000 Iraqi soldiers joining with the Syrian army and attacking
Israel at its narrowest point, right opposite the West Bank, where
Israel is only eight miles wide. So the argument for keeping the
West Bank is we need it for strategic depth. But today there is no
Iraqi army and the Syrian army is decrepit, so the threat is
greatly reduced. Today the greatest threat facing Israel is not
military, but demographic.
DB: Is unilateral withdrawal from Gaza a good idea? Is it
good for Israel?
MO: It’s very painful because the people we are plucking
out of Gaza come from a section of society which is really in the
vanguard of the Zionist movement today. Nationalist religious
Zionists make up 30 percent of Israel’s military officers
today ““ they do all the volunteering. This will be a
tremendous blow to them and their morale. They say Israel’s
security will be impaired, and they are right. It will be impaired,
but it’s the lesser of two evils.
Interview conducted by Derek Lazzaro, Bruin senior
staff.