The Six-Day War Review by Amogh Joshi

 

The Six-Day War

The Six-Day War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael B. Oren is a comprehensive novel covering the events of the Six-Day War of June 1967, which pitted Israel against the surrounding Arab armies of Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, to name the primary belligerents. The novel provides an extremely detailed look into the events surrounding the war, as early as from the roots of the conflict beginning in the late 1800s, and following an in-depth description of each of the six days of battle, explores its consequences and effects on the modern Middle East.

In contrast to other war novels I’ve read, The Six Day War, though technically focused on the war itself, spent a lot of time discussing the people behind the conflict and the actual reasons/effects of it, which placed the conflict as a whole into a larger perspective. Furthermore, there was a lot of emphasis placed on discussing the point of view of the people who were actually behind the war, from the generals and world leaders conducting the conflict and behind-the-scenes diplomacy, all the way to the common men and women who were learning about the conflict in the heart of their nations. In certain scenes, such as the debates inside the Knesset or the meeting of the UAR leaders, I almost felt as if I was a fly on the wall, what with the rich detail of the environment, both physically and emotionally.

On such a contentious topic, it can be difficult to maintain a neutral viewpoint on the war, but Oren, in my opinion, does a fantastic job at maintaining neutrality between both the Israeli and the Arab sides of the conflict, pointing out factors which resulted in aggression from both sides. Descriptions involving the motivations for both sides of the conflict were as neutral as possible, irrespective of personal beliefs or the seemingly correct side, which further improved the quality of the writing. Furthermore, while the novel was told from a third-person point of view as a narrator, there were many storytelling and narrative moments which further immerses the reader into it.

As a pivotal moment in the Israeli-Arab conflict, The Six-Day War is a fantastic novel when looking for an in-depth view of one of the shortest yet most important events in the history of the modern Middle East. This is another 10/10, an absolute must-read even for those not necessarily versed in this specific historical conflict.