Reverberations of the 1967 war can still be felt

Mustapha Karkouti, gulfnews.com; see also.

The Middle East then was only a part of a hugely complicated world trapped in dangerous confrontations in every continent, with the prevailing world order still bearing an uncanny resonance of the same

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Excerpt:

Half a century has passed since the Six-Day War of June 1967, when Israel surprisingly defeated the armies of three major Arab countries — Egypt, Syria and Jordan. This is the most tragic part of the Arab modern history. The Arabs have never suffered such humiliation in their recent history since the Anglo-Franco colonial takeover after the First World War. Recently-released transcripts of Israeli cabinet emergency and top-secret meetings on the eve of that war show how the Israeli leadership shifted from a state of total fear when the war began, to a state of euphoria two days later and to a state of arrogance at the end of the sixth day. ... 

[T]he reality of the situation and the significance of the Arab defeat in a world that was deeply and bitterly divided at a time when the Cold War between East and West had reached its height, could not be more dramatic. The then Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban summarised the moment when he told the ministers on June 14 with euphoric arrogance: “In the history of mankind, there has been nothing like the public diplomacy success [that] Israel has had this past month.” Immersed in a colonial victory of achievement, he continued: “Israel is expanding ... and the world is applauding.”

Eban couldn’t have been more precise. Britain, France, the United States and the entire western world were exceptionally jubilant at Israel’s victory. ...

The Middle East of the 1960s was only one part, and a small part for that matter, of a hugely complicated world trapped in dangerously contested wars and confrontations in every continent, including Europe, deeply divided by dividing Germany early in the 1950s into East and West. ...

Therefore, the 1967 Arab defeat is considered by many historians as merely a footnote in the long list of events in the 1960s, no matter how deeply the Arabs felt cheated and heart-broken.