In June 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out, Israel had just turned 19, a plucky young state still living in the immediate shadow of the Holocaust. Israel was surrounded by enemy states avowed to its destruction, and was deeply afraid that the war would end with the annihilation of much of the world’s remaining Jews.
Israel was deeply isolated. The United States, with whom relations were still limited, declared neutrality. The USSR severed relations. France, Israel’s strategic ally at the time, ignominiously abandoned it shortly thereafter. Arab hostility was at its height.
When the war ended, with Israel’s dramatic triumph, the entire Jewish people let out a collective gasp of relief. Israel became the darling of much of the world, especially in the U.S. Heretofore assimilated American Jews suddenly found new pride in their association with those “fighting Jews.” Being Jewish became cool. And Israel became intoxicated by its newfound lease on life and its territorial reach. As with all historical turning points, no single observation can encapsulate the entirety of what happened. The war was the first in a series of developments that transformed Israel’s strategic circumstances.
Until the Six-Day War, much of the Arab world was convinced that Israel’s existence and earlier victories were an inexplicable and intolerable historical fluke, which it would soon rectify with its defeat and
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Chuck Freilich | 2 Jun 2022