Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.(Book Review)

by Michael B. Oren. Oxford University Press (http://www.oup-usa.org), 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016, 2002, 480 pages, $30.00.

Michael Oren has written what will undoubtedly be a required text on the Arab-Israeli wars in general and the Six-Day Way of 1967 in particular. Many people think of the latter conflict in terms of the lightning air strike the Israelis conducted as an opening gambit to the tense situation in the Middle East. Oren takes readers beyond this perspective and into the pressures on the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Israeli sides regarding making a decision to engage in war. He devotes one chapter to each day of the struggle, from 5 to 10 …