Rating: 
Summary: Pre-emptive war
Review: When President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq he said he did so to end the threat that Saddam possed to America. Although there is much dispute now over the amount of danger he really was, Six Days Of War clearlly shows how Israel faced a threat, was told to take a hit and instead, struck first and effectively bought six years of peace (not counting the war of attrition). Dispite the clear and present danger that their nation was in, many in the Israeli government were aghainst the war. Oren does a good job of showing not only this but the oft' overlooked Arab governments actions. Behind the rethoric, the leaders of these regimes are faced with the choice of fighting Israel to appease the man in the street, or actually trying to improve their people's lives. Oren is never boring; his work builds like a clancy novel, with us sometimes wondering how things will end. this is curcial for any history book-being able to see how the people in the conflict viewed it without the benefit of hindsight. Oren shows that the navie actions of those in power (i.e. the actions of the UN and all the other parties involed) caused the conflict to come to a boil over into an all out war. Intreastingly, Israel did not plan on fighting the Syrians and Jordens and when they did, they made most of their plans up on the fly. Six Days Of War clearly shows how the middle east changed into the current situation we face today; the West bank, Gaza strip, the Golan hights and Jersulam were all captured that week by Israel. These lands are now cited as the price of peace and the causa bellum; Orignally, the condition for peace was the destruction of Israel. Last the book shows that sometimes it's best to go it alone. When the entire middle east was calling for blood, Israel appealed to the UN, France and other failmar venues and was told it was their problem. The six day war was thus the defineing moment for Israel in that she stood up for herself and proved she could defend herself (Israel was aided by Britian and France in 56) much like the war of 1812 did for America. However, Oren reveles that for political concerns, Israel allowed herself to be attacked in 73 Yom Kipper with four times the casulaties and almost no gain. Great Book.
Rating: 
Summary: Plenty of data but lacking in information
Review: I would recommend the book to anyone new to the Middle East conflict looking to acquire an understanding of some of its history. The 1967 war is only a peaked moment in a long chain of events both before and after the Six-Day war which have led to the present state of Israel and the Palestine. The subtitle of the book and the author's comments mislead a little by placing too much of an emphasis on the 1967 war as a way to explain the roots of the conflict. While the book is rich in descriptions and data, including quotes from participants in the conflict, explanations and reflections on the roots of the issues are limited to non-existant. The book concludes that the chain of events both in the battlefield and at the political table are much the result of daily circumstances rather than the outcome of decisions made sometimes months and years prior. While the result of a single battle or the exact shape of the resulting borders may have been a matter of hectic manouvering in the last hours, the decisions to wage a preemptive war and to keep Jerusalem and the West Bank out of the land-for-peace concept are matters of careful planning and thousand-years old land claims. Perhaps the most surprising conclusion and a view of how the conflict could be solved is offered by the author in the subsequent interview with Fouad Ajami: democratization in the Middle East focusing on free expression, elected governments and women's rights. This view does offer some insight into and aligns with the recent US military action in the region. While democracies in the Middle East or anywhere in the world for that matter would be a wonderful thing, it is either misleading or myopic to think that a democratic state would by default give up or forget the claim of lost territories. For examples look no further than a few hundred miles to the northwest where two NATO-member democracies are still embroiled in a decades-old dispute.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book - The Definitive Work
Review: What is great about this book is the total approach. The book must be the definitive book on the subject. It is well written and well researched. In this book you will find a very detailed and comprehensive nuts and bolts description of the military conflict step by step through the events leading up to the war and the conflict itself. The book includes good photos and maps and gives lots of details on troop movements. Also it discusses what was happening politically in each country suurounding Israel, the UN , and the role of the big powers. You cannot go wrong with this book. Just excellent. Jack in Toronto
Rating:
Summary: Blueduck
Review: Michael Oren gives a compelling inside view of the thinking of both the politicians and the soldiers during the days leading up to the Israeli attack on Egypt, the events which then unfolded in the following 6 days and its influence on the modern middle east. His writing is lucid, tight and based on detailed interviews with all the key players. This is a book in the modern idiom (most of the events are described by way of direct quotes from the "players" rather than in the third person) and has an immediacy and pace which is mostly appealing. It is rather like the newspaper reporting of events. But sometimes you feel that there should be more "gravitas"
Those interested in the clinical descriptions of the battles both small and large will have mixed feelings. It does lack the detail that such a conflict demands and at times becomes "chatty". However, the account is made more instructive by the details on the many maps provided. But detailed tables of the military hardware all sides possessed is an unfortunate omission.
Those who are interested in the "grubby" actions of politicians on both sides (including the US, in particular, and the USSR, to a lesser degree) will also not be disappointed!
However, ultimately the book stumbles on a number of issues.
First, the horror of war (and this would have been as bad as any) does not come out. It all seems rather like war games with the Israeli's as inevitable victors
Secondly, although the author tries to be neutral and detached, he often fails. Sometimes he sees things as an Israeli would (he is an Israeli himself, I believe). 1000 Egyptian casualties seem to have the same gravity as 10 Israeli casualties. Sometimes he misses the obvious. (Just one example is the concern he repeatedly describes that the Israelis display when the Egyptians carry out aerial reconnaissance over the Dimona nuclear reactor. For the Israelis this was seen as provocative and one of the causes for war. The author makes passing reference to similar activities carried out by the Israelis over the Sinai but he never considers that the Egyptians may have also seen this as provocative). The fact that Israel actually started the fighting and did not want to stop fighting until it had won all the territory it was seeking (particularly East Jerusalem) should also have received far more criticism. And finally while almost all the Israeli's are portrayed as "heroic" most of the Arabs seem to be cardboard caricatures (perhaps not Nasser though).
But thirdly and most crucially the background to this war is not well considered. Oren views the actions of the various Arab countries prior to the war (the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba, the Egyptian move into Sinai, the attacks on the border settlements, the threatening statements) as foolish (which they certainly seem to have been), unreasonable (where there is an ongoing debate today) and almost inexplicable (which they certainly were not). Conversely he seems to view Israeli's actions as reasonable and necessary without much qualification. He makes little of both the fact that Israel had invaded Egypt in 1956 and also that Israel's borders had expanded by more than 30% as a result of this and earlier wars. Surely these factors would have caused deep anger in the Arab world and for many outsiders would justify some Arab action
However, finally, for those who read the book carefully, there is all the evidence to explain why this region is still in conflict. The hatred of most Arabs towards Israel and the US and the expansionist actions of the far right in Israel is a constant. The power of the Jewish lobby in the US has not changed nor has a certain degree of Israeli arrogance. The lack of Arab rational and meaningful leadership and the inability of the Arab nations to work together remains. The Palestinians still appear to have no influence on their future. And Sharon was as "Gung Ho" then as he is now!
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August
Review: Six Days of War is a fascinating tale of how nations stumble into war. The focus of this book are the decisions made at the highest levels and the impact these decisions have in shaping our world. This book is a must for anyone who wants a more profound understanding of what is currently going on in the Middle East. This is war as seen from the top. I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a campaign history. In style and tone, this book reminds me of Barbara Tuchman's classic "The Guns of August". A book like this reminds you how a few people making hurried decisions in a time of crisis can shape world history. I can only hope that Michael Oren decides to write a book about the October 1973 War.
Rating:
Summary: 6 Days of War
Review: This is a terrific book for someone who, like me, isn't immersed in the history of the Middle East. It's chronological, thorough enough for one to be able to follow the events, and spends (as it should) about half of its pages on 'how we got to this point.' It has been wonderfully instructive to me as I have learned that we (the USA) have not always been in Israel's corner, the Pan-Arab movement has been alive for a long time, and you can always count on the French to be arrogant and mercenary. The book tells the reader what happened in Tel Aviv, Damascus, Cairo, Washington, Moscow, London, New York, etc. as well as the battlefields of Sinai and the Golan. The only possible improvement I could suggest would be a listing of the important players as I find it hard to keep straight the second-tier players. Dayan, Eshkol, Nasser, 'Amer, Hussein; everyone knows them, but their subordinates are hard to keep straight (particularly the Arabs because of my unfamiliarity with Arabic proper names). The maps were helpful, and the pictures help give some sense of what happened. Although either a negative was reversed or Moshe Dayan didn't really need that patch and switched it from one eye to the other, just to screw with people's minds. This is a great book and I look forward to reading more from Michael Oren and am looking for a good book on the Yom Kippur War.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful insight into a crucial moment
Review: Michael Oren's Six Days of War is almost certain to become the standard work in the field, particularly as it related to matters of politics and diplomacy. His work carefully considers the motivations of all the major players, offering insightful analysis of the decision makers in Tel Aviv, Cairo, Damascus, Washington, New York and Moscow. Unlike other works on the same topic Oren white washes no one, offering a reasonable and balanced view of the motications for all sides. Of particular note for excellence is his placing of the war in the context of the larger Arab Israeli and Cold War currents that led to this point. For example, how the Vietnam War made Washington want nothing so much as to defuse tensions. Most interesting of all is Oren's explination of all that Israel did in order to avoid going to war, particularly in light of current arguments regarding Israel's control of the West Bank and Gaza. All to often, advocates for the Palestinians want people to forget the near 20 years when both territories remained under Jordanian and Egyptian control, without the world ever demanding that they evacuate to create a Palestinan State. Please note what the book is not. While a fabulous history, the authors focus is diplomatic, not military. Those looking for an excellent military history should look to Chaim Herzog's work, which is the standard. However, for an understanding of background and motivations, Oren's work is nothing short of esential.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth a read
Review: Michael Oren's book does an excellent job at portraying the brutality of this war, making it clear how much individual soldiers and civilians suffered as Israeli leaders acted on their worst fears but not always resolutely, Egyptian-Syrian-Jordanian leadership bounced from one half-baked idea to another, and the superpowers lurched clumsily around in the background. This is a fine book, richly detailed and very readable.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sweeping History
Review: * Michael Oren's SIX DAYS OF WAR: JUNE 1967 & THE MAKING OF THE MODERN
MIDDLE EAST is, as the author explains in his introduction, an attempt to put
together a comprehensive and reasonably impartial history of the June 1967
Middle East War, or "Six-Day War". Mr. Oren details the background of the story, in which Jewish settlement of
Palestine led to the creation of Israel and a bitter confrontation with the
Arabs living in the region, and then describes the tensions that led to the 1967 war, with Arab states competing to see who could be the loudest to
denounce the "Zionist entity" (they refused to call it "Israel"). Arab
leaders became believers in their own propaganda and refused to see the risks
inherent in their actions, taking satisfaction in Israel's increasing
fearfulness without taking seriously what they might do if their fear crossed
a certain lethal threshold. Egypt almost pulled the trigger first, but Egyptian President Nasser
hesitated, and the Israelis beat the Arabs to the punch. US President Lyndon
Johnson and his administration felt that the Israelis would win a shooting
match, and this was quickly borne out when it became apparent that the Arab
forces were poorly trained, very badly led, and the Arab leaders were almost
as hostile to each other as they were to Israel. The result was an Israeli
triumph and an Arab disaster. This is a story of war and personalities: the charismatic and shrewd Nasser,
who was taken in by his own rhetoric and lived to acknowledge his blunders;
Egyptian Field Marshal Amer, whose hysteria did much to lead to the disaster;
Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, whose wish to chart a safe and peaceful
course through troubles failed; Israeli Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, a
naturally low-key man who fractured but did not quite completely break under
the strain; Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, a real-life action hero with a
marvelous ability to say one thing and do another; and Jordanian King
Hussein, who was the most reluctant of the Arab leaders to go to war, was the
most earnest in fighting it once he did, and suffered the greatest losses. In sum, Mr. Oren does seem to have achieved his goals in writing this book.
Its impartiality might be argued in places -- Mr. Oren is Israeli -- but he
has clearly made a conscientious effort to give both sides of the story, with
the source material for this book including many interviews on both sides of
the fence. I would have to say that this book requires a certain amount of work and,
though it is of moderate length (if not brief), it is still somewhat more
than a person who isn't a hardcore student of MidEast politics could
reasonably absorb or retain in full. That isn't really a complaint, such
limitations being inescapable in writing a book that tries to be definitive,
and there are good reasons to want to write such a definitive book (which Mr.
Oren neatly outlines in the introduction). That being said, I can highly recommend this book, not merely to students of
military matters but of history in general. We are still living with the
consequences of the Six-Day War, and it is somewhat fascinating to find out
that there were those at the time who had a perfectly good idea of what the
consequences might be.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful reading
Review: This is a wonderful book and one of a kind on the Six Day War. Just released it gives us an in depth account of the war that more then any other has shaped modern middle eastern maps and politics. Intellligently the books chapters detail each day as it goes by. With excellent chapters on the build up and 'Crises' as well as conclusions about the effect on the Palistinian populations of the west bank. WOnderful accounts of Wasfi Tal's claim that he would 'kill 2000 rebels(palistinians) to keep the King from losing the West Bank'. To bad Hussien dismissed him before the war started. A one of a kind account of the war, easy to read, and highly entertaining.
| 
