Sunday, June 4, 1967, found Israel in an existential crisis.

On every frontier, the Jewish state faced a buildup of Arab armies.  While the leaders of Egypt and Syria had spoken repeatedly of annihilating Israel, the international community refused to recognize Israel’s right to do everything necessary to protect its citizens.  In public parks across the country, rabbis were preparing graves for the Israelis sure to be killed in the impending conflict.     

Less than a week later, those fears had been defeated by a decisive Israeli triumph that would be known forever as the Six-Day War.  

Isolated in the world and relying on a military consisting mainly of reserves, Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan and reunified the ancient city of Jerusalem.

The war was a seminal event in the history of the Middle East, and its effects are still felt throughout the region.

Read more about the existential threat to Israel in 1967.

Israel Reunified Jerusalem and Opened It to People of All Religions

Nowhere are the conflict’s consequences more tangible than in Jerusalem, which had been divided between Israel and Jordan since 1948.

The ensuing 19 years had seen Jordan allow only non-Israeli Muslims full access to the holy sites in the city’s eastern half.  Jews were completely barred from visiting Judaism's most sacred location - the Temple Mount upon which stood the First and Second Temples.  Jews also were not permitted to pray at the Western Wall.  Israeli Christians were allowed into East Jerusalem only once a year, on Christmas.

“Not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter” of Jerusalem, a Jordanian military commander said. “Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews’ return here impossible.”

On June 7, the Israel Defense Forces scuttled that prediction by winning control of East Jerusalem after fighting off Jordan’s attack on the western half of the city.  Jerusalem was immediately opened to people of all religions, whose holy places enjoy the protection of Israeli law to this day.

Under Israeli rule, the city has grown from a small town of less than 30,000 into a diverse metropolis of more than one million people where Muslims, Jews and Christians worship freely.

Read more about how Israel protects religious freedom in Jerusalem and about the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

In addition to opening Jerusalem, Israel also moved in the days following the Six-Day War to extend a hand of peace to the Arab states it fought in the conflict.

On June 19, the Israeli Cabinet voted to exchange all the territory it had won from Egypt and Syria in return for signed peace treaties recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

The Cabinet vote was the first in a series of opportunities for peace with Israel that Arab states have missed in the 40 years following the Six-Day War.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly demonstrated their seriousness toward such efforts, ceding some 93 percent of the land won during the Six-Day War as part of talks that yielded peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.

However, Syria and the Palestinians have yet to make peace with Israel, even when offered generous territorial concessions.

As a result, Israel is still working to convince some members of the Arab world to end the war they began 40 years ago this month.

Read more about Israel's search for peace with its neighbors.