Qiryat Shemona Israel Israel

...the edge of the Golan Heights in the north, and ...

The Syrians entrench themselves in the Golan Heights overlooking Galilee, and ...

Fatah, which has merged with smaller groups to form the PLO, carries out its first military operation on December 31, 1964.

Yasser 'Arafat leads a band of guerillas in a night crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel.

Armed with Soviet-made explosives, their uniforms supplied by the Syrians, they advance toward their target: a pump for conveying Galilee water to the Negev desert.

This attempt to sabotage the Israeli National Water Carrier is unsuccessful, however, as the explosives fail to detonate.

Syria intensifies its bombardments of Israeli villages in early 1967.

Increasingly violent clashes with Palestinian guerrillas and Syrian army forces along Lake Tiberias lead to a general crisis when in reprisal the Israeli Air Force shoots down six Syrian MiG planes over the Golan Heights on April 6.

This leads to a further escalation of Israeli-Syrian tensions.

...atop the Golan Heights, after driving the Syrians from that strategic position.

...kibbutzim in the northern sector of the Golan Heights and ...

Washington’s reluctance to help Israel changes rapidly when the Soviet Union launches its own resupply effort to Egypt and Syria.

President Nixon counters by establishing an emergency supply line to Israel, even though the Arab nations impose a costly oil embargo, and various American allies refuse to facilitate the arms shipments.

Once assured of U.S. aid, however, the Israelis strike on both fronts, regain the Golan Heights, and ...

Syrian forces also storm the Golan Heights.

The attack surprises not only Israel but also the world.

In the north, Syrian forces outnumbering the Israeli defenders (eleven hundred Syrian tanks against one hundred and fifty-seven Israeli tanks) reach the outer perimeter of the Golan Heights overlooking the Hula Basin.

In the first few days of the war, Israeli counterattacks fail, Israel suffers hundreds of casualties, and loses nearly one hundred and fifty planes.

The tide of the war finally turns on October 1; the Syrians are driven out of all territories conquered by them at the beginning of the war and on the following day Israeli forces advance into Syria proper, about twenty kilometers from the outskirts of Damascus.

The United States and the Soviet Union react with subtle attempts to fine-tune the outcome by alternately withholding or providing arms to the belligerents and by urging or discouraging a UN cease-fire.

The Soviet Union responds to Israeli victories in the Golan by making massive airlifts to Damascus and Cairo.

Nixon denies Israel an airlift of arms until October 13, preventing Israel from launching a prompt counterattack and thereby signaling Sadat of American sympathy.