again UPDATE: LMD and bitterlemons on 40 years

Also the June issue of Le monde diplomatique (LMD) focuses in its Dossier on the 1967 war in the Middle East and its consequences, as well does the bitterlemons-international.org roundtable by publishing it’s weekly edition this friday under the theme: June 1967, 40 years later: a regional view.

Both are again good sources to update ones knowledge on the events which in part influenced and shaped further today’s problems and conflicts of the region.

To mention are the articles for the english edition of LMD written by Meron Rapoport and Henry Laurens and an extra supplementary text by Bassma Kodani (CV as pdf) which so far I only found in the german paper edition and as french online version. Sorrily I only could get access for the french text of her article Une gÃ©nÃ©ration arabe traumatisÃ©e par la dÃ©faite, which but gives a good introduction to those not very familiar with the context of the events of the region.

The other articles are introduced here with their short abstracts or an opening paragraph like the article by Henry Laurens, which entitles 1967: a war of miscalculation and misjudgment and states:

Few foresaw the 1967 war and none guessed that it would create a profound upheaval across the Middle East. The defeat of Egyptâ€™s Nasser and of Arab nationalism led to the emergence of political Islam and encouraged Palestinian resistance. (read)

While Meron Rapoport asks Was 1967 a victory too far for Israel?:

The Six Day war transformed Israel from relative poverty into a regional military superpower. It also began an occupation which has been slowly destroying the countryâ€™s meaning and identity â€“ and may yet dissolve its existence. (read)

Abdel Monem Said Aly for bitterlemons-international offers his view on the shift in history and fates in The forty years war,

For Arabs, the war of 1967 was the darkest days of their modern history, even darker and more humiliating than the defeat of 1948 by the Israeli “Zionist gangs”. After all, almost six decades ago Arabs were under diverse forms of foreign occupation, ruled by reactionary regimes and still backward from long centuries of Ottoman tradition. By June 1967, Arab countriess had become independent, progressive and revolutionary, and were led by none other than Gamal Abdul Nasser. (read)

Further articles in bitterlemons-international.org register that no one takes up the ringing phone in Saad Hattar’s article: Waging peace, while Rime Allaf looks at The New Syrian Syndrome … and more here …