this article is very well written. I've also seen counters to their article that Hezbollah won the Second Lebanon War (as opposed to both sides losing).

It was not just Jewish pride that took a major lift in the aftermath of the Six Day War. In attempting to understand the implications of that victory we saw an explosion of Jewish response. Jews, in a phrase, came out of the woodworks. In the US, we saw the first appearances of "havurot" and Jewish study circles, and the "Jewish Catalog" series. Departments of Jewish Studies on college campuses thrived, and Jewish Day Schools appeared outside the Orthodox mainstream. Student trips to Israel became commonplace. The struggle for Soviet Jewry - the "Jews of Silence" in the early 1960's - became a full scale movement, and a new word entered our lexicon: Refuseniks. Even there Jews no longer kept their heads down. All this is understandably beyond the perspective of The Economist, but it shouldn't be beyond ours.

The Palestinians have managed to pull off a huge scam. Egypt and Jordan occupied what was supposed to be the Palestinian stse for almost 20 years and not a word was said about setting up a Plaestinan state. Only when the Jews conquered the territory in 1967 did people start talking about a Palestinain state. Isn't it clear to eveyone yet that what interests the Palestians is destroying the Jews? They are not interested in having their own state.

I've been reading The Economist for almost 40 years. It was the best magazine on the market, far superior to any other. Notice I said "was" - over the last few years, the quality in many areas has deteriorated. No where is this more the case than in coverage of the Middle East, in particular the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I can only assume that the uncreative & superficial coverage of our area is part of a general trend in the UK as can be seen with the BBC, The Guardian, & many others. I really expected better of The Economist. Very disappointing.

In the current issue of the German weekly magazine SPIEGEL (one of the most important German-language news magazines), which was published yesterday, there is an article about the 6-days-war captioned in the table of contents as "Israel's alleged victory in the six days war". The article begins with the sentence: "Shootings in Gaza, fights in Lebanon: 40 years after the six-days-war it becomes clear that the Israeli triumph of 1967 was a Pyrrhic victory" Oh, and one of the fotos has the caption "Kriegsherr Dajan, Soldaten" (War lord Dayan with soldiers). OK- perhaps it's not really wrong to call a minister of defense a "war lord" - after all, he plays an important role in a war - but it's surely not usual.

you became so arrogant that you do not accept any criticism, you think you are above the law, you steal land, kill people from planes, uproot trees, destroy homes, build walls on occupied territory and then wonder why people criticize you....the economist is damn right but it will take you another 40 years to realize what will lose because of your arrogance...

and now it is israel's turn and therefore you know the country is in trouble. The economist has always stood for high values, right against wrong, good against bad. SO when Israel start to act agains the establishement of the economis then you know that Israel has lost it and became another extremist state not wanting to face the injustice it has created in Palestine and how violent they have become...Wake up before it is too late to realize that you can never live in this part of the world if you continue this crazy arrogant occupation

"you became so brainwashed, have no law to speak of, you kill civilians including your own babies, you kill people on planes with your terror, you aid al-quaeida in Lebanon, and you ask yourself why the people of the world have difficulty in fully suscribing into your cause?" unfortunately for you currently displaced former Palestinian Arabs, it will take you another 40 years to find out that brainwashing your children into becoming little terrorists won´t elevate you onto any status except angry losers in denial.

In all honestly the article is way over simplified. It is the front cover of the magazine but barley stretches two sides of A4. You read the article and realize immediatly that there is no depth at all. It was a good title to get people to buy the mag, butt the article itself is very weak indeed. The response above is far more detailed and much less speculative.

I hope this response has been sent to the Economist. They often print well written responses.

Normally I would listen closely to what you have to say, but sadly the fact that you write "Haifa, Palestine" as they place where you live explains a lot about your mentality. Haifa is an Israeli city and is not a part of a Palestinian state in any Peace Plan other than the one that cals for the elimination of Israel. Therefore, anything you have to say inherently comes from an extremist perspective.

in your arrogance you mentioned the statistics to demonstrate what the six day war achieved. but have you got peace after plundering, uprooting, maiming and killing the palestinians? you overreact to every small critique raised by anyone at all. you don't seem to have grown up. didn't you realize that the us has been patronizing and using you as its tool to forge its middle east foreign policy? are you proud of that hollow achievement? true you have all the wealth build from the tears of the palestinian children. is this what your religion thought you to do? think.

Saying that all palestinians are terrorist, confusing al qaida terror organization with all the palestinians... you are wrong my friend...you became racist and are applying the same kind of racism and generalisation that was done to you.... you basically have lost your moral superiority and are so arrogant and extremist and violent in your response that you represent the situation of desarray that Isral is in today...you have lost in lebanon, escaped from Gaza, evacuating Sderot.....and the battle continues.

The clearest conclusion one can draw from Israel's lightning 1967 victory is that the Arabs saw that even when armed and trained by the Soviet Union they were incapable of destroying Israel with conventional weapons. This ultimately led to the Arab world's leader Egypt making peace with Israel. Jordan followed when it got political cover from the Oslo Accords - if the PLO could openly move towards peace then so could Jordan. However, for many Europeans still steeped in millenia- old anti-semitism and displacing their own post-colonial guilt onto Israel (scapegoating the Jew) Israel's victory was very disturbing. The Jews had to be seen as equals, capable of defending themselves and no longer willing to act deferentially to Christians and Moslems. Europe expresses its continued anti-Jewish hostility by championing the Palestinians whose declared national goal is destroying Israel. The fact that Palestinians have thrice rejected statehood (1937, 1947 and 20000 is ignored by most Europeans. The Palestinians' destruction of the Oslo 'peace process' through suicide bombings is also ignored as is Egypt and Jordan's pre-1967 occupation of Palestinians when no Palestinian state was even demanded by or for the Palestinians. For many in Europe's media, political parties and academia, Israel is automatically right and its enemies are automatically right. This is anti-semtism which is always irrational and therefore ineradicable.

When Plocker will start writing for the Economist, which is highly unlikely- I wil start reading him. Meanwhile his opinion is good for a shtetle of 50 people.

It is either Maale adumim stays in palestine and Haifa in israel or It is all open for question. also let me tell you, my father was born in Haifa in 1939 Palestine and my family goes back to 7 generations in Haifa... and our hous is still standing on the carmel mounts and we even have pictures of the house. So why in the hell I will call it Israel... this is why they need to realize, never, never Israel will be part of this region. The only solution is one state for all , Muslim, Jews and christians.

Sorry to deceive you,but Haifa and Akka(Acre) were and are still parts of Palestine(actually occupied by Jews).Read History well.

Haifa is first mentioned in Talmudic literature around the 3rd century CE, as a small town near Shikmona, the main Jewish town in the area at that time and a center for making the traditional Tekhelet dye used for Jewish Priests' temple cloth. The archaeological site of Shikmona lies southwest of the modern Bat Galim neighborhood. The Byzantine ruled there until the 7th century, when the city was conquered — first by the Persians, then by the Arabs. In 1100, it was conquered again by the crusaders, after a fierce battle with its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants.[6] Under crusader rule, the city was a part of the Principality of Galilee until the Muslim Mameluks captured it in 1265.

It was not a wasted victory, but the Government of Israel could have done more with it. Giving up Har HaBayit to the Wakf is but one example.

Israel will never be driven out again! The surrounding nations will regret their continuous attacks. The 6 day war was not caused by Israel. It is okay to defend your country, when you are in imminent danger. The Torah predicted that Israel would return, never to leave again!!

Palestine is not Palestinian, and there is no such thing as the Palestinians. The most famous Palestinian was Yassir Arafat, an Egyptian!! who needed an interpreter to be understood by Arab groups in Gaza and the West Bank (Samaria, was part of Israel centuries ago). So Haifa was in Palestine but it is now called Israel. And if Israel had not won the Six Day War then another holocaust would have occurred. Next year in Jerusalem!!!

Judging from this reaction, I think there is a lot of muddled thinking about this subject. The average standard of living would improve in any state if it was subsidised to the same extent the USA has subsidised Israel, so lets get real. Israel attacked its neighbours in 1967, it was not defending itself!