Tom Segev, 1967: Israel, the War and the Year that transformed the Middle East, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007

The importance of the Six Day war of 1967 lies in the major changes it brought about not only in the Middle East but also in the entire system of international affairs. Apart from its direct impact on the Palestinians, it has also led to the birth of a new group of Israeli historians who have adopted a critical approach in their study of Israel’s history. They are called Post-Zionists or revinsionists and Tom Segev is one of them. Although not all New Historians have uniform views, there is a point of convergence: the Palestinian refugee problem. They have opened a discussion on the very nature of the Israeli state, with a view to exploring ways through which it could come to terms with the Palestinians. Furthermore the New Historians are racking up events and facts which were downplayed or suppressed by Zionist historians, in order to define the causes of the current situation. Accordingly, Segev uses a variety of sources, such as letters, diaries and interviews as well as Israel’s official archives, and lets them speak for themselves. The most interesting fact is that he achieves to highlight the causes of the war not only through political and strategic facts but also through an analysis of Israel’s psyche before and during the war.