6: From Israel’s Early Years to the Six Day War

The sixth of ten programmes exploring the origins and tracing the history of the Middle East conflict examines the years from the end of the first Arab-Israeli war to the Six Day War of 1967.

Presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by Mark Tessler, Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, USA, and author of ‘A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ and by the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen.

They discuss the early years of the new state of Israel, the influx into Israel of Jews from Arab countries, the Suez campaign by Britain, France and Israel against Egypt in 1956, the origins of the Palestinian national movement and the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. They trace the origins of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbours, and look at how it ended in a dramatic Israeli victory.

'How Did We Get Here? Israel and the Palestinians' is a BBC News Long Form Audio production.
The presenter is Jonny Dymond and the editor is Penny Murphy.
The Radio 4 commissioners are Hugh Levinson and Dan Clarke.
The studio engineers are Neil Churchill, James Beard, Rod Farquhar, Mike Regaard and David Crackles.