Staggered by the defeat of the Arab states, Palestinian radicals looked to themselves to carry on the struggle. Arafat’s Al-Fatah took over the PLO from its pro-Nasser leadership, and pursued the liberation of Palestine through terrorism.

With the USSR behind the pro-Nasser Arab states and the U.S. behind Israel, a local conflict now raised the threat of superpower confrontation. UN Security Council Resolution 242, passed in November 1967 and eventually accepted by all parties to the conflict, stipulated “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” and “acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of every State in the area.” Bickering over the deliberate ambiguity in the document began almost immediately and continues to the present day, while the cease-fire which followed the war soon degenerated into ait almost constant border skirmish known as the War of Attrition.