Lavon thought this would give Egypt's military free access to infiltrate the land, ˜thus creating a potential threat to Israel's existence'.3 However, the Israeli government was enormously humiliated, the subversives were caught with Nasser sentencing two of them to death. .
The Raid marked a turning point for Nasser as it was during a period that was otherwise a time of relative calmness in the area and ˜in the wake of major efforts by the Egyptian regime to stop infiltrations in the Gaza Strip'.4 With Israel's increasingly bad reputation, it was even further fuelled by the Suez Crisis in 1956. Scott-Baumann argues, ˜one of the main effects of the Suez Crisis was [that Israel looked] like an outpost of Western Imperialism',5 making the Israelis seem as an even bigger enemy in the eyes of the Arabs. As Michael B. Oren perfectly summarises, ˜if a new status quo had been created, it was one of inherent instability, a situation so combustible that the slightest spark could ignite it'.6.
Prior to the Six Day War, Israel and Syria had the worst relationship with many of the hostilities occurring in the Demilitarised Zones. Syria's government increasingly becoming more radical, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist preceding the Six Day War. Additionally, the Israeli military suffered from the "Syrian Syndrome " which ˜fuelled feelings of exceptional hatred for the Syrian army and people [they] loved to hate them'. This reciprocal hatred subsequently resulted in emotions over judgment fuelling these major clashes. .
Arab-Israeli acrimony over the exploitation of the headwaters of the Jordan River, had been ongoing since 1950.The Jordan River ran through Lake Tiberias which was in the DMZ between Syria and Israel. In 1956 the completion of Israel's National Water Carrier marked a turning point. The main aim of this carrier was to channel water from Lake Tiberias throughout the country for agriculture and drinking water.