Israelis and Palestinians mark 50 years since the Six-Day War on Monday as the gap between them further widens, with both sides deeply scarred by years of violence, failed negotiations and broken promises.
The anniversary comes as hopes dim for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and with heavy scepticism surrounding US President Donald Trump's pledge to reach the "ultimate deal".
The 1967 conflict that greatly empowered Israel but began its continuing occupation of Palestinian land is seen from starkly different viewpoints. With its stunning victory over neighbouring Arab countries, Israel vastly expanded its territory with global implications. For Israelis, the war meant the culmination of the Jewish people's 2,000-year quest to return to Jerusalem.
Palestinians see the theft of their land and a gradual effort by hardline Israelis to extend their country from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, leaving no room for a Palestinian state.
A significant number of Israelis, including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, openly agree that they want to end the idea of Palestinian statehood. Some argue that Palestinians who want to stay and live in a Jewish state could be allowed, but others should move elsewhere.
Steps away at the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, captured by Israel from Jordan in 1967, there was pride but little hope among Palestinians.
Death blow for Arab nationalism
"The Arab defeat in the 1967 June war with Israel, together with the death of (Egyptian president Gamal Abdel) Nasser in 1970, was the last straw that broke Arab nationalism's back," says Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.
"For years, people had been fed a diet of cultural glory, empowerment, and unity," which were overturned in a matter of hours by the forces of the young Jewish state. The failure of this foundational myth and the humiliation of its custodian, Nasser" meant that "the rosy promises of Arab nationalism were shattered beyond any mending," said Gerges.
After this defeat, the Arab nationalist regimes, Egypt, whose president championed Arab unity, Syria under the Baath party and later Iraq under a rival branch of the same party, "gradually mutated into a variety of police states" using nationalism to justify their power, he said.
Power shift
Experts believe the brief war could also be considered as the starting point for the rise of Islamist movements.
There was a "power shift" within the Arab world which saw the "decline of Arab nationalism as spearheaded by Nasser and the rise of Saudi Arabia and the petrodollar," said Gerges.
Defeated by Israel, Nasser was still enmeshed in Yemen, often dubbed "Egypt's Vietnam", where he had sent tens of thousands of troops in a disastrous intervention against royalist forces backed by Saudi Arabia.
Back home, he was also waging a determined campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood, arresting thousands of its members and executing its hardline leader Sayyed Qotb, whose teachings have since inspired many Islamist extremists.
His successor Anwar Sadat, however, did just the opposite, encouraging Islamist groups and allying himself with the Gulf states, whose petrodollars financed them.
But the rise of Islamism does not only stem from the collapse of so-called “progressive” regimes. It can also be explained by the failure of the first neo-liberal reforms, which began as an experiment in Egypt and then continued across the region.
This economic turning point went hand-in-hand with a shift in alliances at the expense of the Soviet Union and to the advantage of the US, and, in Egypt's case, this meant peace with Israel. It was in the context of this double failure of both “left” and “right” that the fundamentalists would take root.
Destroyed hopes
The 1967 war was a triumph for Israel, which defeated Egypt, Jordan and Syria in fighting that lasted from June 5 to 10. In doing so, it captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Israel would later sign historic peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, but its conflict with the Palestinians who populated east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would worsen.
A first intifada, or uprising, erupted in 1987 and lasted until 1993.
It was followed by the Oslo accords and a handshake between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, leading to the peace process and enormous hope.
But Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist in 1995 and another, far more violent intifada broke out in 2000.
Netanyahu's current government is seen as the most right-wing in Israel's history, and the influence of the country's pro-peace camp has severely waned.
On the Palestinian side, president Mahmud Abbas is 82 and unpopular.
Abbas's rival Hamas has sought to soften its image but remains firm in its position that it will not recognise Israel.
Peace efforts have meanwhile gone nowhere since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
A recent survey said 78% of Israelis think there is no chance of a peace agreement in the foreseeable future. Another poll found 60% of Palestinians believe the two-state solution is no longer viable.
Still, for the international community, an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel remains the only viable option.
