Three Visions of Conflict: The Six Day War and the French Press, 1967

Authors

  • Robert Isaacson The George Washington University

Keywords:

Six Day War, France, Israel, Arab, Journalism, Media

Abstract

Examination of the journalistic coverage of the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War by the French mainstream media reveals the centrality of the war experience as a turning point in French public discourse on Israel. Shared assumptions about Israel's vulnerability were replaced by diverse and often contradictory discourses of religious triumphalism, territorial revisionism, and ideological anti-imperialism. This analysis shows that French President Charles de Gaulle's interpretation of the war was far from dominant, and indicates that French public discourse on Israel was fractured and diverse, responsive to different events, and far from the monolith that polling that would suggest.

Published

2014-05-28