After the collective Arab defeat in the June 1967 war with Israel, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser delivered a famous speech saying: “We cannot hide from the fact that we have just witnessed a major setback (naksa).” Overnight, he immortalised the term “naksa”, which has since become synonymous with Arab defeat and used interchangeably by historians, journalists, and politicians when referring to the 1967 war. In Israel, however, they refer to it as the “Six-Day War”, given that in just less than a week, their army managed to overrun the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, occupying Sinai, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank.
Abdel Nasser defied the established norm where wars are usually named after their two conflicting parties, like the Russian-Ottoman War of 1877-1878 or the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In the conflict that preceded 1967, Abdel Nasser chose the term “Triple Aggression” to describe the Anglo-French-Israeli war on Egypt, otherwise known as the Suez Canal War of 1956. He did not claim false defeat in 1967, unlike Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who, after suffering humiliation and a forced withdrawal from Kuwait in 1991, played down the war by referring to it as just a "battle". He would later go on to lionise the event, claiming that it was not only a battle but, rather, the “Mother of all Battles.”
From Nakba to Naksa
War names usually stick with time, repetition, and practice, and they often change over the years and differ from country to country. The Israelis refer to the first Palestine War of 1948 as the “War of Liberation”, yet in the Arab world, it is known as the "Nakba” (The Disaster), a term coined by Syrian historian Constantin Zureiq, who, while serving as president of Damascus University, penned a seminal work right after the war called The Meaning of al-Nakba. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, preferred calling it the “War of Ariseness”. The term never stuck. Israeli historians instead went for the “War of Independence” because it was catchier and more straightforward.
There is also disagreement over the third major Arab-Israeli war of 1973, which the Egyptians refer to as “War of the 10th of Ramadan” while Syrian officialdom goes for “The October War of Liberation.” In Israel, however, it is known as the “Yom Kippur War,” given that the Egyptian and Syrian armies staged their attack on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
Arabs and Israel agree only on the naming of the first and second intifadas—the first being in 1987 and the second in 2000— making the word common even in mainstream international media, with no need for clarification or explanation.
The Long Wars
Some wars are named after their operation theatres, like the Crimean War of 1853-1856, the Korean War of 1950-1953, and the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. Others are named after their length, like the Six-Day War of 1967, the Thirty Years War of Central Europe (1618-1648), and the Eighty Years War between Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg. We also have the 100 Years War between France and England during the Middle Ages. Another war between two rival families over the throne of England between 1455 and 1485 was not named in years but by the symbolic white and red roses of the two families. The moniker “War of the Roses” was invented by William Shakespeare in Act I of his classic play Henry VI. Before that, however, it was simply called the “civil war.”
The Two World Wars
The First World War only got its name after the outbreak of the Second in 1939. Thirty-two nations fought in that global conflict, leaving behind 17 million people dead and 20 million injured. Then came the Second World War, with 102 nations participating – either directly or by proxy – whipping up a massive death toll of 60 million people: 20 million combatants and 40 million civilians. Approximately 80% of Europeans born in 1923 did not live to see the end of World War II. They died on the battlefields.
When World War I broke out in 1914, however, many thought that it would be quick and conclude by Christmas. It was initially referred to as “The Great War”, but when it dragged far beyond December 1914, some began to call it “The War to End all Wars.” Others called it the “European War” because it did not become “global” until the United States joined the Allies in April 1917.
The term “World War II” was first coined by LIFE Magazine in its July 1939 edition, less than two months before Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. TIME was raising a big red flag, warning of how dangerous it would be for the international community at large if Hitler was not immediately contained.
Two years later, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the term “World War II” in one of his speeches but, clearly unconvinced of its catchiness, asked the American public to submit suggestions on what this war ought to be called. Over the next three weeks, 15,000 letters were poured into the Defence Department mailbox, with suggestions for the War for Civilisation, War for the Defence of Humanity, War for Democracy, and War of Survival.
Then came the Cold War between the US and USSR, whose name was first devised by British author George Orwell in a 1945 article. That was before the two superpowers came to blows, at a time when they were still fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against Nazism and Fascism in Europe. Few took note of Orwell’s term, which was only popularised after one of President Harry Truman’s advisers used it in a speech in 1947.
Lebanon: The Unnamed War
Lebanon today is in an open war with Israel, although nobody to date has come out and labelled it as such. It all began with Israel’s retaliation for Hamas's Al Aqsa Flood Operation on 7 October 2023, which Benjamin Netanyahu termed “Operation Swords of Iron.” On the other side of the conflict, Arabs refer to it as simply the “Gaza War”, while some Palestinians prefer to say “The War of the Al Aqsa Flood.” But what’s happening in Lebanon today can no longer be considered an annexe to the Gaza War, having snowballed into a full-fledged war in its own right, despite the fact that its origins lay in Hezbollah’s decision to “unite the fronts” and relieve their Hamas allies in Gaza.
In 2006, Hezbollah successfully managed to term its summer conflict with Israel as the “July War.” Over the next two decades, the name stuck, given Hezbollah was not defeated during that war, and Israel failed to achieve any of its declared objectives, primarily the release of two soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah. It also failed to bomb Lebanon “back to the Stone Age,” as promised by then-premier Ehud Olmert.
Things today are obviously different, raising questions on what to call this war when the guns go silent. It all depends on the final outcome; it is really too early to tell since a permanent ceasefire doesn’t seem likely anytime soon, certainly not before the upcoming US presidential election. One reasonable question would be whether this war will be the last major conflict in the Middle East, and if that is the case, would—or should it—merit the name: “The Final War”?
