The Six-Day War, as it came to be called in the West—the
Arabs dubbed it al-Naksab} "the setback"—also destroyed the military capabilities of Syria and shattered Nasser's self-image as the
appointed leader of a new Arab world. It destroyed most hopes of
pan-Arab unity, and it compromised the radical nationalism in
whose name that unity was supposed to have been created. Later,
conservative Saudis would call it a divine punishment for having
forgotten religion.1 35