The Arab-Israeli Conflict

There were many factors which contributed to the wars between the

Arabs and Israelis in 1956, 1967 and 1973. One of which was President

Nasser's personality.

In the 1950's a new president, Gamal Abdul Nasser, came to power in

Egypt. President Nasser had a very strong and determined character and

was very eager to get revenge on the Israelis for the 1948 war, which

Egypt lost. President Nasser wanted to get Palestine back into the

Arab control and to do this he had to unite the Arab world under his

control. In order to get what he wanted Nasser needed money and arms.

Czechoslovakia was giving aid in the form of money and weaponry to the

Egyptians. The reason they did this was because they were being told

to do so by the USSR, who at this time were in the middle of the 'cold

war' with the USA. USSR was hoping to get influence in the Middle East

by doing so, and to improve its position in the 'cold war'.

Egypt had control over the Suez Canal, which was used by British and

French ships as a military base, it was also their way of getting into

and out of the red sea. When the British decided to cancel loans

promised for the Aswan Dam, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal to make

money from the tolls paid by ships. Nasser also closed the Gulf of

Aqaba to Israel, which was their only access to the red sea.

Nasser was helping the Arab rebels who were fighting the French in

their colony of Algeria. This was another way of increasing their

wealth and power.

To get rid of western influence in the Middle East, Nasser persuaded

the other Arab states not to join an alliance called the Baghdad Pact,

with the British, and instead forme...

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Therefore, all the plans the Arabs had to win the wars were useless

because it comes to the basic fact that Israel was backed up with the

world's most three powerful countries: America, Britain and France,

whereas the Arabs were only backed up with Russia. How could the Arabs

possibly win all their wars?

Almost as an important factor as the latter, was the tactics employed

by the Israelis; surprise attacking the Arabs in the first two wars,

and using flaws in Arabs' tactics to their advantage in the third war.

However, it can also be said that the Israelis were able to win their

wars because the Arabs just weren't smart enough to take actions when

given messages beforehand (in the 1967 war) about attacks, and thus,

it led to them being to be taken by surprise and consequently led to

them losing all three wars.