The Arab–Israeli Wars

Israel declared independence in May 1948. Neighbouring Arab states attacked, and Israel won the war. More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled, an event Palestinians call the Nakba, or 'catastrophe'. Israelis remember the war as their war of independence. In the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israel captured Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. UN Resolution 242 then called for withdrawal from occupied territories in return for peace. In October 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur.

The superpowers were drawn in: the USSR resupplied the Arab states, the US airlifted arms to Israel, and US forces went on high nuclear alert. Arab oil producers imposed an embargo that shook Western economies. Afterwards US diplomacy moved Egypt away from Moscow, which led to the Camp David Accords and the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. The conflict had its own regional roots, but Cold War rivalry raised its stakes.