The Soviet Union and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Abstract

As it enters its fifth decade, the Arab-Israeli conflict continues to be an important focus for superpower involvement in the Middle East. The Soviet Union — like the United States — has played a key supporting role in the struggle. Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Moscow has been enmeshed in the Arab-Israeli conflict, initially on the side of Israel and subsequently on the side of several of the Arab belligerents. Yet, if there is any lesson from Moscow’s involvement in the conflict, it is that the Soviet Union has been no more successful than the United States — indeed, probably less so - in shaping events in the Middle East to its benefit. Soviet and US policy makers might hope for a Middle East populated by pliant, responsive, and reliable allies. In reality both have often had to deal with obdurate and unpredictable regional powers which, as often as not, act contrary to the wishes and interests of the superpowers. To a degree that many observers might find surprising, the experiences of the two adversaries have had a number of common characteristics. Not unlike their counterparts in Washington, Kremlin decision makers have frequently discovered that their friends and allies in the region refuse to behave like dutiful client states and are quite capable of pursuing self-interested policies, even when doing so complicates, undermines, and jeopardises Soviet policy.