ABSTRACT
Most observers have tended to treat the Arab-Israel arms race, the oldest and most widely advertised one in the zone, as a simple contest between the two sides that had taken part in the Palestine war. Without a formal settlement, the basic issues left by the war—particularly refugees and boundaries, blockade practices and economic boycott—were left dangling. Israel first called attention to the arms race as a menace to its security in 1949, when its delegate to the United Nations, after the armistice system had formally come into being, warned the Security Council of an impending arms race between the Arab states and his country. The arms races in the Arab-Israel zone, it was manifest by the 1960s, were following a predictable pattern. After the Palestine war, three of the five Arab states were saddled with problems of disimperialism, which distracted them from attending freely to their arms wants.
