ABSTRACT
At midnight on 7 August 1970, when the roar of artillery across the Suez Canal went silent, the military episode known as the War of Attrition came to an end. What replaced it, as an American initiative and under the auspices of the United Nations, was a diplomatic interlude that was supposed to lead to a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. But after the Egyptian military violated the standstill clause of the cease-fire agreement, the resultant crisis overshadowed the nascent diplomatic process. The present chapter follows the diplomatic maneuvers that brought an end to the War of Attrition and the crises that erupted immediately thereafter. In addition to the historical survey and analysis, the focus is on the relations between the United States and Israel, against the background of the evolution and implementation of the American cease-fire initiative, and an examination of the patron-client relations between them—that is, the linkage the United States established between the supply of arms to Israel and the latter’s acceptance of the initiative. This linkage, accepted by Israel, at first tacitly but later with cooperation, lulled Israel into acquiescing in the Egyptian violations of the balance of strategic forces at the Suez Canal.
