ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of Egyptian policies from the time of the monarchy to the time of Anwar al-Sadat. Egypt had developed an interest in the southern Negev in the years following the 1948 war so as to guarantee territorial contiguity with the eastern Arab world. In the 1920s and 1930s the attitude of Egyptian political cadres to the Palestine question underwent a gradual but steady change. Egyptian participation in the 1948 war had several far-reaching consequences. The military defeat served to discredit the political leadership. In 1949, Egypt was the first Arab state to sign an armistice agreement with Israel. It was in 1955 that Gamal Abdel Nasser formulated and began to carry out the regional and international policies that were to become so closely identified with his regime, including those that exacerbated Egyptian-Israeli relations. Nasser's successor, Sadat, tried to resolve the tension between Egypt's interest in regaining the Sinai and its commitment to the Palestinian cause.
