ABSTRACT
We have seen that Egypt-Israel relations between the years 1952 and 1956 were characterized by a steady rise of tension and the gradual breakdown of the status quo. Parallel to that pattern, however, was another, covert process: the growth of contacts between Israel and Egypt. Indeed, there existed an inverse relationship between escalation and communication, as Egyptian leaders used the latter as a means of mitigating the former. Through such contacts, Egyptians and Israelis attempted to reduce tensions and to reach an understanding on peace. Their inability to achieve these objectives and the bitterness caused by that failure ranked among the primary causes of the second Arab-Israel war.
