Until the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt signed in 1979, the two countries had fought each other in a number of wars. Egypt was one of the leading parties in the Arab coalition that declared war on Israel following its declaration of independence on May 14, 1948. During this war, Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip. Despite the armistice agreements of 1949, in the years that followed, small guerilla groups referred to as fedayeen continued to carry out attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip.
When Gamal Abdel Nasser became president of Egypt in 1954, he positioned himself as a leader of the Arab world and declared one of his main objectives was to end the British occupation of the Suez Canal. Nasser used fierce rhetoric against Israel, which he viewed as an extension of the imperialist forces in the region and an act of Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people. In 1956, the Sinai Campaign or ‘Suez Crisis’ broke out after Nasser nationalized the canal. A coalition of Israeli, British and French forces invaded Egypt in response to Nasser’s move, but was checked by the United States. Israel withdrew its forces from the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for an Egyptian pledge that the attacks from the fedayeen would come to a halt. A UN emergency force was stationed in a buffer zone between Israel and Egypt. Overall, the campaign increased Nasser’s standing in the Arab world.
In 1967, the Six-Day War or June War broke out as Israel carried out a surprise attack on Egypt in response to the Egyptian blockade of the Gulf of Aqaba, Nasser’s dismissal of the UN emergency force and Egyptian military preparations in the Sinai Peninsula. During this war, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. Egyptians have generally referred to the war as al-Naksa, Arabic for “the Setback.” Soon after Egypt’s defeat, Nasser launched a War of Attrition (1968–1970) along the Suez Canal in an effort to unsettle Israel’s hold over the territories Egypt had lost in the 1967 War. Egypt and Israel agreed to an American-brokered ceasefire in the summer of 1970.
Three years later, Egypt and Syria staged a surprise attack on Israel in an attempt to recapture the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. This was the Yom Kippur War of 1973, referred to by the Egyptians as the Ramadan War, the “October Victory” or the “Crossing of the Canal” in which Egypt managed to win part of the Sinai desert back. After the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 338 on October 22, a ceasefire came into effect on October 25, 1973. Egypt repeatedly violated the ceasefire until the so-called “Six-Point Agreement” for the stabilization of the ceasefire was signed by the two parties on November 11, 1973. In January 1974, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger mediated the conclusion of the Sinai I Agreement, which outlined the disengagement of forces as a first step towards a just and durable peace. One year later, in September 1975, Israel and Egypt signed the Sinai II Interim Agreement, which reinforced the commitment of both parties to implement Resolution 338 and resolve their conflict through peaceful means, and which called for further withdrawal of forces from the Sinai.
Only a few years later, in 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made history when he visited Jerusalem and gave a speech to the Knesset in which he reached out to Israel with a call for peace. On September 17, 1978, President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David agreement under the auspices of US president Jimmy Carter, which paved the way for the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. By signing the Camp David Accords, Egypt recognized Israel's right to exist, in return for which Israeli forces would withdraw from the Sinai. Diplomatic relations were officially established on February 21, 1980. Egypt has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Eilat, while Israel has an embassy in Cairo and a consulate in Alexandria. The peace treaty also allowed for the development of economic relations between the two countries, especially Egyptian export of oil and gas to Israel, as well as agricultural cooperation. Both Begin and Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize for their historic move.
However, Sadat's approach was seen in the region as an effort to reach a separate peace and Egypt was expelled from the Arab League. Sadat was assassinated by an Islamic militant group in 1981. Moreover, Egyptian public support for the normalization of relations with Israel has always been limited and the peace is often described as a cold one. When Hosni Mubarak assumed the presidency, he sought to advance a more comprehensive Arab-Israel peace and Egypt has continued to play a central role as mediator in the Middle East peace process.
After the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's relations with Israel reached a low point. Israel worried about the future of the peace treaty especially as the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power. These concerns were confirmed when the Morsi government decided to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, undermining Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, protestors in Cairo attacked the Israeli embassy, while a gas pipeline transporting Egyptian gas to Israel and Jordan was also repeatedly blown up.
Relations between Egypt and Israel improved dramatically after Egypt’s military ousted the Morsi government in a coup on July 3, 2013. Currently, the countries have common strategic interests in fighting Islamist groups active in the Sinai Peninsula, particularly given those groups’ ties to militant groups in the Gaza Strip itself. For this purpose, Israel has allowed Egypt to deploy forces in the Sinai, making an exception to security agreements stipulated in the peace treaty. Moreover, Egyptian President al-Sisi at times closed the Rafah border crossing and has sought to destroy smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. In 2016, Egypt reinstated its ambassador in Tel Aviv, and the Egyptian Foreign Minister paid an official visit to Israel. Al-Sisi has declared Egypt’s willingness to continue its role as mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has cooperated with Israel on crucial economic issues such as gas production.
In 1922 Britain established Transjordan as a separate territory within the Mandate of Palestine. This decision was significant because it indicated that the Jewish national home outlined in the Balfour Declaration would only apply to Palestine west of the Jordan River, while the East Bank would be excluded from Jewish settlement. Early on, Amir (later King) Abdullah developed an interest in Palestine. To that end, Abdullah was in regular contact with Zionist leaders through secret backchannels. In 1947 he and the Zionists discussed the possibility of his control of Arab Palestine following the UN partition plan. Because of its membership of the Arab League, however, Transjordan was one of the Arab countries that participated in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. After the 1949 armistice agreements, King Abdullah I basically received what he had hoped for, as Transjordan remained in control of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Jordan formally annexed the territory in 1950. Only the United Kingdom and Pakistan recognized this annexation and most Arab countries strongly condemned King Abdullah I’s decision. He was assassinated in 1951 in Jerusalem by a Palestinian.
In 1967, Jordan, tied to a defense treaty with Egypt, took part in the war against Israel. During that war, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, but annexed only East Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to Jordan, posing major demographic and political challenges to the Jordanian monarchy and now accounting for an estimated 50% of the Jordanian population. These problems were compounded by the fact that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), established in 1964, was at loggerheads with the Jordanians over control of the Palestinians in the Kingdom. In 1970, a power struggle ensued between the Jordanian King Hussein and the PLO, as the King engaged in silent diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Israel regarding the West Bank. The PLO tried to overthrow King Hussein, culminating in a civil war referred to as “Black September.” The PLO forces were eventually forced to surrender, and its supporters expelled to Lebanon, where the organization assumed its new headquarters in Beirut.
Jordan did not take a direct part in the 1973 war with Israel, but sent some of its forces to fight on the Syrian front.
The Arab League’s decision of 1974 to recognize the PLO as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people was received with dismay by King Hussein. Eventually, however, Jordan withdrew all its claims on the West Bank in 1988 in favor of a peaceful resolution to be reached between Israel and the PLO. An additional motive for the Jordanian disengagement was no doubt the First Intifada (beginning in 1987), which also had strong anti-Jordanian undertones. With the Jordanian disengagement, the Palestinians of the West Bank lost their Jordanian citizenship as well and became effectively stateless.
On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, making Jordan the second Arab country to normalize relations with Israel. With this agreement, Jordan officially recognized the State of Israel, and remaining land and water disputes were settled. As for the issue of Jerusalem, Israel recognized Jordan’s special responsibility for the Muslim holy shrines in the city. Despite that this is merely a formal role, the continued symbolic administration of the compound by the Jordanian Waqf Ministry helps to hold in check the competing Palestinian and Israeli claims for control over the site. The treaty paved the way for cooperation with respect to security and intelligence as well as trade and tourism. Following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Jordan and Israel have strengthened their security cooperation. In particular, both were concerned about the Iranian, Hezbollah and ISIS presence in Syria.
Syria and Israel have never had any diplomatic ties. The two countries fought each other in the War of 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. They have maintained a long-standing truce since 1974 when the separation of forces agreement was signed in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War. The tensions between the countries have risen at various points since then, but these have not led to a renewal of open confrontation.
In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Syria was one of the Arab states that declared war against the newly established state of Israel along with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. According to the plans devised by the Arab League, Syria and Lebanon were to invade Israel from the north, while Jordanian and Iraqi forces were to attack from the east. With the defeat of the Arab coalition forces, the 1948 War came to a close and a series of armistice agreements were signed between the warring parties. The agreement with Syria was signed on July 20, 1949, which established a special demilitarized zone between the two countries.
In the period prior to the outbreak of the Six-Day War of 1967, the points of tension between the two countries centered on Syria’s use of the Golan Heights as a springboard for attacks against Israel, water issues arising from Israel’s use of the Sea of Galilee and the Syrian scheme to divert the sources of the Jordan River. The Syrian regime also supported the Palestinians in carrying out operations against Israel by allowing Fatah to use Syrian territory. During the war, Israel took over the Golan Heights from Syria. In the aftermath of the war, UN Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted leading to creation of the “Land for Peace” formula, which called for Israeli withdrawal from territories it had occupied in exchange for peace with its Arab neighbors.
In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Syria’s objective was to regain the Golan Heights, which it failed to achieve. Israel, on the other hand, captured an additional strip of territory in the Golan. At the end of the war, a separation of forces agreement was signed on May 31, 1974 between Israel and Syria. Israel withdrew from the eastern strip of the Heights it had captured in 1974, the city of Quneitra and other smaller areas it had occupied in 1967, but remained in full control of the remainder of Golan Heights. Prisoners of war were returned immediately by both sides. The new separation line, which was established in 1974, still remains in force.