Soviet motives at surface seemed solely upon the determination to elimination British colonialism within that area. We also see Soviets strategic considerations as they seemed reluctant in supporting the American position on Palestine in hopes of ameliorating the current situation thus reducing the risk of direct confrontation, especially since they were behind on the nuclear arms race. As usual the financial gain though obtaining oil was a similar objective for the Soviets to the Americans.
Having established motive we precede to the super powers actions and aids, thus establishing the importance and effectiveness of these aids, either financially, economically or militarily in relation to the conflict. At first, USSR’s diplomatic support, arms from Czechoslovakia, part of the Soviet bloc, were crucial to Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. Throughout their War of independence, Soviet military aid from Czechoslovakia, consisting of 20,000 Czech rifles, 2,800 machine-guns and over 27 million rounds of ammunition by 1948 along with the 200,000 Jews from Soviet dominated countries made the 3000 American and European involvement seem feeble. However, the Soviet aid to Israel during the War of Independence was useful only to a certain extent, for it was rather the Jewish determination which helped them to with their battles throughout the Arab-Israeli conflict with minimal help from the superpowers.
The USA also played a huge role in finance, military and political aid to the Jews during the Arab–Israeli conflict, especially after 1956. Their influence over certain UN decisions would prove crucial in implementing certain resolutions, portraying America as Israel’s prime mediator. It became apparent throughout the conflict that USA played a major role as peacemaker between the Arabs and the Jews, such as the US diplomatic initiatives which helped to end events such as the Yom Kippur War and facilitating the Camp David Accords of 1978-9. Therefore we can evaluate their role as a significantly important mediator throughout the conflict.
America however played a significant role not just as a mediator for Israel throughout the conflict but their key technological and military capabilities proved useful to the Egyptians throughout the conflict too. We saw that much of American weapons had been used throughout the conflict as compared to the Soviets.
On the other hand, it can be considered that the Jews, Israelis, played the most significant role throughout the Arab-Israeli conflict, they were in the battlefields and implemented most of the strategies for battles however the US military and technological aid was of immense significance throughout several conflicts, tools such as A-4 Skyhawk along with other vital aircrafts, along with the American military training for the Israeli’s such as the training missions in Riyadh.
Before long the Soviets decided to ally with the Arabs, realising their plans for Israel had failed as a result of Israeli alliance to the West during the West and East Cold War. The significance of their involvement with the Arab was seen throughout the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1954, when they vetoed a Security Council resolution in relation to the Syrian-Israeli water dispute because of Arab objections for the first time. This elicited Israeli complaints that resolutions recognizing its rights could not pass because of the Soviet veto policy. In 1955 we saw the purchase of Soviet military technology, 80 Mig 15 fighters and 45 Ilyushin 28 bombers, simultaneously soviet experts were invited to Egypt to help train Nasser’s armed forces. Furthermore Soviet technology played key role throughout the major events of Arab-Israeli conflict, such as the Six Day War 1965 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
During the conflict with the USSR shifting ally, they began providing Egypt with their most advanced anti-aircraft system and 1,500 combat personnel. The U.S. responded by providing Israel with a military loan of $545 million, nearly 20 times the military aid Israel had received the previous year and twice the total military assistance Israel had received in 22 years of existence, this aid was useful throughout the developing conflict. Furthermore, we saw that in 1967 during the Six Day war American involvement played major role with their effective technology, with the Israeli’s managing to destroy 400 enemy aircraft securing the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and even the West bank.
America played a key role as mediator for Israel and very significant throughout the conflict, as Kennedy said, “The united states has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East really comparable only to what it has with Britain over a wide range of world affairs.” In Kennedy’s perspective American-Israeli relations where special however it was seen that until 1968 the primary supplier of arms to Israel, the principle aid toward the Israelis, were not the Americans but French. Thus projecting France into the significance circle along with the US and USSR.
The alliance between Israel and the U.S. grew stronger through the 1970s as did Soviet support to Arabs states and as regional tensions peaked during the Yom Kippur War. However, we do see that during the Yom Kippur War, USSR provided Syria and Egypt with new military hardware such as the AT-3 'Sagger' missile and surface to air missiles (SAMs) which countered the investments made by the US into Israeli defense.
However we see that the SAMs provided limited cover for Egypt during the retaking of the Golan Heights therefore the limit of soviet technology led to the demise of Egypt’s offensive, as they were crushed by the Israelis and pushed back to canal, where Israel managed to capture some of the SAM bases, leaving the Egyptians stranded on the Sinai side of the Canal. During the Yom Kippur fighting both Soviet and American arms and military materials were used showing the complex nature of the Middle East conflict. Nonetheless there was only partial positive outcome of this event, as OPEC Arab members decided to use oil against Israel and her western allies. The oil prices were raised by 70% and no oil was to be exported to the USA.
On the 24th October a ceasefire was reached through equal pressure placed by USA and USSR, it was difficult to see who the victor was. In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed peace treaties and mutual use of the Suez canal was permitted, in addition, US who was acting as the mediator between President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin invited the two to the holiday retreat at Camp David where the American President Carter managed to persuade the two towards peace agreements, an Israeli-Egyptian peace, showing America as playing the most significant role throughout the conflict especially as a mediator for peace.
Nevertheless, the peace lasted momentarily as in 1981 Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists and hopes of peace faded.
Later in March 1985, became the Secretary General of the CPSU and in April he declared . It took more than six years before Moscow consented to restore diplomatic relations with Israel on October 19, 1991, just 2 months prior to the collapse of the USSR. The USSR role by the 1980s had diminished compared to the American which to this day is continually involved in the Middle East.
In conclusion to the question I find that the statement bears a great deal of credibility however it is fair to recognize other significant members of the Arab-Israeli conflict such as the Soviets and the British and French. However the ultimately the American played the most important role, in mediating for Israel, financially and militarily aiding not only Israel but Egyptians, solving the Camp David accord agreements along with events such as the Six day war and Yom Kippur War where American involvement had great effect on the outcome. Therefore I have to agree to quite a large extent that the Americans played a more significant role for if they were not there the outcome of the conflict would certainly have been different.
RYAN LAPORTE