Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-1970

Following their defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Egyptians opened a campaign of attrition against Israel along the Suez Canal line in March of '69, recalls Korn. Their goal: to inflict enough casualties to cause the Israeli Defense Force to withdraw from the Sinai. Lasting 17 months, this conflict was the longest, most difficult and most underreported of Israel's shooting wars. At the diplomatic level, on which this study concentrates, the war extended from the United States debate leading to the adoption of Resolution 242 in '67 to the American initiative in '70 that brought about the cease-fire. Korn sheds new light on the U.S.-Soviet negotiations in '69, which were unique in the history of Arab-Israeli peacemaking--the sole instance in which Washington worked exclusively with Moscow for a Middle East settlement. The thesis of this well-reasoned study is that the Israeli view of the War of Attrition as a victory gave the country a false sense of security that rendered it dangerously vulnerable on October 6, 1973, opening day of the Yom Kippur War. Korn served as political officer and chief of the political section at the American embassy in Israel from 1969 to 1971. Photos. (May)