Proměny přístupu československé diplomacie k arabsko-izraelskému konfliktu v letech 1948–1967: The Gradual Changes of the Attitude of Czechoslovak Diplomacy toward the Arab-Israeli Conflict during the 1948–1967 Period

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of Czechoslovak foreign policy towards selected actors of Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948–1967. Once very friendly relations of Czechoslovakia with Israel were soon replaced by a gradually developing cooperation with some Arab actors. However, even this partnership encountered several difficult moments. Despite long-term ideological disputes with Arab nationalist leaders, Czechoslovakia demonstrated unconditional support for the Arab coalition in the Six-Day War (1967), and the pro-Arab orientation had become the unquestionable line of Czechoslovak Middle

East policy in the Cold War. Since the article is based on the New Cold War History approach, in addition to the previously unpublished information from the archival documents it also aims to offer a partial interpretation of Czechoslovakia’s diplomatic position as a satellite state of the Soviet Union with regard to its foreign policy strategies towards selected Middle Eastern Third world countries in the first two decades of the Cold War.