arked by the Egyptian leadership.
             The conflict between Israelis and Arabs is one of the fiercest and most long-lived conflicts in the modern history. It has resulted in deaths of thousands of people, made millions homeless. It has been in the centre of the world's attention due to the scale of it, but also to the strategic significance it carries along. Middle East has a special relevance to world affairs mainly because most of the crude oil consumed every day all around the world is under that region.
             Personally, I have been drawn to that subject because I live in the region and I was able to not only read about it, but also, and more importantly, experience it. I am interested in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict with all its implication on the politics, society and economy. However, I believe that in order to understand the complexity of today's situation one must look at the early years of the conflict, and the projection of the results onto today's affairs. From my background reading, I learned that Egypt had an important part in shaping this conflict, especially under Nasserist rule, and I began to wonder how great an influence had the state of Egypt, and its politics, on the Arab-Israeli conflict. My choice of narrowing the topic only to the first two decades of the conflict was dictated by two main reasons. Firstly, considering the problem in a span of twenty years makes it considerably more manageable. It is important especially relevant to this subject due to its complexity. Secondly, I have been interested to research more on Nasser, the charismatic Egyptian leader, and his contribution to the changing Egypt's role in shaping the conflict.
             Therefore, I am going to research the influence of Egypt's leadership, with special relevance to its foreign policy, on the Arab-Israeli conflict in years 1952-67. My hypothesis is that the Egypt's influence was rather large before the war, but increased considerably after the Suez C...